The normally conservative Elizabethtown newspaper, The News Enterprise, joins others in endorsing Steve Beshear for Governor.
The normally conservative Elizabethtown newspaper, The News Enterprise, joins others, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, The Lexington Herald-Leader, The Northern Kentucky's Kentucky Post (and its sister paper, the Cincinnati Enquirer), The Ashland Daily Independent, The Henderson Gleaner, and The Danville Advocate-Messenger, in endorsing Steve Beshear for Governor.
Here are excerpts:
For most of this year Ernie Fletcher, the state’s first Republican governor in 32 years, has been running for re-election to a second term campaigning more like a challenger than an incumbent, an outsider trying to win the key to the governor’s mansion in Frankfort.
The incumbent’s job performance is always the issue in an election campaign, but Fletcher has committed considerable energy and resources to convince voters that the real issue in this watershed political confrontation is his opponent, Democrat Steve Beshear, a Lexington lawyer, former state representative and attorney general.
After four years in office, there is plenty the governor could have talked about, possibly to more positive effect. Modernizing the state’s taxation system, for one. The increase in state spending on education, for another; road construction and repair; improvements in Medicaid; the federal-state health-care program for the low-income; and others.
All that, however, has been overshadowed by the indictment of more than two dozen Fletcher administration members accused of providing preference to fellow Republicans in filling protected state jobs. It wasn’t so much the political favoritism that has dogged the administration, but the governor’s handling of the investigation, the misuse of the powers of office and the finger pointing.
Running far behind Beshear largely because of the hiring scandal, his job approval rating low, Fletcher chose the high-risk option of attack. He tried to make expanded gambling the issue. But that will not be a real issue until at least Nov. 8, 2008, and then only if two-thirds of the members of the General Assembly agree to submit a constitutional amendment to a statewide vote to allow casino gambling.
Fletcher tried to make the legal work by Beshear’s former law firm in the liquidation of the bankrupt Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co. an issue. But even retired Jefferson County Circuit Judge Richard Revell, who reviewed the case, called it a "dead issue, meaningless" as a campaign allegation.
The governor is spending the closing days of the campaign working to energize his conservative political base focusing on social issues that are not on next year’s legislative agenda and are beyond the control of a state’s governor.
With nine short days remaining before voters decide who will be their next governor, the issue remains as always: the incumbent’s performance in the office. If the governor’s job approval rating and standing in the polls are any indication, he has been unable to shake the stigma of the political hiring scandal that has dogged his administration.
Both Fletcher and Beshear have records of public service. Both want to enhance economic development to provide more better-paying jobs, improve education at all levels, pay teachers better, relieve the impact of college tuition costs, raise the state’s standing in many competitive categories and provide better, affordable health care to children and seniors. Whoever is elected surely will be challenged by tightening state revenues to try pay for all their campaign promises.
The big difference: Ernie Fletcher is the only candidate who has had 28 staff members indicted by a grand jury of ordinary citizens. He is the only candidate who has used his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer the questions of those citizens on the grounds the answers somehow could get him in trouble. He is the only candidate who pardoned indicted and unindicted members of his administration.
Ernie Fletcher is the only one of the two candidates for governor who signed an agreement to free himself of the charges from an investigation he now tells people was a witch hunt. The agreement said "the evidence strongly indicates wrongdoing by his administration with regard to personnel actions within the merit system" and that the investigation "benefited the commonwealth and ensured that abuses of the state’s merit system will be eliminated."
Ernie Fletcher campaigned four years ago promising to clean up the streets of Frankfort. His election was a lifetime opportunity to strengthen the two-party political system in Kentucky. Instead, he has jeopardized not only his place in history, but also the political futures of promising young leaders of his party. He lost the support of his lieutenant governor and was challenged in a divisive primary election.
Gov. Fletcher and his running mate Robbie Rudolph would have to continue to spend considerable energy and resources to escape the dark cloud of political scandal that surely would follow them if they are given another four years in Frankfort. Kentucky cannot afford that; the commonwealth needs leadership to unite Republicans, Democrats and independents to face the serious challenges ahead.
The News-Enterprise editorial board recommends that Steve Beshear and his running mate Daniel Mongiardo are in a better position than Ernie Fletcher and Robbie Rudolph to unite the state to take on those challenges and finish the job of cleaning up Frankfort.
