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.
