Lexington HL ran editorial on front page

The New York Times still marks some stories as “Analysis.” You won’t find that word in Kentucky’s two main papers anymore. The old school of journalism is dead at the Lexington Herald Leader — and also The Courier-Journal, by the way. They purposely and consistently blur the line between news and opinion. As I said in my editorial below, “Opinion creeps from the editorial page to the news pages in silent steps” Well, that was written in 1998. Today, opinions don’t creep off their assigned spaces — they run wild, more of less without barriers, because editors allow it, and seemingly encourage it.

I’ve seen no better example than the story on the front page, above the fold, in today’s Lexington Herald Leader. Read it here, http://ow.ly/TGV6J

The headline reads: “Whether he knew or not, Pitino has to go.” The subhead was: “It’s time for coach to put the program ahead of himself.”

And the very first sentence of the story: “Rick Pitino has to go.” A short, one-sentence paragraph.

The writer’s opinion continued dominated paragraph two: “That’s clear now. It doesn’t matter if the Louisville basketball coach didn’t know. He should have known. It’s his program. It’s his responsibility to know.” The whole story goes that way — clearly an editorial on the front page masquerading as news.  

Peter Baniak, are you on vacation? Do you have no shame? Running editorials on the front page! It shows a complete disrespect for the readers.

Today it’s about sports; tomorrow it could about a politician that certain people at the paper don’t like.

The following is an editorial I wrote on this subject. It ran June 30,1998, in The Kentucky Gazette.

Editorial opinion creeps unnoticed to front page

One of the amazing myths in American society is that newspapers are impartial public servants. Newspapers are neither impartial, nor public servants. They are businesses out to make money by gathering information about people and selling it, while at the same time receiving additional bucks from people who pay to have information printed about themselves. It’s strictly business — news and advertising — and there’s not much benevolence about it. Quite to the contrary, newspapers that have achieved institutional status, like The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, are used as instruments to mold society to the image of what the editors think society ought to be — which, for the C-J and Herald, is liberal.

         The late J. Ed McConnell said a person should gamble a little every day because, “You might be walking around lucky and not even know it.” Well, the newspapers you read every day may be liberal (or conservative) to the bone — not just on the editorial page. But they handle it with such finesse, you might not even know it.

         Another myth about newspapers is that opinions stay on the editorial page. They don’t. Opinion creeps from the editorial page to the news pages in silent steps. One way is story selection. Choosing what stories to write about is, in fact, an editorial statement. Thus, the doctrine of editors is presented to the public on a daily basis...unnoticed with the news. And it’s not co-incidental. The editors know it. A recent example is the controversial series of stories by The Courier-Journal on coal dust sampling — clearly a massive editorial.

         The newspaper industry has a name for stealth editorial statements masquerading on news pages: it’s called civic journalism. Or, some call it democracy-enhancing journalism, because the aim, in the words of a co-founder, is to “help public life go well by reengaging people in it.” In other words, instead of explaining the community, convene it; instead of exploring the issues, solve them; instead of exposing wrongs, campaign against them.

         Max Frankel, the former executive editor of The New York Times, said, “The ardent civic journalists of today are not content to tell it like it is, they want to tell it and fix it all at once.” Knight-Ridder and Gannett — the owners of the Herald-Leader and Courier-Journal, respectively — are adherents and practitioners of democracy-enhancing journalism.

         In addition to the editorial page and story selections, a third way that newspapers color themselves is through the biases of writers — all of whom have beliefs that find their way into stories. Writers are always visible just behind their words. They don’t plainly slant the news; that would be unfair and unprofessional. What happens is that all stories are written with stresses, colorations and emphasis that favor a writer’s view about “public life going well.”

         As language passes through a writer’s mind something happens akin to bees making honey. As described by naturalist John Burroughs (1837-1921): “The hive bee does not get honey from the flowers; honey is a product of the bee. What she gets from the flowers is mainly sweet or nectar; this she puts through a process of her own, and to it adds a minute drop of her own secretion of formic acid. It is this special personal contribution that converts the nectar into honey.” And writers contribute minute doses of attitude — shades, colors and accents — that turn ordinary news into unnoticed commentary.

         The influence of the state’s two largest newspapers is tremendous, but not as profound as commonly perceived. As the numbers printed by the Gazette in this edition show, the Courier-Journal’s circulation outside Jefferson County penetrates just 4.7 percent of the households in Kentucky; and the Herald-Leader’s circulation outside Fayette County penetrates just 4.9 percent. But more importantly, they are read by movers and shakers and decision-makers. And the multiplier effect is enormous: AP rewrites the papers’ stories for its members; and, consequently, TV and radio broadcasters rip and read primarily from the state’s two dominate printcasters.

         It’s too bad that the state’s news mechanism is controlled by out-of-state-owned companies whose philosophies on public life are counter to most Kentuckians. Long live the First Amendment. But in the long-term, the news media can be more dangerous than politicians.

 — Lowell Reese, publisher

Election story could be political thriller movie

Below is a preview of the Sept. 25, 2015 edition of Kentucky Roll Call. To read the actual story and names, go to the link in the next column — bottom right. 

‘The Story’ of the 2015 Republican primary for governor was a political thriller that would make a compelling movie.

An ex-girlfriend accuses a major candidate for governor of domestic violence, of abusing her physically and emotionally, claiming in a letter to the state’s largest newspaper, “Did [he] hit me? Yes,” and that he drove her to Louisville for an abortion. The accused denies it all.

Rumors of the alleged abuses had spread on the campaign trail for more than a year, but were never seen in print until 21 days before the election, when e-mails, preciously exchanged between the husband of a rival candidate’s running mate and a blogger, were leaked to the state’s second largest newspaper. The leak came from an unlikely source not identified at the time, and remained a mystery until nearly four months after the election, in a story Kentucky Roll Call broke.

