Some leftovers from the recent election

As many Kentuckians get ready to give thanks that a new governor will be taking office in a couple of weeks, let me help you get ready for the holiday season by serving up some leftovers from this month’s election.

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By now, the tired old false rhetoric from the left should come as no surprise. Liberals continue to insist that conservatives hate females and minorities. Opposition to abortion on demand as a form of elective birth control is termed a “war on women.” Efforts to protect the integrity of elections are declared “racist” and an attempt to suppress the votes of blacks. Even positives are turned into negatives by those on the left looking to demonize conservatives. When Mitt Romney talked during his 2012 presidential campaign about actively recruiting women to work in his gubernatorial administration in Massachusetts and collecting their resumes, somehow having “binders full of women” job applicants became a bad thing.

The same untrue narrative made its way to Kentucky’s statewide races this year. Apparently those trying to tear down Republicans didn’t pay very much attention to the election results.

In case you didn’t notice, two of the Republicans elected to statewide offices are women. And one of them, Lt. Gov-elect Jenean Hampton, just happens to be the first black ever to win a statewide election in the Bluegrass State. Hampton and Treasurer-elect Allison Ball are success stories. Yet their wins appear insignificant to Kentucky Democrats. They’ve belittled Hampton’s victory by implying that voters who supported her ticket with Gov.-elect Matt Bevin didn’t know she was black, as they continue to claim that Bevin won because of racially-motivated animus against President Barack Obama, whose father was black. Rubbish. It’s doubtful that many, if any, Bevin voters weren’t aware of Hampton’s race. Yet the party that just elected a black lieutenant governor is somehow racist. Unbelievable.

Further proof of the true diversity of conservatives can be found in the presidential candidate field currently vying for the GOP nomination. Three of the top-tier candidates are minorities (Ben Carson is black; Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are Hispanic). Bobby Jindal, who quit the race last week, was another minority candidate. Carly Fiorina is female. Youth is also well-served in the Republican field.

Despite evidence to the contrary proving the claims of the left wrong, they keep on insisting that Republicans hate women and minorities. Hampton and Ball are probably enjoying a good chuckle every time they hear that worn out falsehood.

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As the campaign wound down, I started to wonder if Jack Conway himself even believed he was qualified to be governor. That’s because he and his surrogates rarely talked about his positive attributes. Instead, they were constantly on television attacking Bevin.

Candidates say they don’t like to use negative advertising, but they have to because it works. Turns out it didn’t work out so well for Conway.

Conway said very little about why he wanted to be governor, what he intended to do or what qualifications he possessed. One of the few positive traits he bragged about was being a lifelong Kentuckian, which was an obvious dig at Bevin because Bevin’s not a Kentucky native.

Wonder how Brereton Jones, the former Democratic governor in whose footsteps Conway wanted to follow, felt about that? Jones isn’t a Kentucky native either, and I don’t recall Larry Hopkins using that against Jones in the 1991 gubernatorial campaign.

There’s evidence that voters tired of Conway’s attacks against Bevin, especially since he never offered his own positives. It’s reminiscent of Conway’s failed 2010 U.S. Senate campaign, when he turned the unproven and unverifiable “Aqua Buddha” allegation against Rand Paul into a television ad, and it backfired.

Conway ran a terrible campaign. He didn’t connect with the voters on a personal level. Bevin did. Despite being branded by his detractors as an out-of-touch rich carpetbagger from the Northeast, Bevin was able to relate to everyday Kentuckians. And they were able to relate to him. I’ve heard stories about Bevin’s interaction with people as he campaigned across the state. Those interactions were 180 degrees different from the interactions with reporters that many of them were so eager to write about.

Several pundits have theorized that Conway’s career in politics is over. I wouldn’t be so fast to write him off. After all, outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear fashioned a political comeback several years after a couple of statewide losses. But Conway would do well, if he ever runs again, to forego the negative campaigns and try to focus on his positives. He’s now been burned twice by attacking his opponents instead of promoting his strengths.

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Another politician who may have been bitten by the negative advertising bug is Adam Edelen, who lost his re-election bid for auditor to State. Rep. Mike Harmon in what was widely viewed as an upset.

Edelen ran an over-the-top television ad late in the campaign, attempting to portray Harmon as some sort of living-the-high-life party boy who had himself a good time on the state’s dime. There was never any real evidence to back up those charges, especially one that depicted Harmon drinking and living it up.

Edelen was regarded as one of his party’s rising stars, and the same pundits who have now written Conway off think Edelen will be able to come back from his loss. Those who supported Edelen pointed to what they called a successful term as auditor. They should have counseled Edelen to run on that record instead of coming out with a nonsensical attack on Harmon. Edelen’s loss was arguably the low point on a bad election night for Kentucky Democrats. With a little care, they could have avoided it.

