Career
He is an insurance agency owner in Campbellsville, the seat of Taylor County in central Kentucky. Altman is one of six children born to Joseph Leon Altman (1906—1996), an Oklahoma native, and the former Edna Noe (1908—1981), originally from Taylor County. Altman first represented Green and Metcalfe counties as well as Taylor.
After the 1990 census, the district was shaped to include politically competitive Taylor and heavily Republican Adair County.
In 1990, Altman spoke out against a bill that would have banned smoking by students in Kentucky public schools. In 1988, the legislature had given local administrators the option to establish smoking zones for students.
Altman said the proposed ban on smoking, which failed 10-3 in committee, was unneeded because superintendents already had the authority to ban smoking on school premises. Kentucky has traditionally led the nation in the number of adult smokers, and Altman"s District 51 remains a tobacco-producing area.
Altman was usually unopposed in his reelection campaigns.
He did not seek a sixth term in 1996. On August 16, 2004, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher appointed Altman to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission for a term that expired on December 9, 2006.