Oddly, the leak came from the camp of the candidate who was accused of domestic abuse, raising the question, “Why would he fan a negative?” But there was logic in the decision — potential benefits in multiple ways, including: (a) it vented the issue by obeying the political adage that you put a negative out front and chase it, as compared to it chasing you; (b) it would discredit a major rival; and (c) plant doubt in the voters’ minds about the veracity of the abuses, that maybe the political rival connected to the e-mails created the abuses as a rumor.

The plot thickens: someone hired a pricey private eye in New York City to investigate (intimidate) the ex-girlfriend, who now lives in the Big Apple. The message to her being, keep your mouth shut or your parents will find out about the abortion.  

Did a Democrat outfox the Republicans by orchestrating the leak in order to clear the path for the Republican nominee the Democrats’ preferred as their opponent in the general election? There appeared to be reasons to believe so.

The e-mails were stolen by dark means. But by whom, and how did they end up, allegedly, in the hands of a lobbyist who sneaked them to the reporter in an elaborate and calculated scheme.

The reporter unwittingly fell for the scheme and wrote a story that would knock the e-mail-connected rival out of the race. And, as planned, once the reporter’s story came out, the accused would call a press conference and deny everything, and he had plenty of time to prepare answers to the questions. A nice scheme, or so it seemed!

Once the ex-girlfriend read the blanket denials, which made her out to be a liar, she decided to tell her side of story to the state’s largest newspaper. Her decision was the tipping point of the accused’s campaign.  Throughout the remaining 16 days of the election, the big-city paper ran story after story, turning the ill-gotten e-mails and alleged abuses into ‘The Story’ of the 2015 gubernatorial primary, dooming the chance of her ex-boyfriend to be governor.  He lost by 83 votes.

Brother against brother over Civil War statue

Editor’s Note: Kentucky remained neutral during our nation’s Civil War, but joined the Confederacy in sentiment after the War. Read the book, “Creating a Confederate Kentucky,” by Anne Marshall.

Following the murder of nine blacks in a Charleston, S.C., church last month by a young white man, who had been photographed earlier holding a Confederate battle flag, a debate began in Kentucky on whether to remove the statue of Jefferson Davis from the Capitol Rotunda.

The War pitted brother against brother; the debate over Jefferson Davis’ statue has two prominent brothers on opposing sides — this time in sentiments expressed in words, not guns … but evidence nonetheless, from both brothers, that the War is not really over.

Al Cross, a UK professor and former journalist, in his bi-monthly op-ed column in The Courier-Journal on June 26, 2015, called Davis “a traitor to his country,” and said his statue does not belong in the Capitol Rotunda. Al’s brother, David, an Albany, Ky., lawyer, holds the opposite view, which he expressed in a column in his hometown newspaper, the Clinton County News, following Al’s piece in the C-J.  

Click here to read Al’s column. Below is David’s column, reprinted with permission.  

The re-writing of history

By David Cross

[As printed in the Clinton County News]

In 1856-57 a large contingent of prominent families from Clinton County, Kentucky, migrated to the Red River country of northeast Texas, settling in and around the town of Paris, Texas.

Among the group were Rice Maxey and his son Sam Bell Maxey who had been recently defeated in a race for re-election as Clinton County Court Clerk; William Bramlette, whose brother Thomas Bramlette would be elected Governor of Kentucky in 1863; and Lemuel Hardin Williams, whose family farm had been the location where Clinton County was organized after its creation by the Legislature.

These families soon became prominent in Lamar County. Rice Maxey became Circuit Judge and Williams was elected a delegate to the 1861 Texas Convention regarding secession.

Williams was one of the “Seven Immortals” that publicly cast their votes against secession, as was another Lamar delegate, George Wright, who was from the Cumberland River region of Tennessee below Clinton County and was closely associated with the Clinton emigrants.

Secession was overwhelmingly approved by the Convention. Lem Williams returned to his Lamar County home and instead of joining the Union Army promptly volunteered for military service locally and raised a company of men to support the Confederacy.

Sam Bell Maxey, who also opposed secession, entered the Confederate Army and by mid-war was elevated to the rank of Brigadier General, being particularly active in the Trans-Mississippi theater. Others who had opposed secession followed suit.

Were these men traitors? This question is prompted by the current discussion regarding whether or not Davis’ statue should be removed from the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort, including the recent the mis-characterization of Jefferson Davis as a “traitor” by a Courier-Journal columnist whom I both love and admire, but seem to disagree with on a semi-regular basis on certain issues.

On the question of Davis, we are in fact, “A House Divided”.

Nowhere in America was the Civil War as tumultuous, divisive, and dangerous as along the Kentucky border region where we reside.

My people are buried in the Irwin Cemetery, in the shadow of the Poplar Mountains in eastern Clinton County, on the edge of what was once called Stockton Valley, a cemetery founded by the father-in-law of Lem Williams.

In one row of graves we find the marker of Confederate guerrilla Champ Ferguson’s first wife; in the next row, the grave of Ruben Wood, one of Ferguson’s first victims in 1861. Ferguson was tried and hanged at Nashville after the war for the killing of Wood, and many others, after voluntarily surrendering to Federal authorities, believing he was to receive clemency.

Just down KY 1076 toward the Tennesse border lies the home place of Ferguson, and just a mile south is the community now called Maupin, but was formerly known as Elliots Cross Roads, named for the grandfather of Governor Thomas Elliot Bramlette.

Clinton County was a strong Union county; however, Overton County, Tennessee, then adjoining it to the southwest, was overwhelmingly pro-southern.

Jefferson Davis had a sterling public career including four years as Secretary of War, and as Senator from Mississippi strongly argued against secession. Volunteering for military service after he tearfully resigned from the Senate, he instead was persuaded to become President of the Confederate States of America, in part because many viewed him as the most qualified man for the position. He was, understandably, indicted for treason after the war. However, he became a leader of reconciliation despite being shackled for two years after his arrest.