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Here’s wishing everyone a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Take time to thank God for your blessings.

Outrageous voter-fraud conspiracy proves outsiders should steer clear of Kentucky politics; not speak about things of which they’re ignorant

I had intended to use this space for a cursory analysis of the Kentucky statewide elections, which saw Republicans take the governor’s race for only the second time in the last four decades, and then offer a few ideas for Gov.-elect Matt Bevin’s administration as he moves forward.

But when I saw the completely off-the-wall conspiracy theory, posted on a couple of lunatic left-wing websites, that Bevin won only through massive voter fraud, I had to laugh.

Kentucky politics aren’t well-understood by outsiders. I’ve had many conversations with people who think the Bluegrass State is dominated by Republicans since the state has of late tended to vote for GOP candidates in federal elections. Out-of-staters don’t understand what a grip the Democrats have held on state government and many local governments as well. Twice last week I heard Bevin say on national radio shows that 72 percent of elected officials in Kentucky are Democrats, and despite gains in voter registration numbers, fewer than 40 percent of the state’s electorate checked the “R” box on their registration form.

Sadly, even some Kentuckians have bought into the election fraud theory. When someone posted a petition on change.org, demanding a federal investigation into the gubernatorial election results, a number of Kentuckians echoed that sentiment. They must not have been paying attention to what had been going on in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 3 election, or they’d be ashamed of their silliness.

Those who are alleging election fraud point to two main facts. First is that the election results were misaligned with polls that indicated Bevin would lose to Jack Conway. Those same polls got last year’s U.S. Senate race between Mitch McConnell and Alison Lundergan Grimes wrong as well. They tend to oversample Democrats, and the media outlets that commission the Bluegrass State Poll have made it known they’ll use another pollster in future years.

The second bit of “proof” that the election was tampered with, they claim, is that down-ballot candidates got more votes than did Conway, who topped his party’s ticket. They say this is unusual. In fact, it’s not unusual at all. In the last two gubernatorial elections proceeding this year’s, the Republican candidate for agriculture commissioner (Richie Farmer in 2007 and Jamie Comer in 2011) far outpaced the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. And the two Democrats who did win statewide elections have well-known fathers. Andy Beshear is the son of sitting governor Steve Beshear. And Alison Lundergan Grimes is the daughter of longtime party operative and former Democrat chairman Jerry Lundergan. The names Beshear and Lundergan carry a lot of weight in “D” circles in Kentucky, and both candidates had a great deal of name recognition. Even though Steve Beshear and Jerry Lundergan don’t like each other very much, they are the leaders of the state’s Democrats, so it’s natural that support would flow to their children.

To further display their cluelessness, the conspiracy theorists said the election had been rigged by GOP insiders. What more proof does one need than that statement that they have no clue what happened? As secretary of state, Grimes is in charge of elections in Kentucky. It’s highly unlikely that she would allow Republicans to steal a race. And Bevin was not exactly the darling of the Republican establishment in Kentucky. He beat Comer, the establishment’s preferred candidate, in the primary; but more importantly, he dared to challenge Mitch McConnell in last year’s U.S. Senate primary. He ran a doggedly independent race against Conway, and some observers even speculated that the party’s hierarchy wasn’t 100 percent in support of him because they felt if he won, it would make “flipping” the House of Representatives to a Republican majority that much harder.

Why, then, did Bevin surprise the pollsters and sweep to victory and leave liberals scrambling to invent out-in-left-field reasons for the result? Lots of pundits have put forth their theories, but there’s a simple explanation that sums it up. In short, Bevin outworked Conway. Anytime there was a candidate forum, a public gathering, a small town festival or parade or other event, it seemed Bevin was there, and Conway wasn’t. Bevin went out and connected with the people of Kentucky. Conway ignored advice from his own party that he needed to be a better retail politician. While Conway spent time with rich donors who didn’t need to be convinced to vote for him, Bevin went straight to the people. Bevin ran a great campaign and Conway was terrible.

Of course, issues played a role. Obamacare, religious freedom and support of Kentucky’s coal industry were key. So were taxes, jobs and education. In numbers greater than anyone expected, the voters who did turn out decided overwhelmingly that the party that’s controlled Kentucky for decades has done a poor job, and gave the reins to someone else.

So shortly after midnight on Dec. 8, Matt Bevin will take the oath of office as governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He’ll have to plunge immediately into the dual tasks of setting up his administration and preparing for a legislative session. Make no mistake: He earned this opportunity, and this responsibility, honorably and honestly. Nothing fishy happened here, despite what some leftists who are distant from Kentucky and disconnected from reality might have you believe.

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.