Campaigning With State Plane
During his campaign for governor, Steve Beshear said he wouldn't fly to campaign stops in the state airplane. That statement came as Gov. Fletcher was being lambasted for using the state plane for the dual purpose of attending political fundraisers and official functions on the same trip.
Well. on Monday Beshear used the state airplane to make three stops in west Kentucky, two of which could be construed as political stops. One of them was at a campaign rally for Will Coursey, the democratic candidate for the house seat being vacated by J.R. Gray, who is now Beshear's Labor Cabinet Secretary. Another was an appearance at Lyon County High School with Coursey in what could be considered an official or political visit. At any rate, the Kentucky Republican Party Chairman, Steve Robertson, is criticizing Beshear for using the state plane for those visits saying "I now call on Steve Beshear to stop using taxpayer dollars to insert himself into these local races." Beshear spokesperson Vicki Glass says the governor will make a "reasonable" reimbursement to the state based on todays "official and political" activities. The Transportation Cabinet, which oversees the use of the state's main airplane, won't issue billing notices to the appropriate agencies for a couple of days. By the way, Monday was the first time that Beshear has used the state airplane since he was sworn in Dec. 11.
Comments
There's two issues here: one, Beshear promised he wouldn't use the state plane to campaign and two, he swears up and down we are in this serious budget crisis. I get that he has a right...even an obligation...to campaign for Democrats across the state. But when he's spending all his time campaigning...who is managing this "crisis" back at the ranch? Leaving the office to underlings to "handle" the problems...hmmmm...sound familiar?
Posted by: brad | January 29, 2008 6:34 PM