In Clinton County, the post-war criminal dockets reveal numerous indictments against Ferguson’s band and other rebels for acts which they committed during the war. These were dealt with by Governor Bramlette in 1867 before he left office, when he issued a blanket pardon for all war crimes, stating that “War made many good people do bad things.” Bramlette, who remained a Democrat after the war, had been a Colonel in the Union Army as well as United States Attorney for Kentucky before his election as Governor.

Bramlette and others soon found that service in the army of the CSA was nearly a pre-requisite to holding political office in Kentucky. The “Bloody Shirt” of the Confederacy was waived by Democrats for thirty years or more in Kentucky.

This glorification of the “Lost Cause” led to Confederate monuments far out-numbering those for Union soldiers on courthouse squares in Kentucky– in fact, I know of only two such Union memorials, in the Republican counties of Butler and Lewis.

In effect, the leaders of the state that they say didn’t secede until after the war was over wrote history as they wished it to be written. However, the political alignment of the state for generations to come was based upon which side people were on during the War.

The native son Davis was much more popular than the native son Lincoln in the state. Abe “didn’t even scratch” in some counties, and barely did in Clinton.

Now the Confederate battle flag, the “Stars and Bars”, has been hijacked by white supremacists and madmen, when the people of my generation look at it simply as a symbol of southern pride, as evidenced by Charlie Daniels and Lynyrd Skynyrd since the 1970s.

And Jeff Davis, whose presence in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort is understandably questioned by some, stands there looking at his northern counterpart, Abraham Lincoln. Doesn’t that say as much about the divisions of the state as anything else?

It seems that the history of the Civil War (or The War for Southern Independence, as it was called in the south) is again being re-written, which occasionally needs to be done. However, to not look at the events of the past through a 150-year old lens is a mistake. The South lost the war, but had gallant men who fought and led its effort to establish a separate country. We remain thankful that such effort failed, but should accept that bravery on behalf of any cause is to be respected.

Jeff Davis and Lemuel Hardin Williams are to be respected, and recognized, as men who made difficult decisions in extremely difficult times.

 

Comer's pension windfall is $467,000

Citizens for Sound Government, a super PAC in Denver, is attacking gubernatorial candidate James Comer in TV ads for his vote in favor of a bill when he was a legislator in 2005 that increased his own pension. 

Below is an explanation of Comer’s pension increase. 

To read the full report — and see who else voted for the bill and examples of gold-plated pensions — click here http://ow.ly/Mf3y4

Editor’s Note
Kentucky’s public employee pension plans are complex and complicated. So much so that reporters, editorial writers and columnists, with rare exceptions, give readers mere generalities, which is sometimes misleading. For example, an esteemed columnist wrote recently in The Courier-Journal that HB 299, the bill now biting Comer, “would have been very small, essentially reflecting cost-of-living increases in legislative pay, had Comer not been elected to statewide office in 2011.” Not even technically correct in fullness, the inference it planted in the minds of readers (unintended or not) was that the political fuss about it in the governor’s race is over a trivial matter. Armed with the information provided below and at http://ow.ly/Mf3y4, you can be the judge of that! 

Thanks to HB 299, former Rep. Harry Moberly is drawing a legislative pension of at least $169,000 a years; former Rep. J.R. Gray is drawing a legislative pension of at least $136,000 a year; and Rep. Greg Stumbo’s legislative pension will be at least $94,000 a year. 

Kentucky’s six state-administered pension systems have an unfunded liability of $34.6 billion as of June 30, 2014. 

Former Rep. James Comer’s windfall

[This story is reprinted from a white paper titled, “The Unsustainable: Kentucky’s Public Employee Pensions Systems,” authored by Lowell Reese, published in 2012 in The Kentucky Gazette.]

Among current policymakers to significantly benefit from HB 299 is Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer. Even before winning last year’s election Comer, then a representative from Tompkinsville, joined 17 of his fellow Republicans in the House by voting in favor of HB 299, a bill that could double or even triple his legislative pension – if he were to win a statewide office or get appointed to an upper-echelon job in state or local government, or even accept a position with one of several private organizations that have been granted state pension privileges.

On Jan. 1, 2012, the moment Comer raised his hand for the oath of office as the commonwealth’s new agriculture commissioner, which pays $113,616 a year, he hit the jackpot as a result of his vote on House Bill 299 in the 2005 legislative session. Suddenly, Comer’s pension for having served 11 years in the legislature nearly tripled. Simply upon taking the oath, his annual legislative pension spiked from $13,100 a year to $34,369.

Comer can begin drawing the pension in full when he reaches age 63. Just for winning the election and helping enact what became known as “the greed bill” in 2005, Comer’s windfall over a lifetime comes to at least $467,906.

As impressive as it is, Comer’s “gold find” is small compared to the pension spikes of some legislators. Bigger yet, in importance, are the generous benefits the politicians have bestowed upon their constituents who work in government.

Comer’s legislative pension is determined using the state’s three-factor formula: (1) Eleven years of service; (2) a service credit rate of 2.75 percent; and (3) the average of his highest three years of salary as a legislator, which was $43,037 a year.

Comer’s windfall involves two pension systems – the legislators’ plan he’s coming from and the state employees’ plan he now has joined. The pension padding bill contained a reciprocity provision, which means any legislator who was serving in the 2005 session – and all legislators elected afterward – can calculate their legislative pensions based not on their pay as legislators, which are part-time jobs, but on their pay in full-time positions held before or after leaving the legislature as long as those other jobs are with employers participating in one of the six state administered retirement systems.

Commissioner Comer as a new state employee now begins a second pension in the Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS). Over the next four years – or eight if he is re-elected – his salary and compound cost-of-living increases (once he retires), likely will boost his legislative pension gain to a figure much greater than a half-million dollars.

