Al Cross: Expect More In Governor [Steve] Beshear's Second Term. We Hope So, And We Hope He Doesn't Blow It.
Expect more in Governor Beshear's second term
Written by Al Cross
FRANKFORT, Ky. — As Gov. Steve Beshear finished uttering the 18 words about expanded gambling in his 2,000-word inaugural address last week, a National Guard plane flew low and noisily over the Capitol, forcing him to repeat his next line.
It was an inadvertent, mistimed exclamation point for a topic that Beshear still wants to treat gingerly, after failing to include it in his first inaugural speech or State of the Commonwealth address four years ago, though it had been the main plank of his campaign platform.
The buzzing of the Capitol created another sort of buzz, around this question: Will the second term be bolder than the first?
When Beshear first took office, commentator Al Smith wrote for the inaugural program that the new governor was the hero of the second chance: a man who had lost races for governor and senator, “survived political exile in midlife and struggled back to the summit.”
Now Beshear’s second chance gets its own second chance, as he starts a second and last four-year term, following one that fulfilled little if any of the promise felt at dawn of his first Inauguration Day. That was mainly the fault of the Great Recession, but not entirely. Beshear was overly cautious, and somewhat unprepared.
He acknowledged this month, in an interview with KET’s Bill Goodman, that he miscalculated in 2007, “not really understanding how partisan the political process had become” since his first sojourn in Frankfort ended 20 years earlier — a time when foes during the day were friends at night, blurring party lines.
In his second inaugural, the Democrat said his 20-point victory over his four-year adversary, Republican state Senate President David Williams, showed that voters “want leaders who build bridges, not dams; who are motivated by the common good, not ideology.”
Yes, but those sentiments were mainly a rejection of Williams’ public persona, not an endorsement of Beshear’s. He has become the governor of low expectations, as indicated by the sparse turnout for his second inauguration. The parade had more participants than spectators.
But we should expect more from Beshear’s second term, and we have some reasons to.
He should be at the height of his powers. He is a smart man who has learned some lessons, and Williams has been humbled — and says there are enough votes in the Senate to pass Beshear’s signature issue, expanded gambling, though the devil may still be in the details.
For a decade and a half, governors, legislators and horse-industry advocates have tried to iron out the bumpy, three-dimensional blanket that is expanded gambling, and they have failed. Perhaps now the job will be easier, especially if they can be satisfied with what can pass and not spend precious time and political capital pushing what might be better but also might not pass.
But it is still Beshear’s place to exercise the leadership necessary to forge consensus, and it will be his first big test. He had better have legislation ready to move, votes at the ready, no later than the completion of redistricting and the filing for legislative races.
Beshear has been reaching out to legislators, surely testing the Senate waters to see if Williams might be ousted as president (not for another year, at least) and hopefully building bridges in the House, where he has sometimes gotten more respect from Republicans than Democrats. “Friendships are important, and we’ve spent a lot of time building those,” he told KET’s Goodman.
Beshear’s best friend for a second term, after his wife, Jane, may be Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson. He will be a true lieutenant, unlike Daniel Mongiardo, whose usefulness ended with the 2007 Democratic primary. In Abramson, Beshear has a trusted buddy who should be able to help him crank up his game — and perhaps change the outlook and trajectory of the administration.
Forty years ago, political scientist James David Barber published “The Presidential Character,” a seminal study of what makes chief executives tick, boiled down to two basic questions: Does the executive tend to act, or be acted upon? And is he or she fundamentally optimistic or pessimistic? The answers produce one of four personality type. The presidents when Barber wrote, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, were active-negative; Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan were passive-positive.
Early in his career, as a state representative and attorney general in the 1970s and 1980s, Beshear was an active-positive character like John F. Kennedy — and Abramson. But in the defensive posture he adopted in response to Williams and the recession, he has seemed more passive-positive, mainly reacting to events. That put him in the habit of waiting for the game to come to him instead of turning the game his way.
That cautious approach was reflected as he prepared for last week’s big speech. The game plan reportedly was to try to avoid a big headline about expanded gambling, presumably because the details haven’t been worked out. But in the end, he seemed to realize that gambling would, and should, be a focus of attention. He told reporters before the speech, for the first time, that he favored a constitutional amendment to resolve the issue.
With Abramson at his side, Beshear should find boldness more comfortable as he pursues tax reform and help for the health and education of children, especially preschoolers. Abramson brings a strong, active-positive attitude and could help revive the Beshear we once knew: the attorney general who took on the state police, electric utilities and oil-shale mining speculators, and the lieutenant governor who created a study group named Kentucky Tomorrow, the theme of last week’s inaugural.
Such a Steve Beshear should not be a governor of low expectations. Given this rare opportunity for a Kentucky governor, he should strive to make this term match those of first-rank Govs. Bert Combs and Louie Nunn, who also won on their second tries. They did that on their next chances, in an era when you didn’t come back after 20 years. As Beshear has learned, this is a new era, and as he should realize, he is lucky to have a second chance — and now, even a second chance at the second chance. Don’t blow it, governor.
