Veteran Kentucky journalist David Hawpe doubts Andy Beshear will look to Matt Bevin as a role model.
“I think … Beshear will move carefully,” said Hawpe, 76, a former Louisville Courier-Journal reporter, bureau chief, columnist, editor, vice president, and editorial director. “His father worked quietly and cooperatively, when possible, with such Republican leaders as Senate President Robert Stivers, whose calm, deliberate, respectful approach to leadership has been in drastic contrast to the approach taken on the first floor of the Capitol for the last four years.”
The governor-elect will be inaugurated on December 10. He’s the son of Steve Beshear, whose two-term tenure as governor spanned 2007-2015. Both Beshears are Democrats.
There’s already like-father-like-son precedent. Steve Beshear was attorney general in 1979-1983. His offspring is the outgoing attorney general.
Steve Beshear unseated GOP Gov. Ernie Fletcher in 2007. Andy Beshear thwarted Republican Bevin’s bid for a second term.
But while the elder Beshear won big both times he ran (He defeated Senate President David Williams in 2011), his son squeaked it. Gov. Bevin conceded defeat only after a recanvass upheld Beshear’s 5,100-vote victory on Nov. 5.
“I think it’s important that Democrats, including the new governor, recognize that a 5,000-vote margin is not a mandate for hubris, imperiousness, or presumption, especially when every Republican except Gov. Bevin won easily,” cautioned Hawpe, who retired in 2009 after a 40-year career at the C-J.
The GOP ran the table down ballot, ousting a Democratic attorney general and secretary of state. Republican incumbents won second terms as auditor, treasurer and agriculture commissioner.
“I’ve always believed that there are fundamental values shared by sensible members of both parties in Frankfort,” said the Pikeville-born Hawpe, a Kentucky Journalism Hall of Famer. “One is a desire to see young Kentuckians get a proper start in life. Another is the hope that we can keep the best and brightest of them here, by creating the opportunities they want and need.”
Added Hawpe: “One is loyalty to local school systems and their special role in Kentucky communities. Another is attachment to particular institutions, all of which are part of the public higher education system. Beyond that, every Kentuckian I know is proud of Kentucky’s unique history and beauty.”
Bevin faces GOP super-majorities in both houses. The Republicans enjoy a whopping 29-9 edge in the Senate and a 61-37 advantage in the House.
Even so, Hawpe thinks GOP lawmakers “will agree with the new Gov. Beshear that Kentucky needs to respect and strengthen its public schools, and to provide health care access to all Kentuckians who need it.”
He said the governor-elect “is not a spiteful person. Neither is President Stivers and neither is Speaker [David] Osborne. Actually the state budget dilemma is so drastic as the 2020 session approaches that the crisis itself will help encourage the new governor and the powerful legislators to work together.”
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