His excessive gain from public service happens to be only the most recent example of how legislators are padding their pensions. As you will read, the pensions of some legislators are super rich – riches they voted for themselves because they could, once Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. allowed them to begin exerting independence from the executive branch in 1980.

Before that, previous governors greatly expanded and protected from repeal the pensions of public employees, a practice subsequent governors obviously accepted, and through their own initiatives continued the benefit creep, gradually, often in silent catlike steps.

#

Kentucky lobbyists earning more than $1 million

Getting paid to influence the creation of public policy in Kentucky can be quite profitable. During the last legislative cycle — the two calendar years of 2013 and 2014 — eleven lobbying firms earned more than $1 million each.  

Two-year Earnings By Firm

(Legislative cycle: 2013-2014)

Rank                                                                                (dollars)                 

1.  MMLK Government Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,266,816

2.  McCarthy Strategic Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,130,558

3.  Top Shelf Lobbying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   1,802,771

4.  Capitol Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,674,495

5.  Commonwealth Alliances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1,636,491

6.  Babbage CoFounder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,625,100

7.  Capital Link Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,571,671

8.  JYB3 Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,425,400

9.  The Rotunda Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,335,815

10.  Government Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1,326,178

11.  McLean Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,067,728

12.  HCH Government Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712,201

Two-year Earnings By Individual

(Legislative cycle: 2013-2014)

Rank                                                                      (dollars)                 

1.  Bob Baggage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,625,100

2.  John McCarthy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,097,822

3.  Sean Cutter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,040,610

4.  J. Ronald Pryor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,040,245

5.  John Cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1,016,816

The figures provided above are from lobbying the Kentucky General Assembly only. The figures do not include earnings from the executive branch, which are estimated to be around 75 percent (rule of thumb) of a lobbyist’s legislative branch compensation. The amount that lobbyists are paid for working the executive branch of state government is confidential — not reported to government, and, therefore, not available to the public, because no law requires it. 

Source: Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission and compiled by Second Circle: 2015-2016. In addition to photos of participating lobbyists, their clients and contact information, the Second Circle book lists the Top 75 contract lobbyists’ earnings by individual and the earnings of all contract lobbying firms and their clients. The book is available at

http://kentuckyrollcallbooks.com/secondcircle.html

Op-ed in C-J against local option sales tax

The following is an op-ed that appears today in The Courier-Journal. It is posted here to spread it in public domain without the digital ad barriers. 

Proponents losing the ‘tax’ in the ‘LIFT’ effort

By Bridget Bush
Louisville attorney and founder of the Elephants in the Bluegrass blog.

As I have watched legislation for Local Option Sales Tax wind its way through the Kentucky legislature, I have grown dismayed by Republicans who have seized upon the word “local” to the exclusion of the word “tax.”

The Local Option Sales Tax would allow cities and counties to place special projects on the ballot for which voters could raise the sales tax an extra 1 percent until the project is paid off. This requires an amendment to the Kentucky Constitution. Both houses of the legislature must pass it by two-thirds, as the House has, followed by a 2016 referendum.

Rather than use the acronym “LOST,” for Local Option Sales Tax, proponents call it “LIFT,” short for Local Investments for Transformation. Mysteriously, the word “tax” has vanished. Anytime a politician gives a bill an Orwellian name to disguise its true purpose (as in “Affordable Care Act”), taxpayers should hide their wallets.

This is an additional tax, plain and simple, on top of the existing 6 percent sales tax.

It might make sense as part of comprehensive tax reform, in which property or state income taxes are reduced as an offset. That is not the case. Indeed, implementation of LIFT may make tax reform less likely. When Louisville needs money from Frankfort, say to build a bridge or pave state roads, LIFT gives Frankfort pols an out; they can respond, “if Louisville thinks the project is so important, increase your sales tax.”

Louisville already sends far more money to Frankfort than we receive back here. LIFT could exacerbate that.

LIFT is touted as a way to build transformational projects — really cool things for which the state or federal government won’t pay (and that arguably aren’t the business of government). Despite those well-meaning and ambitious intentions, LIFT could instead be used to fund the most mundane things that we expect covered by our income and property taxes — particularly if Frankfort gives us no choice. For example, cities, like Lincoln, Neb., seek LOST taxes for mundane projects like street and sidewalk repair. So much for transformational.

LIFT is promoted as adding just 1 penny on the dollar; we’ll hardly notice it. That supposed virtue is actually the problem. Any mechanism that makes it easier and less noticeable for the government to tax us ultimately will lead to more and higher taxes. Withholding of payroll taxes demonstrates that citizens can be conditioned into paying taxes on a regular basis, including tax hikes. In any event, the fact that LIFT initially would be limited to a 1-cent increase does not ensure that it will stay at that level forever, as other states have seen.

LIFT’s biggest cheerleader, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, likes to point out that 37 other states allow their municipalities to hike their sales taxes for local projects. With lemming-like logic, Fischer argues that because other states and many of Louisville’s peer cities have such taxes, Louisville must follow suit or be left behind. That assumes Louisville’s shortcomings stem from a failure of government to tax us enough.

LIFT’s decentralization — another of its supposed virtues —adds complexity that will burden businesses operating in multiple Kentucky communities, as they navigate multiple and inconsistent local sales taxes. Indeed, Louisville, with its smaller cities, might have sales taxes that vary by neighborhood. Or consumers can save the sales tax by buying online. That would hurt local retailers.

Part of the seduction of LIFT is that it sunsets when the special project is paid for. Citizens in Henry County, Ga., however, have seen that when one special project ends, another is already on the ballot. It therefore becomes a permanent tax in search of a purpose.

