Steve Beshear

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steven Lynn Beshear
61st Governor of Kentucky
Incumbent
Assumed office  December 11, 2007
Lieutenant	Daniel Mongiardo
Preceded by	Ernie Fletcher
48th Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky
In office 1984 – 1988
Governor	Martha Layne Collins
Preceded by	Martha Layne Collins
Succeeded by	Brereton C. Jones
Attorney General of Kentucky
In office 1980 – 1984
Governor	John Y. Brown, Jr.
Preceded by	Robert F. Stephens
Succeeded by	David L. Armstrong
Born	September 21, 1944 Dawson Springs, Kentucky
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jane Beshear
Residence	Lexington, Kentucky
Alma mater	University of Kentucky
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Disciples of Christ

Steven Lynn "Steve" Beshear (born September 21, 1944) is an American politician of the Democratic Party, and the 61st and current governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Beshear had previously served in the Kentucky House of Representatives; he was also the state's Attorney General from 1980 to 1984 and Lieutenant Governor from 1984 to 1988.

[edit] Early life

Steve Beshear was born September 21, 1944 in Dawson Springs, Kentucky and graduated from Dawson Springs High School.^[1] He attended the University of Kentucky, earning a law degree.^[1]

Beshear and his wife, Jane, were married in 1969. They have two sons, Jeff and Andy, and one grandson, Nicholas.^[2]

[edit] Early political career

[edit] State Representative

Beshear was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives to begin his political career. He was elected as State Representative for the 76th Legislative District in 1973, winning the Democratic primary by a large margin. Beshear won the general election, garnering 3401 votes to his Republican opponent's 2083.^[3] Beshear was re-elected by winning the 1975 Democratic primary against Jerry Lundergan, who later was elected to the Kentucky House and became Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party, prevailing by about 200 votes.^[4][5] Beshear defeated Lundergan again by 400 votes in the 1977 primary, and won the general election easily over an independent challenger.^[6]

[edit] Attorney General

Beshear declined to run for re-election in 1979 and instead ran for Kentucky Attorney General. Beshear prevailed in the Democratic primary and was elected as Attorney General of Kentucky in 1979, defeating Republican nominee Ron Snyder with 471,177 votes to Snyder's 302,951, and served as Attorney General from 1980 to 1984.^[7]

[edit] Lieutenant Governor

Statewide officeholders were barred from running for re-election at that time (this did not change until the passage of a 1992 Constitutional amendment). Beshear chose to run for election as Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, what was then a separately elected office whose powers would be greatly diminished by the 1992 amendment as well. Beshear prevailed over six other candidates in the 1983 Democratic primary, defeating among others Todd Hollenbach, father of the current Kentucky State Treasurer, Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts George L. Atkins, and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Alben Barkley II, grandson of the former Vice President and U.S. Senate Majority Leader.^[8] Beshear won 183,662 votes out of 575,022 cast in the Democratic primary that year.^[9] In the 1983 general election, Beshear was elected as Lieutenant Governor on a Democratic ticket headed by Martha Layne Collins. Beshear defeated Eugene P. Stuart, the running mate of Jim Bunning, with 568,869 votes to 321,352, with an independent candidate capturing a scattering of votes.^[10]

[edit] Failed bids for Governor and U.S. Senator

In 1987, Beshear, once again term-limited, ran for Governor of Kentucky. Beshear employed Democratic strategists David Doak and Bob Shrum to assist him with his campaign. Beshear and former Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. waged a vicious campaign against each other, with Beshear attacking Brown for his opulent lifestyle and his "wild nights in Vegas." The attacks backfired on Beshear, who was accused by Brown of distorting reality and of being untrustworthy.^[11] Beshear and Brown's attacks on one another allowed Wallace Wilkinson, a political newcomer, to cast himself above the fray and Wilkinson was able to surge late in the campaign, promising not to raise taxes and to enact a state lottery.^[12][13] Beshear won 114,439 votes in the primary, good for a third place finish with 18% of the vote behind Brown's 163,204 votes or 26%, and 221,138 votes, or 35% garnered by Wilkinson, who went on to win the general election that fall. Beshear placed ahead of former governor Julian Carroll's 42,137 votes and also defeated Grady Stumbo, who won 84,613 votes, or 14%. Three other candidates combined for an additional 8,187 votes in that primary, all garnering less than one percent of the Democratic primary vote. ^[12][14]

