Al Cross: Politics Reigns In Legislative Session.
Politics reigns in legislative session
Written by Al Cross
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Reggie Meeks, a Democratic state representative from Louisville, has an infectious love of politics, so intense that he sometimes goes overboard. (Remember that case about his free fried chicken for poll workers?) But his intensity often helps him cut to the chase, as he did to begin his most recent legislative update to constituents.
As the legislative session crashed to an early close over yet another budget impasse last week, Meeks began his report: “We have arrived at a pivotal moment in the race for governor. Yes. The race for governor.”
Yes, we have. And it's not like we didn't expect it.
Even before the session began, the near-universal expectation was that it would be mainly about politics because Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear is running for re-election this year and state Senate President David Williams is expected to be his Republican opponent.
Beshear and Williams did agree on the most important bill passed in the session, a corrections reform that a few legislators could have killed by demagoguing it as soft on crime. In fact, it was “smart on crime,” the catchphrase used by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, who did the heavy lifting with his Senate counterpart, Republican Tom Jensen of London. (Tilley, in only his second two-year term, is a man to watch.)
The corrections bill took months of work, but not until the last week of the session did Williams show his hand on the session's other big item, shoring up the budget of the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled. He would do that with across-the-board cuts that would affect basic school funding — a spending area that Beshear has left virtually untouched during a series of budget cuts.
Early on, Beshear asked the legislature to move money from next year's Medicaid budget to this year's, which would pick up extra federal matching funds, and start managed-care plans to save money in the fiscal year that begins July 1. For weeks, Williams said there was no proof that so much money could be saved, but he didn't offer an alternative.
Williams has prevailed on big issues in past sessions by plotting strategy for weeks or months, playing his cards at the end of a session when the stakes are highest and pressuring Democrats into moving his way. But the skills that have made him a successful legislator are not the same skills it takes to get elected, and the current episode may not help him in the long run.
In policy terms, Williams' position is defensible. If Beshear's plan doesn't work, the state will be in much bigger budget trouble a year from now, early in the next gubernatorial term. And he correctly notes that the state has more budget problems than just Medicaid, and has raised fair questions about such Beshear maneuvers as delaying debt payments.
But Beshear's position is also defensible. He has cut the overall budget eight times, and other states have saved much money with managed-care Medicaid. And though he hasn't used it as a rationale, state revenues are beating projections made for the current budget.
Faced with such complex policy questions, voters throw up their hands and look at the personalities. And on that score, Williams is at a disadvantage. Beshear was quick last week to dredge up the well-established image of Williams as a repeated obstructionist.
Williams' defenders would say he has rightly stood athwart Democrats' taxing, borrowing and spending, but he has also voted for taxes, debt and structurally unbalanced budgets, and he needs to look like more of a fiscal conservative as he faces two opponents in the May 17 Republican primary.
Both those opponents are lightly regarded, but each offers a challenging contrast with Williams, and both of them are from Jefferson County, where he has problems. County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw is a pleasant, accomplished and largely nonpolitical public servant, and businessman Phil Moffett, from the GOP's tea party faction, is a hard-line fiscal conservative.
Williams is the presumptive Republican nominee, but a poor showing in the state's largest metropolitan area could hamstring his campaign in the general election, starting with his need for a big infusion of contributions to run against an incumbent who has been raising big money from high office for a long time.
Williams' Jefferson County strategy so far has focused on his neighborhood-schools bill, which would tear up the county schools' student-assignment plan that is designed to prevent racial disparities.
His budget plan could relate to that strategy, too. By proposing cuts to basic school funding, Williams is taking on school officials and the Kentucky Education Association, the teachers union whose largest local is the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
Williams may think it's a popular time to take on public-employee unions, given the attacks on their collective-bargaining rights by Republican governors in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. That could help him in the primary, but it remains to be seen whether cutting education will be a plus or minus in the general election.
To voters, these machinations may seem like just so much gamesmanship, and what they're looking for is leadership. Williams is probably the most skilled player of Frankfort games, but that probably makes it harder for voters to see him as the leader of the state.
That being said, it's a bad time for incumbents in general, because of the weak economy, and Beshear bears the additional burden of being a leader in a party whose top leader, President Barack Obama, is unpopular here. And Kentucky is one of the unhappiest states, according to a national survey released last week. Williams' often-dour demeanor matches the times. But voters usually want a sunnier outlook from their leaders and would-be leaders.
Al Cross, former Courier-Journal political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. His e-mail address is al.cross@uky.edu. His views are his own, not those of the University of Kentucky.