Moreover, some states have multiple forms of local option sales taxes, often used simultaneously. Iowa, for example has “SILO” (school infrastructure local option) in addition to its local option sales tax. That is deeply concerning given the regressive nature of sales taxes: the poor feel them disproportionately. LIFT only partly addresses the regressiveness by exempting food, medicine and utilities.

The Washington Post notes that three of the Republican candidates for governor oppose LIFT. Only Will T. Scott said he supports it, albeit with this warning: “We’re spending more money in government this year than any year since you were born. They need more money for what? They got more this year than they’ve ever had and they want more?” Scott said, “So you have to be really, really careful with this. . . . There is a danger to the people.”

Republican Senate President Robert Stivers calls LIFT “democracy in its purest form.” Stivers’ premise is incorrect. Taxation does not metamorphose simply because it occurs at the local level. It is still the government taking our money. This is not “democracy in its purest form” because voters have no option to reduce taxes.

Bridget Bush is a Louisville attorney and founder of the Elephants in the Bluegrass blog.

Poll results in GOP primary for Governor

By Lowell Reese
Kentucky Roll Call
Jan. 29, 2015

Remington Research Group, a Kansas City, Missouri political polling firm, released this morning the results of a poll it conducted January 27-28 of the candidates for governor in the Kentucky in the GOP primary election. Remington is a rather new polling firm. It has been in the field in two election cycles, about a year and half. It does national polling in Republican races, and is not affiliated with any candidate, Titus Bond of the firm told us.

Here are the results of Remington’s survey of 1066 registered Republicans who are “likely” to vote in the May 19 GOP primary. The margin of error is ± 2.98%.

Q: The candidates in the Republican primary election for Governor are James Comer, Matt Bevin, Hal Heiner and Will T. Scott. If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?

James Comer    22%
Matt Bevin       19%
Hal Heiner       18%
Will T. Scott      5%
Undecided       35%

Q: What is your opinion of James Comer?

Favorable        31%
Unfavorable      9%
No opinion      60%

Q: What is your opinion of Matt Bevin?

Favorable        30%
Unfavorable    17%
No opinion      52%

Q: What is your opinion of Hal Heiner?

Favorable        33%
Unfavorable    10%
No opinion      58%

Q: What is your opinion of Will T. Scott?

Favorable        12%
Unfavorable    11%
No opinion      77%

The poll was conducted by automated phone calls. The calls began at 7:00 pm Tuesday, after the filing deadline, and continued Wednesday afternoon and evening. Respondents were screened to determine their likelihood to vote in the primary and 35 percent were rejected on that basis.

A combination of the favorable and unfavorable numbers is an approximation of the candidate’s name ID. 

Information about Remington Research Group is at www.remingtonresearchgroup.com

Why Kentucky's a red state and Grimes can't win

(This story ran Oct. 31, 2014 in Kentucky Roll Call.)

Lightning strikes! But it is unlikely that Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democrats’ nominee, can oust Sen. Mitch McConnell on Tuesday. The race for the US Senate is a federal race where philosophy is foremost and people still don’t know what Grimes stands for. Voters are wondering if she has a philosophical rudder. If so, what does she believe?  What are her inner-soul values?

Candidates in Kentucky can hide their deepest beliefs and still win — if they’re running for magistrate and not a federal office. Grimes has raised a lot of money, but has not spent it wisely; her strategy appears to have been to conduct the race like she’s running for a local or state office.

She’s not the first secretary of state to make that blunder. In 2010, then-Secretary of State Trey Grayson ignored the distinction with embarrassing results. In the Republican primary that year, in the open seat for the US Senate, vacated by Jim Bunning, Grayson lost to Rand Paul in a landslide — 58.8 percent to 35.4 percent — because, after serving six years as secretary of state, and throughout his campaign for the Senate, voters never quite knew what Grayson stood for.

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), one of America’s most famous journalists of the last century, noted that the nation’s Capitol “represents more closely [than state and local elections] the inner soul of people.” Mencken recognized seemingly that everyone must have something to live for (faith, hope, purpose) as well as something to live on (food, shelter, clothing), and in the realm of government, citizens will always try to send to Washington those who represent their “inner soul.”

That standard doesn’t apply to candidates running for mayor in a small, rural Kentucky town. Those are races that can be won by promising to keep the weeds cut along the road coming into town. 

But farther up the political ladder one climbs, winning depends on philosophy in proportion to the height of the office. On the state level, philosophy first comes into play in General Assembly races. It increases to maybe 50 percent in a governor’s race — the other half is rudderless (pleasing the courthouse crowd, redistributing wealth from the state treasury, playing raw and subtle politics).

Going higher still to the office of president, and in races for the US Senate and House, elections become intensely philosophical, as much as 80 percent or even 90 percent, would be my guess. Kentucky is not a red state in federal elections because Republicans are lucky, are better looking, more intelligent or raise more money than the Democrats. Republican are winning federal races because their beliefs are better aligned with what the voters’ value in themselves.

This alignment matters more in choosing who we send
to Washington, because Washington is where the action is. The issues and subjects that define us as individuals are debated in Washington — not so much at the state and local levels: Examples are the debates over the boundary lines of free enterprise, fairness, religion, guns, gender issues, abortion and limits on how bad government can get.  

Who thinks like you do? That is the question that turns federal elections. Former Congressman Larry Hopkins, R-Lexington, recognized that fact in winning his first term in 1978. The slogan on his billboards was, “He Thinks Like Us.” And he went on to serve seven terms.

Power of beliefs

Beliefs are extremely important; they are the protector of every society, and as American writer and poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972) put it, “Belief is even stronger than the struggle to survive.” Think of the jihadists but also of American soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for our country. 

Grimes picked wrong strategy

Elections are complicated endeavors, and multiple factors make a winning campaign. However, all of the components put together won’t work successfully in a federal election without the voters’ perception that a candidate’s inner self is aligned with theirs.