This editorial represents a consensus of The News-Enterprise editorial board.
No newspaper endorsements yet for Ernie Fletcher.
Any thoughts?
Here are excerpts:
For most of this year Ernie Fletcher, the state’s first Republican governor in 32 years, has been running for re-election to a second term campaigning more like a challenger than an incumbent, an outsider trying to win the key to the governor’s mansion in Frankfort.
The incumbent’s job performance is always the issue in an election campaign, but Fletcher has committed considerable energy and resources to convince voters that the real issue in this watershed political confrontation is his opponent, Democrat Steve Beshear, a Lexington lawyer, former state representative and attorney general.
After four years in office, there is plenty the governor could have talked about, possibly to more positive effect. Modernizing the state’s taxation system, for one. The increase in state spending on education, for another; road construction and repair; improvements in Medicaid; the federal-state health-care program for the low-income; and others.
All that, however, has been overshadowed by the indictment of more than two dozen Fletcher administration members accused of providing preference to fellow Republicans in filling protected state jobs. It wasn’t so much the political favoritism that has dogged the administration, but the governor’s handling of the investigation, the misuse of the powers of office and the finger pointing.
Running far behind Beshear largely because of the hiring scandal, his job approval rating low, Fletcher chose the high-risk option of attack. He tried to make expanded gambling the issue. But that will not be a real issue until at least Nov. 8, 2008, and then only if two-thirds of the members of the General Assembly agree to submit a constitutional amendment to a statewide vote to allow casino gambling.
Fletcher tried to make the legal work by Beshear’s former law firm in the liquidation of the bankrupt Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co. an issue. But even retired Jefferson County Circuit Judge Richard Revell, who reviewed the case, called it a "dead issue, meaningless" as a campaign allegation.
The governor is spending the closing days of the campaign working to energize his conservative political base focusing on social issues that are not on next year’s legislative agenda and are beyond the control of a state’s governor.
With nine short days remaining before voters decide who will be their next governor, the issue remains as always: the incumbent’s performance in the office. If the governor’s job approval rating and standing in the polls are any indication, he has been unable to shake the stigma of the political hiring scandal that has dogged his administration.
Both Fletcher and Beshear have records of public service. Both want to enhance economic development to provide more better-paying jobs, improve education at all levels, pay teachers better, relieve the impact of college tuition costs, raise the state’s standing in many competitive categories and provide better, affordable health care to children and seniors. Whoever is elected surely will be challenged by tightening state revenues to try pay for all their campaign promises.
The big difference: Ernie Fletcher is the only candidate who has had 28 staff members indicted by a grand jury of ordinary citizens. He is the only candidate who has used his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer the questions of those citizens on the grounds the answers somehow could get him in trouble. He is the only candidate who pardoned indicted and unindicted members of his administration.
Ernie Fletcher is the only one of the two candidates for governor who signed an agreement to free himself of the charges from an investigation he now tells people was a witch hunt. The agreement said "the evidence strongly indicates wrongdoing by his administration with regard to personnel actions within the merit system" and that the investigation "benefited the commonwealth and ensured that abuses of the state’s merit system will be eliminated."
Ernie Fletcher campaigned four years ago promising to clean up the streets of Frankfort. His election was a lifetime opportunity to strengthen the two-party political system in Kentucky. Instead, he has jeopardized not only his place in history, but also the political futures of promising young leaders of his party. He lost the support of his lieutenant governor and was challenged in a divisive primary election.
Gov. Fletcher and his running mate Robbie Rudolph would have to continue to spend considerable energy and resources to escape the dark cloud of political scandal that surely would follow them if they are given another four years in Frankfort. Kentucky cannot afford that; the commonwealth needs leadership to unite Republicans, Democrats and independents to face the serious challenges ahead.
The News-Enterprise editorial board recommends that Steve Beshear and his running mate Daniel Mongiardo are in a better position than Ernie Fletcher and Robbie Rudolph to unite the state to take on those challenges and finish the job of cleaning up Frankfort.
This editorial represents a consensus of The News-Enterprise editorial board.
No newspaper endorsements yet for Ernie Fletcher.
Any thoughts?
Labels: Endorsement
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 5:00 PM
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