The battle will continue and likely intensify after Gov. Matt Bevin won Tuesday’s Republican Primary Election with 52.4 percent of the vote, and his adversary, Attorney General Andy Beshear, captured 37.9 percent of the vote in winning the Democratic primary over his nearest competitor, Rocky Adkins (31.9 percent), setting up a race for the governor’s seat between two candidates with clear animus toward one another.
Since both men took their respective offices in January 2016, Beshear has sued Bevin to keep the governor from cutting funding to higher education and to preclude him from abolishing and replacing the boards of trustee at the University of Louisville and the Kentucky Retirement Systems.
The next time the two men went to court was when Beshear challenged Bevin’s executive order that made abolishing and replacing the two boards possible. The Kentucky Supreme Court dismissed the case after the General Assembly pass legislation that gave Bevin additional power to remove trustees.
When Kentucky’s debt-ridden public pension system became the battleground, the animosity between Bevin and Beshear became even more apparent, as Beshear took Bevin to court over Senate Bill 151, a pension bill signed into law by Bevin.
Beshear said in April 2018 that, “The pension bill is government at its worst. It violates the rights of tens of thousands of Kentuckians.”
The bill would have moved new teacher hires into a hybrid plan that places less risk on the state but doesn’t guarantee teachers the same benefits. The Kentucky Supreme Court sided with Beshear.
Most recently, Beshear sued the Kentucky Labor Cabinet to stop the Bevin administration from issuing subpoenas to school districts to obtain names of teachers who participated in sickouts so the educators could protest Senate Bill 151 in Frankfort.
The Bevin administration would eventually receive the records, as Beshear was unable to prevent the governor’s office from receiving the requested information.
The General Election is slated for November 5.
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com or 270-259-6000