The voters in Kentucky don’t sufficiently know what Alison Lundergan Grimes stands for. She has made a name for herself. But her strategy for winning has been wrong. Consequently, though she has raised a lot of money, she hasn’t spent it wisely. Saying you’ll fight for women, that you’re in favor of jobs and raising the minimum wage, while complaining that your opponent has served too long in Washington — that’s not revealing your own inner self; that’s hiding it.

Staking out a position on a few selected legislative issues doesn’t disclose the character and values embedded in a candidate’s inner self. But it’s a nice illusion. — by Lowell Reese

David Williams expected to win judgeship race

(This story ran in Kentucky Roll Call, Oct. 31, 2014) 

Former Senate President David L. Williams was appointed to the bench two years ago by Gov. Steve Beshear, to fill an unexpired term of the late Circuit Judge Eddie Lovelace, of Albany. Williams is running for election to a full eight-year term against retired District Judge Steve Hurt, of Burkesville, Williams’ hometown. In fact, Williams and Hurt were classmates in high school, graduating the same year.

This is a “fairly heated” race and Judge Williams is expected to win. The jurisdiction contains Clinton, Cumberland and Monroe counties. The judicial community in the district (attorneys and court staff), if conventional wisdom is gauging it right, is rallying behind Williams.

Williams, 61, has run for seven different offices throughout his rather short public career — county judge-executive, commonwealth attorney, state House and Senate, US Senate and governor — and this will be his first race to win, other than both chambers of the General Assembly. A source said Williams is strong in Clinton County and “that should clinch it” for him. 

High school classmates aside, this is not a friendly race. Williams is hitting Hurt hard in ads on double-dipping: Hurt retired from the bench to take senior judge status, which enhanced his pension by hundreds of thousands of dollars (the average is about $1 million) by enriching the formula used to calculate judicial pensions.

Williams is making an issue, however, not on the size of Hurt’s pension but on the fact he’s trying to come out of retirement for a government pay check on top of his pension. Hurt is not firing back that Williams will get an enhanced legislative pension based on his pay as a judge. 

Hurt is mad at Williams over a bill in the legislature that died when Williams was president of the Senate. The bill would have extended the Senior Judge Status program, but it died in the House, in effect, sunseting the program — but not before Hurt boarded that gravy train. 

Actually, the House Democratic caucus killed the bill; it wasn’t Williams who did it. But apparently Hurt thinks Williams didn’t try hard enough to save it, and, seemingly, he is holding a grudge against Williams over it. Some local folks are calling this a race for “judge” and a race for “grudge.” 

Yes, there is a place named Cloverlick

The Courier-Journal, in a story online today, reports that, "The campaigns of Alison Lundergan Grimes and Sen. Mitch McConnell are now involved in a social media skirmish about whether or not there really is a place in Harlan County called "Cloverlick," a place mentioned in Grimes's newest ad."
Cloverlick, Ky. is identified in the ad as the hometown of retired coal miner Don Disney, who appears in the ad hitting McConnell on the issue of Medicare. 

Josh Holmes has tweeted that "Reality Check had been unable to find a town named Cloverlick, Ky." Further, a national Republican PAC called America Rising tweeted, "Kentucky Senate Ad Claims Man Is From A Make-Believe Town."

Holmes and America Rising need to back away from that spin posthaste — there is a community in Harlan County called "Cloverlick Junction," which the locals refer to as the "Cloverlick" area. 

See my Kentucky Atlas, a book of place names in Kentucky, at www.kentuckyrollcallbooks.com. 

Below is the comment I posted on the Courier website about today’s story. 

"Joe [Gerth], you mentioned in your story that Cloverlick is not listed in the Kentucky Atlas, my book of place names in KY. The Atlas does contain "Cloverlick Junction" in Harlan County, apparently the home of the Mr. Disney in Grimes' ad. His daughter refers to her Dad’s home place, in her comment posted below, as "the Cloverlick area." Also, you say that neither the KY Atlas or Mr. Rennick's Kentucky Place Names book contain a listing of the "Germantown" neighborhood in Jefferson County, not far from where you grew up. The KY Atlas does not list neighborhoods or creeks; it lists only cities, towns and places with actual names, including wide spots in the road ... 6,500 of them. Members of the media and political campaigns ought to have a copy of the KY Atlas in their library. Check it out: www.kentuckyrollcallbooks.com."

Judge-executive job would spike pension

Two members of the state legislature — Sen. Walter Blevins and Rep. Bob Damron — are on the ballot May 20, running for county judge-executive, Blevins in Rowan County and Damron in Jessamine County. The annual salary of the judge-executive in Rowan County is $86,695, and in Jessamine County it’s $98,255.

Blevins and Damron can use their judge-executive salary, instead of their legislative salary, in the formula to calculate their legislative pension, courtesy of a change in the pension law in 2005 (HB 299) — which Blevins voted for, and Damron voted against. If Blevins is elected judge-executive, and serves at least three years in office, it will more than double his legislative pension from $41,019 a year to $86,695, an estimated lifetime gain of $734,449.

 Blevins’ pension as a legislator, a part-time job, will be 100% of his pay, because he has enough years of service (32 at the end of this year) and a service credit rating of 3.5%. He “maxed out,” reached the 100% threshold, on July 31, 2008, at which time he was automatically enrolled in the state employees’ pension plan (KERS), starting a second legislative pension. Under the 2005 amendment, Blevins can replace his legislative pay with the judge-executive pay in the 3-factor formula used to calculate his legislative pension.

 If Damron is elected judge-executive his legislative pension would increase from $30,735 a year to $59,444, an estimated lifetime gain of $545,197. Damron has one opponent in the Democratic primary, Blevins has five. Former Senate President John “Eck” Rose favors one of Blevins’ opponent in a letter to the Morehead News. 

— Editor's Note: This story was published May 12, 2014 in Kentucky Roll Call. 

