Time for reform in Kentucky’s statewide elections

Now that Kentucky has elected its leaders for the next four years – and shocked the world by electing Republicans to a majority of statewide offices for the first time in anyone’s memory – it’s time for the state to seriously look at some reforms designed to increase voter participation, streamline government and reduce expenditures.

This state elects too many officials, on both the statewide and local levels. Most of those elected positions should be hired jobs instead, whether through executive appointments or civil-service employment. With the state elections fresh in everyone’s mind, let’s take a look at the changes that need to be made in the process.

Commissioner of Agriculture: Kentucky doesn’t elect its highway commissioner, its property tax commissioner or its state police commissioner. It also traded in its elected superintendent of public instruction for an appointed education commissioner several years ago. Why should it elect its agriculture commissioner? While agriculture is still an important economic generator for the state, its days of dominance as the state’s leading industry are past. Plus, it often happens that the interests of the governor and the separately elected agriculture commissioner are at odds. This causes duplicity in state services, as there also is a Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy in addition to the Department of Agriculture. It’s time to eliminate the elected position of agriculture commissioner, make it a gubernatorial appointment, and roll the Department of Agriculture into an existing cabinet, or make it a cabinet-level agency.

State Treasurer and Secretary of State: These offices provide administrative functions that could easily be absorbed by other agencies. The treasurer’s duties would be a natural fit for an administrative or revenue collection office. The secretary of state’s duties could easily be divided among other agencies, as well. Election oversight could be transferred to the State Board of Elections, and business registration would be a natural fit in any of several cabinets or departments. Doing away with these positions as elected offices would also eliminate the possibility of politicians using them as stepping stones for higher office. This used to be standard operating procedure in Kentucky back when officeholders were limited to one four-year term in any position. Politicians played musical chairs with the minor elected offices. They’d spend four years in one office, then move to another office for a single term, then to another office, and then the cycle would either rotate back or they’d seek the governorship. We can probably expect Alison Lundergan Grimes, who was just re-elected as secretary of state, to run for governor in four years.

Auditor of Public Accounts and Attorney General: These positions are a little trickier. There are lots who advocate eliminating the other three lower-level statewide offices but want to keep these positions independently elected because they perform a watchdog function on the executive branch. But there is a simple solution to that: Use the federal model. Make these positions gubernatorial appointments, like the others previously listed, but make the appointees subject to confirmation by the Senate. The auditor, like the treasurer, could probably be absorbed into an agency in charge of revenue or finance. The attorney general’s office could probably be attached to the governor’s office, or made an arm of the Justice Cabinet.

There’s precedent for reforming Kentucky’s statewide elections. Prior to the 1995 races, the state approved changes allowing officeholders to succeed themselves once, along with requiring candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to run as a slate. Prior to that, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately. This led to the awkward situation of Republican Louie B. Nunn having a Democrat, Wendell Ford, as his lieutenant governor.

Even when the governor and lieutenant governor have been from the same party but separately elected, there’s been friction. Wallace Wilkinson and Brereton Jones didn’t particularly get along; neither did Jones and Paul Patton when Jones succeeded Wilkinson. And even electing the state’s top two officials as a slate doesn’t guarantee harmony. Ernie Fletcher and Steve Pence famously split over Fletcher’s pardoning of those targeted by Greg Stumbo’s partisan persecution and witch hunt. And Steve Beshear relegated Dan Mongiardo to persona non grata status as soon as they took office, then jettisoned Mongiardo from his ticket when “Dr. Dan” chose to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. It was painfully obvious that Beshear used Mongiardo solely for geographical balance on his ticket because other eastern Kentuckians were on opposing slates.

There’s been discussion about changing this setup to allowing gubernatorial candidates to run independently in the primary election and selecting a running mate after the nomination is secured, much as presidential candidates do. This effort failed the last time it was brought up and at this time it’s not known if the idea will be resurrected in next year’s legislative session.

This leaves one final reform that should be instituted. Back in 1989, local officials were elected to a one-time-only five-year term. Now, their election coincides with the presidential midterm election for congressional seats. This eliminated an election cycle in Kentucky, saving state and local agencies 25 percent on their election costs. Now, we only have elections in three out of every four years. The same thing should be done on a statewide level. The next time Kentucky chooses a governor, he or she should be elected to a one-off five-year term and the state elections should be pushed back a year to coincide with the presidential election. Not only would this save money on the cost of administering elections, but it would likely increase turnout since there seems to be more interest in presidential elections than in statewide elections.

These are bold proposals, to be sure, but they would serve to improve public service and voter participation in Kentucky, and decrease costs as well. It’s time for the Bluegrass State to modernize its state government and the way our officials are chosen.