In Combs' first speech of the primary campaign, he admitted that the state needed to raise $25 million ($221 million in 2016 dollars) in new revenue and that a sales tax should be considered.[11][21] Chandler, the more experienced politician, attacked Combs for this suggestion, maintaining that an experienced governor like himself would not need to raise taxes to meet the state's obligations.[11] Combs' speech was also attacked as dry and uninspiring, partly because he read it verbatim from prepared notes.[21] "And you said I couldn't give a speech," Doc Beauchamp later complained to Clements.[21] Hugh Morris, chief of the Louisville Courier-Journal's Frankfort bureau, commented that "Combs opened and closed his campaign on the same night".[22]