Who decides what news is?

I tweeted recently about a Lexington TV station’s airing of a story about a UK fan who tattooed Willie Cauley-Stein’s face on his leg (fulfilling a promise that he would do that if Cauley-Stein committed to play at UK next year, which he did). I said the story had “No news value, promotes primitive behavior.”

On reflection, that a major news outlet would devote substantial airtime – not a snippet – to such triviality and promote the permanent disfigurement of young people is a good segue to larger question: Who decides what’s news? 

A few years ago, I had the honor as then-publisher of The Kentucky Gazette to serve on a three-member panel with the editorial page editors of The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader to discuss the role of the media in making public policy.

The panel was part of a two-day retreat for governmental affairs managers and lobbyists at Lake Cumberland State Park near Jamestown, sponsored by Kentucky Forward, then an affiliate of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

The panel discussed whether the media is the Fourth Branch of government? Should members of the media be required to register as lobbyists? And should the media interfere with the news or simply reflect it?

I expressed my view that the most noble purpose of a newspaper is to report the news, not create it; as it is the most noble purpose of government to advance the standard of living of its citizens, not redistribute their earnings.

Well, that was not the way The Courier-Journal’s liberal editor, David Hawpe, saw the world. He told the audience that his paper was proudly a player in the political process, bent on shaping the direction of the state. Not just reflecting the news, creating it. Hawpe said he believed “the purpose of government is to redistribute the wealth.”

Hawpe is an honorable person, whom I have always respected, because he is sincere and consistent in his principles. As editor, he was not content with telling the news, he wanted to tell it and fix it all at once. His vision was as crooked as a pig’s tail.

He told the audience something even more astonishing, an extension of the media wanting to shape the news. He said (I paraphrase), “Nothing is news until his newspaper (or others in the media) decide it’s news!”

And that takes us back to the UK fan given his “15 minutes of fame” by the TV station for disfiguring himself with a large tattoo of a basketball player on his leg: Someone at the station made a decision on what news is.

Woe, the power of the press! — Lowell Reese

Twenty years after the Republican Revolution

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” aka The Republican Revolution, and also the emergence of a competitive two-party system in Kentucky politics.

Between 1994-2014, the evolution of the Republican Party in Kentucky at the state and federal levels has been nothing less than dramatic. In 1994, western Kentucky, the so-called Rock of Gibraltar in political circles because it was the state’s largest enclave of Democrats, fell to Republicans in congressional races, producing U.S. Reps. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, and Ron Lewis, R-Cecilia. Those CDs have stayed R, and the Rock of Gibraltar moved to Jefferson County.

Kentucky’s U.S. House delegation flipped in 1994. That year it went from 4-2 Democratic to 4-2 Republican. Today it is 5-1 Republican. The U.S. Senate was 1-1 in 1994, with Democrat Wendell Ford and Republican Mitch McConnell, and now both seats are red.

While the fall of western Kentucky to Republicans in the 1994 federal elections was the most telling that Kentucky might be emerging as a competitive two-party state, the competitiveness was also starting to show up in the state Senate.

Going into the 1994 elections, the Democrats ruled the state Senate 25-13. That year, the Republicans picked up four seats, reducing the Democrats’ margin to 21-17. In the 2000 session, Republicans took control of the Senate for the first time in the state’s history and now dominate the upper chamber 23-14, with one Independent who caucuses with the Republicans. The past twenty years have brought a virtual flip of the Senate, and that has produced a dynamic shift in the political apparatus and power structure in Frankfort.

A similar trend, apparently stemming also from the 1994 period, has been evolving in the state House of Representatives. For the first time in more than 90 years, the Republicans in 2014 have an even chance to capture control of the House. The makeup now is 54-46, advantage Democrats. Going into the 1994 elections, the Democrats ruled the state House 72-28. That year, the Republicans picked up nine seats, reducing the Democrats’ margin to 63-37.

Voter registration is another indicator of the political evolution in Kentucky during the past twenty years. During the twenty-year period, the number of registered Democrats statewide grew from 1,401,893 to 1,667,605, an increase of 19.1 percent; and the number of registered Republicans statewide grew from 635,531 to 1,187,553, an increase of 86.9 percent.  

Said another way, the Democrats’ advantage in voter registration over the Republicans from 1994 to 2014 slipped from 2.2:1 to 1.4:1.

Not ‘Slick Willie,’ it’s ‘Sick Willie’

Note: The following is an editorial I wrote for The Kentucky Gazette. It ran in that paper on Jan. 27, 1998. — Lowell Reese 

Not ‘Slick Willie,’ it’s ‘Sick Willie’ 

It is awful tempting to bash Bill Clinton: because he’s a despicable draft-dodger, a crude and lascivious womanizer, the king of double talk and (after not inhaling and Gennifer Flowers) a confirmed habitual liar. One helluva role model for the children of America. It’s just as tempting to blame the American people for electing a soap-opera president ... albeit under 50 percent both times. 

The fact is, we tend to vote for and then defend those who think like us.

But now is not a time to ridicule this president; the man is sick. How else can you explain why he would subject his wife and daughter to repeated public humiliation; hired help being just the most recent in a string of paramours — followed by a pattern of lies and disrespect for the laws of the land and the family life of the nation. 

The commander-in-chief’s latest romance-novel escapade may lead to proceedings of impeachment. Here we have the president of the United States of America, after a reported affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, allegedly encouraging her to lie about their relationship under oath during a deposition involving sexual harassment charges against him by Paula Jones, who claims that Clinton exposed himself in an Arkansas hotel room.

Nonetheless, a majority of the American people — until now at least — have admired Clinton, rationalizing his faults. It’s common to hear that “his personal life is a private matter.” Well, his private life if not the main point. William Jefferson Clinton is the leader of the free world, commander-in-chief of the nation’s Armed Forces (which has had its share of sex scandals recently), and above all: he’s a role model for the youth of America. 