After his defeat in the 1987 election, Beshear practiced law in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1996, Beshear heavily defeated former Congressman Tom Barlow and another candidate to gain the Democratic nomination against incumbent Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.^[15] Beshear started out trailing against McConnell, with an early general election poll placing McConnell ahead of Beshear 50% to 32%.^[16] The campaign ultimately became quite harsh, with the McConnell campaign sending "Hunt Man," a take off of Chicken George dressed in "the red velvet coat, jodhpurs, black riding boots and black helmet of a patrician fox hunter." This was done as a means of criticizing Beshear's membership in a fox hunting club in Lexington, and undercut the Beshear campaign's message that McConnell was a Republican in the mold of Newt Gingrich and that Beshear was the only friend of the working class in the race. ^[17] Beshear lost the election to McConnell. ^[18]

[edit] 2007 Campaign for Governor

On December 18, 2006, Beshear formally announced his candidacy for governor of Kentucky in the 2007 election with State Senator Daniel Mongiardo as his lieutenant governor. Beshear won the primary; each of his opponents conceded the race to him. Because he exceeded 40 percent of the vote, he avoided a runoff.^[19] In the general election, Beshear opposed incumbent Governor Ernie Fletcher. Beshear campaigned on a promise to enact expanded gaming legislation and not to raise taxes, a platform remarkably similar to that of the man to whom he lost the Democratic nomination for Governor twenty years before.^[20] Beshear also attacked Fletcher because of a supposed financial shortfall which ended up being a $2 billion dollar increase in state revenue.^[21] Despite this outcome, on November 6, 2007, Beshear defeated Fletcher by a 59% to 41% margin.^[22]

[edit] Governor of Kentucky

On December 11, 2007, Beshear was sworn in as Kentucky's 61st governor by Kentucky Supreme Court Associate Justice Bill Cunningham in a private ceremony in the Governor's Mansion in Frankfort. Beshear received the oath of office again during a public ceremony on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol later that afternoon. The oath of office was administered during the public ceremony by Associate Justice Mary C. Noble.

[edit] Initiatives

[edit] Expanded Brick and Mortar Gaming

Attempting to fulfill a major campaign plank, on February 15, 2008, Beshear unveiled legislation that would allow casino gambling in Kentucky, which he claimed would generate "several hundred millions of dollars" in tax revenue for the state.^[23] Beshear stated that "allowing limited expanded gaming in Kentucky will result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenue every year." Beshear said this at a time when state government was facing a shortfall in revenue.^[24] In late February, the Kentucky House of Representative's Elections, Constitutional Amendments, and Intergovernmental Affairs committee failed to advance two proposals for a constitutional amendment to the full floor of the House of Representatives.^[25] After Speaker Jody Richards replaced some members of the relevant committee in March, Beshear and allies again attempted to get the bill through to the full floor. The Elections, Constitutional Amendments, and Governmental Affairs Committee passed the amendment on the second occasion.^[26] The legislation failed to advance in the 2008 regular session of the Kentucky General Assembly, and was not called to a vote in the Democratic controlled Kentucky House of Representatives, where 60 votes out of 100 would have been required for passage. Beshear announced that his proposal for a constitutional amendment to allow for casinos was dead for the regular session on March 27, 2008.^[27] Despite this proclamation from Beshear, Beshear did not declare defeat. In April 2008, a few days before the session was statutorily set to expire, Governor Beshear made a final push to advance the constitutional amendment into the Republican controlled Kentucky Senate, but to no avail.^[20][28] On a "listening tour" through Kentucky in July 2008, Beshear told an audience of four hundred in Pikeville that expanded gaming legislation was not dead and was still a topic on the table.^[20]

The initial, organizational session of the 2009 regular session saw change in Frankfort. Speaker Jody Richards was ousted by House Democrats by a three vote margin, in favor of former Majority Leader and Attorney General Greg Stumbo, a race in which it was thought that the Governor had personally interfered on behalf of Stumbo.^[29] Expanded gaming legislation was pre-filed for the 2009 regular session. Proponents stated that allowing video lottery terminals at racetracks could raise $500 million for the state budget within three years.^[30] Speaker Stumbo is a supporter of allowing VLT's in Kentucky and was a cosponsor of expanded gaming legislation that would have allowed for more gaming opportunities at eight horse tracks in Kentucky, encountering opposition once again from David Williams, President of the Kentucky Senate.^[31] Stumbo said that his version of the gaming bill would raise $1.2 billion dollars for the state budget within five years, and indicated that Kentucky's horse racing industry was under assault from other states and that passage of expanded gaming was vital for the state's racing industry to thrive and continue.^[32]