Written by Al Cross
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Reggie Meeks, a Democratic state representative from Louisville, has an infectious love of politics, so intense that he sometimes goes overboard. (Remember that case about his free fried chicken for poll workers?) But his intensity often helps him cut to the chase, as he did to begin his most recent legislative update to constituents.
As the legislative session crashed to an early close over yet another budget impasse last week, Meeks began his report: “We have arrived at a pivotal moment in the race for governor. Yes. The race for governor.”
Yes, we have. And it's not like we didn't expect it.
Even before the session began, the near-universal expectation was that it would be mainly about politics because Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear is running for re-election this year and state Senate President David Williams is expected to be his Republican opponent.
Beshear and Williams did agree on the most important bill passed in the session, a corrections reform that a few legislators could have killed by demagoguing it as soft on crime. In fact, it was “smart on crime,” the catchphrase used by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, who did the heavy lifting with his Senate counterpart, Republican Tom Jensen of London. (Tilley, in only his second two-year term, is a man to watch.)
The corrections bill took months of work, but not until the last week of the session did Williams show his hand on the session's other big item, shoring up the budget of the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled. He would do that with across-the-board cuts that would affect basic school funding — a spending area that Beshear has left virtually untouched during a series of budget cuts.
Early on, Beshear asked the legislature to move money from next year's Medicaid budget to this year's, which would pick up extra federal matching funds, and start managed-care plans to save money in the fiscal year that begins July 1. For weeks, Williams said there was no proof that so much money could be saved, but he didn't offer an alternative.
Williams has prevailed on big issues in past sessions by plotting strategy for weeks or months, playing his cards at the end of a session when the stakes are highest and pressuring Democrats into moving his way. But the skills that have made him a successful legislator are not the same skills it takes to get elected, and the current episode may not help him in the long run.
In policy terms, Williams' position is defensible. If Beshear's plan doesn't work, the state will be in much bigger budget trouble a year from now, early in the next gubernatorial term. And he correctly notes that the state has more budget problems than just Medicaid, and has raised fair questions about such Beshear maneuvers as delaying debt payments.
But Beshear's position is also defensible. He has cut the overall budget eight times, and other states have saved much money with managed-care Medicaid. And though he hasn't used it as a rationale, state revenues are beating projections made for the current budget.
Faced with such complex policy questions, voters throw up their hands and look at the personalities. And on that score, Williams is at a disadvantage. Beshear was quick last week to dredge up the well-established image of Williams as a repeated obstructionist.
Williams' defenders would say he has rightly stood athwart Democrats' taxing, borrowing and spending, but he has also voted for taxes, debt and structurally unbalanced budgets, and he needs to look like more of a fiscal conservative as he faces two opponents in the May 17 Republican primary.
Both those opponents are lightly regarded, but each offers a challenging contrast with Williams, and both of them are from Jefferson County, where he has problems. County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw is a pleasant, accomplished and largely nonpolitical public servant, and businessman Phil Moffett, from the GOP's tea party faction, is a hard-line fiscal conservative.
Williams is the presumptive Republican nominee, but a poor showing in the state's largest metropolitan area could hamstring his campaign in the general election, starting with his need for a big infusion of contributions to run against an incumbent who has been raising big money from high office for a long time.
Williams' Jefferson County strategy so far has focused on his neighborhood-schools bill, which would tear up the county schools' student-assignment plan that is designed to prevent racial disparities.
His budget plan could relate to that strategy, too. By proposing cuts to basic school funding, Williams is taking on school officials and the Kentucky Education Association, the teachers union whose largest local is the Jefferson County Teachers Association.
Williams may think it's a popular time to take on public-employee unions, given the attacks on their collective-bargaining rights by Republican governors in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio. That could help him in the primary, but it remains to be seen whether cutting education will be a plus or minus in the general election.
To voters, these machinations may seem like just so much gamesmanship, and what they're looking for is leadership. Williams is probably the most skilled player of Frankfort games, but that probably makes it harder for voters to see him as the leader of the state.
That being said, it's a bad time for incumbents in general, because of the weak economy, and Beshear bears the additional burden of being a leader in a party whose top leader, President Barack Obama, is unpopular here. And Kentucky is one of the unhappiest states, according to a national survey released last week. Williams' often-dour demeanor matches the times. But voters usually want a sunnier outlook from their leaders and would-be leaders.
Al Cross, former Courier-Journal political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. His e-mail address is al.cross@uky.edu. His views are his own, not those of the University of Kentucky.
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