So…State Senator and former governor Julian Carroll thinks Lieutenant Governor Steve Pence should resign account of disloyalty to Governor Fletcher. Pence says he was elected and certainly will not resign, while Carroll thinks he was “picked” and not elected and should even refund his salary at least back to June of last year. If memory serves, Pence’s name was on the ballot in 2003, so it would seem he actually was elected. If Fletcher should become incapacitated again or die, Pence could hardly be expected to give up the job he would then have. Neither would Carroll under the same circumstances.
This is what Carroll said about Fletcher in 2005: "He turns out to be the biggest deceiver that we've had in the governor's office in my lifetime. Rather than a believer, he's truly a deceiver." Carroll also said this: "Certainly the General Assembly should hold hearings on whether or not his conduct in the granting of these pardons is conduct that rises to the level of consideration for impeachment." Never happened, of course.
Back when Carroll was governor, the lieutenant governor ran separately, as Carroll did in 1971 when he was elected lieutenant governor and former governor/senator Wendell Ford was elected governor. So, the governor had to be on the lookout then, lest a political enemy (or friend, for that matter) in the second spot do damage when the head honcho was out of state, something allowed by law. In fact, in those days the lieutenant governor could even be a member of the “other” party, as was the case 1967-71 when Republican Louie Nunn was governor and Democrat Wendell Ford was lieutenant governor.
In fact, when Carroll was governor and decided to leave the state at one time in 1978, Lieutenant Governor Thelma Stovall convened the legislature and rammed through a tax-cap law that prohibits taxing agencies from automatically raising taxes by more than something like four percent without benefit of facing a referendum. She also vetoed the passage of the legislature’s action in voting down the so-called federal Equal Rights Amendment. Her veto was overridden, however…but the tax-cap stood.
Carroll’s tenure was loaded with bumps. His right-hand man, a former legislator and state party chairman, served three years in a federal pen for workmen’s-compensation-insurance shenanigans, and Carroll himself was under federal investigation while in office. This is what Carroll said after being elected to the Kentucky Senate: “I’m assuming a position of leadership in the party as a result of being reelected to the Kentucky State Senate.” In that process, he defeated incumbent Governor Fletcher’s brother, though an alert democrat orangutan would beat a republican human genius in the state-capital district where that happened, without even swinging from limb to limb to campaign.
There were rumblings last year about a possible Carroll run for the governor’s seat again. This is what Bill Bartleman of the Paducah Sun wrote in May 2006: “If he ran statewide, opponents would open Carroll’s political closet and remind voters of the massive five-year federal investigation of his administration that resulted in numerous accusations, but only one indictment of a close political adviser. While Carroll can defend himself since he was never charged or indicted, questions about cronyism and possible borderline activity would make plentiful campaign fodder.”
Lieutenant Governor Carroll ascended to the governorship in 1974 when Governor Ford resigned to take the Senate seat vacated by Republican Senator Marlowe Cook, whom Ford had just defeated in his own Senate bid. Cook stepped down early, thereby giving Ford extra seniority, a magnanimous gesture. There had to be a deal, of course, with Carroll agreeing to appoint Ford to the Senate, after Ford’s resignation from the governorship, in order to take Ford’s place. This also gave Carroll a leg up on the gubernatorial election in 1975, which he easily won.
Concerning his statements about Pence’s disloyalty, etc., Carroll said: “It was something I felt needed to be done. Someone needed to address this. Quite frankly, I thought I had the credentials to do it.” What a joke, notwithstanding Pence’s strange behavior. He took flight from the ticket last summer while Governor Fletcher was out of state. He should realize more than anyone else – as a former prosecutor – that the Merit matter should have gone the usual “Ethics Committee” route, not through the attorney general’s office.
A-G Stumbo had already proclaimed long ago his considering to run for the governorship if Fletcher became “unpopular,” then proceeded to guarantee that he would become unpopular. Stumbo is settling for second chair, assuming success – actually a long-shot at this point. If he couldn’t be supportive by telling it like it is, Pence should have at least shut up and certainly not started actively campaigning against the governor…perhaps with another state job in sight if Northup should be successful – an even longer long-shot.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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