[edit] Banning Online Gaming

Despite his support for casino gambling, Beshear is a staunch advocate of a statewide prohibition of online gambling.^[33]

Governor Beshear has lead Kentucky in a lawsuit^[which?] to seize control of 141 gambling related domains in an attempt to block Kentucky residents from accessing those websites.^{[34][35][36][37]}

[edit] Energy

In April 2008, Beshear announced plans to reorganize the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet by splitting it into several cabinets, creating among others an Energy and Environmental Cabinet. Beshear announced in a press release that he intended to appoint Leonard Peters, a chemical engineer, to head the new cabinet.^[38]

In April 2009, Beshear stated his goal that "Kentucky can and Kentucky will become the energy capital of this nation" when announcing a partnership between the Commonwealth, the University of Kentucky, and utilities to study ways to capture carbon dioxide from coal consuming power plants to reduce their impact on global warming.^[39]

The Governor has been a consistent advocate for diversifying Kentucky's energy resources, and as part of that plan, he has supported the issue of nuclear power. Yet, in March 2009, it was reported that Beshear was at odds over Kentucky's energy future with a top leader of his own party, House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins. ^[40]

[edit] Emergency Response

In September 2008, Governor Beshear declared a state of emergency as the remnants of Hurricane Ike passed over Kentucky, knocking out power to thousands. ^[41] Beshear issued the emergency call after reports of price gouging began to emerge in the Louisville area. By declaring an emergency, Beshear was able to activate a Kentucky law against price gouging during times of crisis. ^[42] Almost a week after the storm, 120,000 Kentuckians were still without power, and Governor Beshear asked President George W. Bush for a federal disaster declaration, qualifying state government for partial reimbursement of expenses. Beshear at the time stated that the storm was "the worst of its kind on record in Kentucky." ^[43]

On January 27, 2009, Governor Beshear declared an emergency as a result of the 2009 ice storm that had catastrophic impact on the Commonwealth.^[44] Within 24 hours of the storm hitting Kentucky, 104,000 Kentuckians were without power. ^[45] Beshear referred to the severe weather event as the "biggest disaster this state has seen in modern times" and announced the activation of "virtually the entire Kentucky National Guard."^[46]. By January 29, 150,000 Kentuckians were without electricity or potable water. President Barack Obama approved Beshear's request for a federal disaster declaration. Response was complicated as the Kentucky National Guard distributed packaged, prepared meals to hungry residents. Many of the first meals delivered, prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, contained peanut butter and had to be recalled due to the salmonella scandal involving American peanut production at the time. Beshear allayed fears by stating that he ate some of the peanut butter and didn't become ill. Beshear discussed response to the ice storm at length in his 2009 State of the Commonwealth address. Beshear's staff stated in early February 2009 that the storm did more than $50 million worth of damage to the Commonwealth.^[47]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Office of Governor Steve Beshear, Commonwealth of Kentucky official state site
• Beshear 2007 official campaign site

• Biography at the National Governors Association
• Campaign contributions at Follow the Money
• Biography, interest group ratings, public statements, vetoes and campaign finances at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Collected news and commentary at The Washington Post
• Profile from SourceWatch Congresspedia
• Louisville Courier-Journal article on May 2007 primary victory

v • d • e Governors of Kentucky Shelby · Garrard · Greenup · Scott · Shelby · Madison · Slaughter · Adair · Desha · Metcalfe · J. Breathitt · J. Morehead · Clark · Wickliffe · Letcher · Owsley · Crittenden · Helm · Powell · C. Morehead · Magoffin · G.W. Johnson · Robinson · Hawes · Bramlette · Helm · Stevenson · Leslie · McCreary · Blackburn · Knott · Buckner · Brown · Bradley · Taylor · Goebel · Beckham · Willson · McCreary · Stanley · Black · Morrow · Fields · Sampson · Laffoon · Chandler · K. Johnson · Willis · Clements · Wetherby · Chandler · Combs · E. Breathitt · Nunn · Ford · Carroll · Brown Jr. · Collins · Wilkinson · Jones · Patton · Fletcher · Beshear Italics indicate Confederate governors