Let's Return To Kentucky, Shall We? First, Steve Beshear Aims To Take Over Senate From David Williams, Appoints GOP Senator To PSC, With More To Come.

Beshear appoints Borders to Public Service Commission; sets Aug. 25 special election

FRANKFORT — The resignation of a powerful Senate Republican to accept an appointment by Gov. Steve Beshear may put the Democratic administration a step closer to its goal of wresting control of the Senate from the GOP and expanding gambling.

Shortly after Beshear announced Wednesday that Charlie Borders, R-Grayson, was leaving the Senate to join the state Public Service Commission, Beshear set an Aug. 25 special election for the 18th Senate District seat that Borders has held since 1991.

Democrats are hopeful the special election is a step toward regaining control of the Senate, which they lost in 2000, and approving slot machines at horse racetracks. A slots bill died last month in the Senate budget committee, which Borders chaired.

With Borders’ departure, Republicans hold a 20-16 majority in the Senate, with one independent and one open seat in the chamber.
Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said Beshear is trying to make similar offers to other Republican senators.

Specifically, he said Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, may leave the Senate if he is offered a judgeship.

“He won’t leave unless he’s offered a judgeship, in my opinion,” Williams said.

Efforts to reach Kelly in recent days for comment about possible interest in a judgeship have not been successful.

State Rep. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, already has expressed interest in running for the seat vacated by Borders. She voted to allow slot machines at racetracks when the House narrowly approved the measure last month.

State Republican Party Chairman Steve Robertson said party officials in the district will “begin the work of identifying potential Republican candidates. I have every confidence their search will be successful.”

Patrick Neely, executive director of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, said his group and the horse industry “will be paying close attention” to the upcoming special election to replace Borders.

Martin Cothran, spokesman for Say No to Casinos, said the Beshear administration is “turning into an episode of ‘The Sopranos.’”

“This is what happens when the gambling industry moves into your state: anti-expanded gambling legislators start disappearing and the system becomes distorted by money and the political power it brings,” Cothran said.

The message to other senators who opposed slots at tracks, Cothran said, is “you better change your votes or we’re taking you out, too, and it won’t be nearly as pretty.

Borders denied that he was “bought.” He said he initiated a conversation with Beshear early in his administration about joining the Public Service Commission, which regulates utility rates in the state.

Beshear spokesman Jay Blanton said the governor’s first priority in appointing Borders “was to make, as always, the best appointment as possible.

He said Beshear will “vigorously support the Democratic nominee in this special election and I expect Republicans will vigorously support the Republican nominee.”

Williams, R-Burkesville, said Borders will be a good public service commissioner, but “it’s obvious he has a political motive.”

Borders declined to say who should replace him in the 18th District. Williams named Sen. Bob Leeper, an independent from Paducah, to take over as Senate budget chairman.

Party officials from the district may file the names of their nominees with the state 28 days before the election in Bracken, Carter, Greenup, Lewis, Mason and Robertson counties.

The winner of the special election will fill the remainder of Borders’ term, which runs through the end of next year. A regular election for the seat will be held next year for a full four-year term.

Borders, 61, said he will be making about $117,000 a year in his new job. Overall, he said his annual wage will decline by about $100,000 a year because he is giving up his pay as a state legislator and as director of administrative services for King’s Daughters Medical Center.

However, Borders, who worked 22 years for Ashland, Inc., has an opportunity to more than triple his state retirement benefits.
His legislative pension now is $22,278.21 a year.

If his salary stays at $117,000 a year for his four-year term at the Public Service Commission, his state retirement benefits would be more than $72,000 a year.