04/25/2006: I once had high hopes for Gov. Ernie Fletcher. He was the congressman from my district in Kentucky, and had done a very good job. In the wake of the scandals–and corruption–of Gov. Paul Patton, Fletcher ran a stellar campaign rooted in change, integrity, and hope. I know people who have worked for him, and they all swore to Fletcher’s integrity.

I voted for him. I figured Fletcher would bring radical change to Kentucky: tax reform, structural cuts within large, bloated agencies, and crackdowns against the corrupt cartel that had dominated Frankfort for 150 years. He had the credentials: he had been an Air Force pilot, an engineer, a physician, and a Congressman. On top of that, he was a preacher. He had a range of life experience and seemed like the right man for the job. Kentuckians elected him enthusiastically.

Since then, not much has changed.

State government is still bloated; no serious structural changes have even been proposed.

While Fletcher has managed to get tax reform passed, he has done nothing in terms of cutting wasteful spending.

The hiring scandal (more hype than anything else) reflects a desire on the part of his administration to effect “change” by merely implementing a Republican version of the same system that preceded his. That is not reform.

Rather than try to get more Republicans hired into the merit system, he should have commissioned a study of the merit system, presented the facts to the public, and called on the Attorney General to work with him to fix it. Instead, this “scandal” has rendered him–just like his predecessor–irrelevant.

Meanwhile, state employee insurance is hitting Kentucky taxpayers hard. While Fletcher is a physician, he has provided no serious leadership in reforming state employee health insurance. No HSAs. No catastrophic care plans. Just more of the same. For Kentuckians, Fletcher could have used his post to lobby Bush and Congress on behalf of HSAs and Medical IRAs. Nothing.

(Contrast that with Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has helped spearhead a reform plan that has some promise. Romney’s plan has red flags, but at least it is a plan. And he worked with a very liberal legislature to get it passed.)

In search of votes, Fletcher helped foist over $40 million onto Kentucky taxpayers to fund a new arena in Louisville (so they can pursue an NBA team that they have a snowball’s chance in hell of landing). This in spite of studies that have shown that such arenas provide dubious economic benefit compared to the hype.

On top of all this, Fletcher has done nothing to address the shortfalls to the state employee pension system, which is a disaster waiting to happen. Nor has he moved to address looming problems in the state Medicaid system. The “mess in Frankfort” that he promised to clean is as big today as it was when he took office.

On spending matters, he has capitulated to partisan extremism, supporting state funding of a pharmacy building at the University of the Cumberlands–a religious institution–in clear violation of the Kentucky constitution.

Rather than stand on principle and veto the $11 million, he sided with the extremists and hid behind the excuse of “legal ambiguity”. With that decision, he has destroyed any chance of getting re-elected. He has lost his conservative base.

This is because he is an idealogue, while most conservatives are in fact principle-driven. While most of us conservatives supported the right of the University of the Cumberlands to expel an openly gay student, we also understood the inconsistency of its claim on grounds of being a private institution while receiving public money. (I opined about that on this blog.)

By doing what he did, Fletcher made conservatives look like stupid, narrow-minded ideologues. He will find that decision costly to his re-election hopes.

Rather than run for re-election next year, Fletcher should take one for the home team and opt out of next year’s race, conceding his mistakes that have ruined what could have been a great era of positive change for Kentucky.

For whom will I vote next year? I don’t know. It likely won’t be Fletcher. On the Democrat side, I absolutely refuse to vote for Crit Luallen or Greg Stumbo.

Is there a solid Democrat for whom I would vote? Former Governor Brereton Jones. On the Republican side, I’m not sure I like any of the names out there. Hal Rogers is a pork-barrel Republican Congressman. Ditto for Ann Northup.

I would also consider voting for fellow libertarian Gatewood Galbraith.

If I don’t like who I see on the ticket, I’ll write myself in as a protest vote.