Al Cross, former Courier-Journal political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. His opinions are his own, not those of the university.
Written by Al Cross
FRANKFORT, Ky. — As Gov. Steve Beshear finished uttering the 18 words about expanded gambling in his 2,000-word inaugural address last week, a National Guard plane flew low and noisily over the Capitol, forcing him to repeat his next line.
It was an inadvertent, mistimed exclamation point for a topic that Beshear still wants to treat gingerly, after failing to include it in his first inaugural speech or State of the Commonwealth address four years ago, though it had been the main plank of his campaign platform.
The buzzing of the Capitol created another sort of buzz, around this question: Will the second term be bolder than the first?
When Beshear first took office, commentator Al Smith wrote for the inaugural program that the new governor was the hero of the second chance: a man who had lost races for governor and senator, “survived political exile in midlife and struggled back to the summit.”
Now Beshear’s second chance gets its own second chance, as he starts a second and last four-year term, following one that fulfilled little if any of the promise felt at dawn of his first Inauguration Day. That was mainly the fault of the Great Recession, but not entirely. Beshear was overly cautious, and somewhat unprepared.
He acknowledged this month, in an interview with KET’s Bill Goodman, that he miscalculated in 2007, “not really understanding how partisan the political process had become” since his first sojourn in Frankfort ended 20 years earlier — a time when foes during the day were friends at night, blurring party lines.
In his second inaugural, the Democrat said his 20-point victory over his four-year adversary, Republican state Senate President David Williams, showed that voters “want leaders who build bridges, not dams; who are motivated by the common good, not ideology.”
Yes, but those sentiments were mainly a rejection of Williams’ public persona, not an endorsement of Beshear’s. He has become the governor of low expectations, as indicated by the sparse turnout for his second inauguration. The parade had more participants than spectators.
But we should expect more from Beshear’s second term, and we have some reasons to.
He should be at the height of his powers. He is a smart man who has learned some lessons, and Williams has been humbled — and says there are enough votes in the Senate to pass Beshear’s signature issue, expanded gambling, though the devil may still be in the details.
For a decade and a half, governors, legislators and horse-industry advocates have tried to iron out the bumpy, three-dimensional blanket that is expanded gambling, and they have failed. Perhaps now the job will be easier, especially if they can be satisfied with what can pass and not spend precious time and political capital pushing what might be better but also might not pass.
But it is still Beshear’s place to exercise the leadership necessary to forge consensus, and it will be his first big test. He had better have legislation ready to move, votes at the ready, no later than the completion of redistricting and the filing for legislative races.
Beshear has been reaching out to legislators, surely testing the Senate waters to see if Williams might be ousted as president (not for another year, at least) and hopefully building bridges in the House, where he has sometimes gotten more respect from Republicans than Democrats. “Friendships are important, and we’ve spent a lot of time building those,” he told KET’s Goodman.
Beshear’s best friend for a second term, after his wife, Jane, may be Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson. He will be a true lieutenant, unlike Daniel Mongiardo, whose usefulness ended with the 2007 Democratic primary. In Abramson, Beshear has a trusted buddy who should be able to help him crank up his game — and perhaps change the outlook and trajectory of the administration.
Forty years ago, political scientist James David Barber published “The Presidential Character,” a seminal study of what makes chief executives tick, boiled down to two basic questions: Does the executive tend to act, or be acted upon? And is he or she fundamentally optimistic or pessimistic? The answers produce one of four personality type. The presidents when Barber wrote, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, were active-negative; Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan were passive-positive.
Early in his career, as a state representative and attorney general in the 1970s and 1980s, Beshear was an active-positive character like John F. Kennedy — and Abramson. But in the defensive posture he adopted in response to Williams and the recession, he has seemed more passive-positive, mainly reacting to events. That put him in the habit of waiting for the game to come to him instead of turning the game his way.
That cautious approach was reflected as he prepared for last week’s big speech. The game plan reportedly was to try to avoid a big headline about expanded gambling, presumably because the details haven’t been worked out. But in the end, he seemed to realize that gambling would, and should, be a focus of attention. He told reporters before the speech, for the first time, that he favored a constitutional amendment to resolve the issue.
With Abramson at his side, Beshear should find boldness more comfortable as he pursues tax reform and help for the health and education of children, especially preschoolers. Abramson brings a strong, active-positive attitude and could help revive the Beshear we once knew: the attorney general who took on the state police, electric utilities and oil-shale mining speculators, and the lieutenant governor who created a study group named Kentucky Tomorrow, the theme of last week’s inaugural.
Such a Steve Beshear should not be a governor of low expectations. Given this rare opportunity for a Kentucky governor, he should strive to make this term match those of first-rank Govs. Bert Combs and Louie Nunn, who also won on their second tries. They did that on their next chances, in an era when you didn’t come back after 20 years. As Beshear has learned, this is a new era, and as he should realize, he is lucky to have a second chance — and now, even a second chance at the second chance. Don’t blow it, governor.
Al Cross, former Courier-Journal political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. His opinions are his own, not those of the university.
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