One of the most powerful forces in the whole animal kingdom is emulation. Mankind is no exception. It is said that the nightingale cannot perform unless it first hears a few notes from another nightingale. Bill Clinton sings the nightingale’s song of America, and it’s not pretty. He’s one sick bird. 

The message this president sends, by example, to the children of America is: lying to people can be an alternative way to get through life; deceit and double-talk are manipulative skills to be nurtured; both moral and man-made laws are for timid souls; and Abe Lincoln was a stooge — honesty isn’t the best policy.

Sometimes it takes awhile for vindication to work; it took more than five years for Gennifer Flowers; it may take another year or two for those of us who served in Vietnam. But I still have faith — however tested at times — that deep down the early American values that made this nation great will endure. I’m betting on the iron laws of nature; that truth in the long-term prevails. Always. This nation was founded on truth, not lies; on duty, not draft-dodging; and on honesty; not double-speak. Let the proceedings begin. — Lowell Reese, publisher

Oh! Kentucky Tea Party folks nix outside guru

The following press release came in e-mail this afternoon from Scott Hofstra, spokesman for The United Kentucky Tea Party. — Lowell Reese

Earlier this week, the Huffington Post published an article in which they erroneously quoted Mr. Greg Fettig as a leader of "The Unbridled Liberty Tour" in Kentucky. In order to correct the erroneous information published by the Huffington post, we need to make you aware that The United Kentucky Tea Party owns and operates "The Unbridled Liberty Tour.”

Mr. Fettig was consulted on strategy due to his successful efforts in Indiana.  He is not a leader or organizer of the Unbridled Liberty Tour and he will not be participating in organizing the grassroots efforts in Kentucky.

Please direct all further inquiries to Scott Hofstra, the Spokesman of The United Kentucky Tea Party. #

Pension crisis not "resolved"

The cost of public employee pensions is smothering out essential government services, especially funds for education. Consequently, a substantial tax increase is necessary — and it’s coming.

Attached is a copy of my op-ed on the pension issue, which ran Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014, in The Courier-Journal. 

____________________________________________

Op-ed

Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014
 The Courier-Journal 

Written by Lowell Reese

Special to The Courier-Journal

The pension crisis will only persist

Benefit creep, lack of transparency hurt KY

The six state-operated pension systems for Kentucky’s public employees had unfunded liabilities of $33.7 billion last year. New figures that will be available in the next few weeks are expected to show the red ink is rising. A recent actuarial report reveals that the Kentucky Employees Retirement System has only 23.2 percent of the funds needed to cover its pension liabilities. Red lights flash when the funding level dips below 60 percent. 

The financial straits of KERS, unfortunately, are similar to Illinois’ pension system; they’re the worst in the nation. So, the Kentucky General Assembly’s first priority is to keep KERS afloat, and secondly to pay down the massive debt in all the systems. This is important because pensions are promises made to public servants that must — and will be — paid, and also because funding for education and essential government services is being diverted to pay for pensions.

Between 2008-2014, base state funding for K-12 education is down 1 percent, and the funding for higher education is down 14 percent, while funding for public pensions is up 63.5 percent. As educators beg the General Assembly to restore their funding, the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System announced it will ask legislators for an additional $800 million in the next two-year budget, and the pension reform bill (Senate Bill 2) enacted earlier this year calls for about $450 million more during the biennium from the General Fund and other employer funds. 

Pensions are dipping into the budget of the commonwealth as never before. Pensions are crowding out education. They are crowding out infrastructure. They are crowding out programs that affect the lives of all Kentuckians. 

The pension reform bill was promoted as a measure to solve the pension crisis. But it was purposely limited to doing what was politically “feasible.” Which meant, no heavy lifting, and don’t mention expenditures, or what caused the crisis. The primary cause, benefit creep, was off limits because it's the other third rail in politics, and, in part, because it would draw attention to the legislators’ role in creating the crisis. 

The reform goes in effect Jan. 1, 2014. But it affects only new hires and excludes teachers. In time, we shall see how it works. What we do know now, however, is that the contribution rate for state agencies and non-government entities, like Seven Counties Services, will increase from 26.79 percent of payroll to 38.77 percent next year — a spike of 44 percent. The rates are projected to stay slightly above that level (rising to 40.1 percent) for at least the next 20 years. What business in the private sector can survive paying 40 percent of payroll for pensions?

So the reform will make things worse over the next four years, then savings kick in. Actuarially, proponents are quick to say, the reform will save $10 billion over two decades. But there are a couple a major problems: the projections are based on no changes in the actuarial assumptions, and zero benefit improvements for state employees for 20 years — which defies logic. 

Given the nature of politicians and the culture in which they operate in Frankfort, a culture of double and triple government pensions, benefit enhancements are bound to continue. The reform does nothing to prevent benefit creep, nor was it designed to. Each new benefit will reduce the savings, and that is the fallacy of SB 2. 

Of all the public pensions systems in Frankfort, the richest is the legislators’. In 2005, they sneaked through a bill (HB 299) to greatly enhance their pensions in a variety of ways. The most offensive of which, they can now switch salaries in the pension formula and calculate their legislative pensions using their salary in a full-time government job before or after leaving the legislature. As a result, a growing number of former legislators are, or will, draw a legislative pension exceeding $100,000 a year — for doing a part-time job. One former House member has a legislative pension of at least $168,686 a year by using his salary as a vice president of a regional university to calculate his legislative pension. It’s called reciprocity. 

Politicians created the pension crisis and only they can fix it, which, of course, they’re not likely to do without transparency. Kentucky’s pension records are not subject to the open records law. They are shrouded in secrecy.

Lowell Reese is editor and publisher of Kentucky Roll Call, a political newsletter in Frankfort. See www.kentuckyrollcallbooks.com.