Some cautionary words for the Bevin administration; or, there’s still a snake in the grass

Twelve years ago, I was writing a column for a now-defunct website called kyrepublicans.com. I had become acquainted with the site’s owner during the Ernie Fletcher gubernatorial campaign, and he invited me to contribute to his site upon learning of my journalism background.

About the time of Fletcher’s inauguration in 2003, I wrote a column for that site entitled “Snakes in the Grass.” In that column, I cautioned the Fletcher administration about partisan foes Crit Luallen, who had been elected auditor; and Greg Stumbo, who had won the attorney general’s race. It was obvious to me that those two would use their offices in any way possible to try to bring down Kentucky’s first Republican governor since the 1960s.

I wish I had as much luck predicting lottery numbers as I did in forecasting the Democrats’ behavior. While Luallen didn’t go after the Fletcher administration (she seemed instead to target local Republican officeholders), Stumbo certainly did.

A brief history of the “scandal” that plagued Fletcher’s term is in order. A Transportation Cabinet personnel official had been a classmate of Fletcher’s at Lafayette High School in Lexington. This employee had hoped to parlay his connection to Fletcher into a cushy appointed state government position. However, he and Fletcher were not friends in school, and Fletcher didn’t remember him from their days at Lafayette. When the employee was publicly embarrassed that Fletcher said he didn’t remember him at a state government event at the Transportation office building, he retaliated. Personnel decisions that he had approved and said were OK suddenly became illegal. Instead of taking his concerns to the state Personnel Board, he went straight to the attorney general’s office. Legitimate questions were raised as to if he had illegally obtained the emails he used to bolser his allegations.

Naturally, he found a receptive audience in Stumbo and his minions. Stumbo was looking for a way to take down the Republican governor and soften him up so the Democrats could reclaim the Governor’s Mansion in 2007, and Stumbo himself was considering running. (He eventually ran as Bruce Lunsford’s running mate). The lead prosecutor had been an outspoken supporter of former Attorney General Ben Chandler, whom Fletcher defeated in 2003. The grand jury was tainted by members who had so many conflicts of interest that it would have been impossible for them to impartially evaluate the evidence and testimony presented during the investigation. (For example, one of the grand jurors was married to a member of Stumbo’s investigative staff).

None of these details were ever reported by the mainstream press, which was also hostile to Fletcher, although they were readily available to anyone who wanted to dig. In fact, a few enterprising bloggers made those inconvenient truths public but the media never picked up on them, to the public’s detriment. Many believe that the Fletcher administration illegally fired lots of merit system employees. That just isn’t true. Only one merit system employee who had openly supported Chandler was fired, and he was still on probation, which meant he could be let go for any reason or for no reason at all. There’s no evidence that any civil service employee was fired for political reasons.

What resulted was a partisan, politically-motivated witch hunt that resulted in the Democrats winning back the Governor’s Office in 2007. Although Stumbo didn’t win, his party did, and he found his way back into power by reclaiming his legislative seat and then leading a coup against House Speaker Jody Richards.

The press and the Democrats were hostile to Fletcher, to be sure, but that looks almost tame compared to the disdain and outright hatred they’re showing Gov.-elect Matt Bevin. Read the editorials written by the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal since the election, check the comments section on post-election news stories or go back and listen to what can only be described as the rambling, incoherent rant by Stumbo on Election Night that many suspect was fueled by one too many attempts to drown his sorrow.

Which brings us back to that snake in the grass.

Just as Fletcher faced a hostile attorney general, so too will Bevin. Andy Beshear squeaked by in his race, and it’s a given that he will be just as motivated to take down Bevin as Stumbo was Fletcher.

An extra bonus is in sight for Beshear. There’s currently a leadership vacuum in the Kentucky Democratic Party. With the losses by the party’s presumed leaders, Jack Conway and Adam Edelen, the KDP appears rudderless. Its top two officials are Beshear and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Their fathers, Steve Beshear and Jerry Lundergan, are two old-line party stalwarts who, coincidentally, are old personal and political foes who don’t get along at all. At this very early stage, Andy and Alison have to be considered two prime candidates to try to retake the governorship for the Democrats in four years. Alison’s office has no investigatory powers, but Andy’s does. And if he successfully uses them to soften up Bevin, his personal stock within the party goes up.

What the Fletcher administration was trying to do with its Governor’s Personnel Initiative was an attempt to reverse decades of abuse of state hiring practices. During the past eight years, things have regressed back to where they were in the days of Ford, Carroll, Collins, Jones and Patton. Much like Fletcher did upon taking office in 2003, Bevin faces a personnel situation that’s in need of correcting. And if his administration tries to fix what’s been broken again, will Andy Beshear follow in Greg Stumbo’s footsteps?

True, some of Fletcher’s appointees made some mistakes. They paid a price, too. The ones who slipped up were fired. But things were never what Stumbo or the daily papers made them out to be.

So as Matt Bevin takes office and sets up his administration, they would be wise to keep a close eye on Andy Beshear. He has plenty of motivation for going after the Republican governor. It would benefit his party, which is rapidly losing its grip on a Kentucky government and political machine it’s controlled for decades. And it would benefit him personally, as he builds his bona fides to step into a leadership role for a party that seems to be lost at sea.

My advice to the new administration would be to keep the grass trimmed way, way down, so that the Andy Beshear snake is visible at all times. Don’t let that snake slither into tall grass, where it can hide and strike the way the Greg Stumbo snake did.