Here's what area newspaper editorials have to say about the upcoming election:

 

For Beshear Fletcher has lost the public trust

The governor simply cannot wash away the mud from an administration that vowed to "clean up the mess" in Frankfort and instead created one of its own in a merit system hiring scandal and ensuing indictments that cannot be effectively dismissed as a "political witch hunt."

Democrat Steve Beshear, a former lieutenant governor and attorney general from nearby Dawson Springs, deserves the opportunity to provide the leadership to confront the many issues facing Kentucky -- and there are many. Among them: Education, economic development, health care and the dangerously underfunded state and local government pension systems.

No one can be certain that either candidate has a workable plan to deal forcefully with any or all of those issues, especially since we have not seen in clear detail proposed sources of funding.

However, Beshear is at least willing to entrust Kentucky voters to decide a constitutional amendment that would allow casino gambling and, if approved, bring to the state coffers hundreds of millions of dollars annually to underpin Beshear's proposals.

The governor, who has banked his campaign on appealing to his conservative base, is ignoring the wishes of many of those same conservatives who, according to statewide polling, oppose gambling per se, yet believe the issue should be settled in the polling place.

No one, including Fletcher, can deny that millions upon millions of Kentuckians' gaming dollars are underwriting government programs in other nearby states and funding attractive thoroughbred racing purses that are undercutting Kentucky's signature industry.

As election day approaches, Fletcher continues to swim upstream against a strong public current of dissatisfaction that washes over any legitimate achievements he has made. That judgment is made while recognizing, and applauding, his intervention in support of a twin bridges traffic pattern that alleviated local/area concerns during the current bridge work.

In judging Fletcher's administration as a whole, however, we're convinced that Beshear is more deserving of the opportunity to lead Kentucky over the next four years.

____________________________________________________________________-

The Louisville 

Says:

Time for a change: Beshear for governor

If Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration has truly made the achievements he claims in a belated television spot, they don't appear to be arousing Kentucky voters.

There's a reason for that: A loss of trust among most Kentuckians and a corresponding lack of confidence in Fletcher's brand of leadership.

The governor simply cannot wash away the mud from an administration that vowed to "clean up the mess" in Frankfort and instead created one of its own in a merit system hiring scandal and ensuing indictments that cannot be effectively dismissed as a "political witch hunt."

Democrat Steve Beshear, a former lieutenant governor and attorney general from nearby Dawson Springs, deserves the opportunity to provide the leadership to confront the many issues facing Kentucky -- and there are many. Among them: Education, economic development, health care and the dangerously underfunded state and local government pension systems.

No one can be certain that either candidate has a workable plan to deal forcefully with any or all of those issues, especially since we have not seen in clear detail proposed sources of funding.

However, Beshear is at least willing to entrust Kentucky voters to decide a constitutional amendment that would allow casino gambling and, if approved, bring to the state coffers hundreds of millions of dollars annually to underpin Beshear's proposals.

The governor, who has banked his campaign on appealing to his conservative base, is ignoring the wishes of many of those same conservatives who, according to statewide polling, oppose gambling per se, yet believe the issue should be settled in the polling place.

No one, including Fletcher, can deny that millions upon millions of Kentuckians' gaming dollars are underwriting government programs in other nearby states and funding attractive thoroughbred racing purses that are undercutting Kentucky's signature industry.

As election day approaches, Fletcher continues to swim upstream against a strong public current of dissatisfaction that washes over any legitimate achievements he has made. That judgment is made while recognizing, and applauding, his intervention in support of a twin bridges traffic pattern that alleviated local/area concerns during the current bridge work.

In judging Fletcher's administration as a whole, however, we're convinced that Beshear is more deserving of the opportunity to lead Kentucky over the next four years.

_______________________________________________________________________-

The Elizabethtown



Oct. 28 editorial: Leading Kentucky
For most of this year Ernie Fletcher, the state’s first Republican governor in 32 years, has been running for re-election to a second term campaigning more like a challenger than an incumbent, an outsider trying to win the key to the governor’s mansion in Frankfort.

The incumbent’s job performance is always the issue in an election campaign, but Fletcher has committed considerable energy and resources to convince voters that the real issue in this watershed political confrontation is his opponent, Democrat Steve Beshear, a Lexington lawyer, former state representative and attorney general.

After four years in office, there is plenty the governor could have talked about, possibly to more positive effect. Modernizing the state’s taxation system, for one. The increase in state spending on education, for another; road construction and repair; improvements in Medicaid; the federal-state health-care program for the low-income; and others.

All that, however, has been overshadowed by the indictment of more than two dozen Fletcher administration members accused of providing preference to fellow Republicans in filling protected state jobs. It wasn’t so much the political favoritism that has dogged the

administration, but the governor’s handling of the investigation, the misuse of the powers of office and the finger pointing.

Running far behind Beshear largely because of the hiring scandal, his job approval rating low, Fletcher chose the high-risk option of attack. He tried to make expanded gambling the issue. But that will not be a real issue until at least Nov. 8, 2008, and then only if two-thirds of the members of the General Assembly agree to submit a constitutional amendment to a statewide vote to allow casino gambling.

Fletcher tried to make the legal work by Beshear’s former law firm in the liquidation of the bankrupt Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co. an issue. But even retired Jefferson County Circuit Judge Richard Revell, who reviewed the case, called it a “dead issue, meaningless” as a campaign allegation.

The governor is spending the closing days of the campaign working to energize his conservative political base focusing on social issues that are not on next year’s legislative agenda and are beyond the control of a state’s governor.

With nine short days remaining before voters decide who will be their next governor, the issue remains as always: the incumbent’s performance in the office. If the governor’s job approval rating and standing in the polls are any indication, he has been unable to shake the stigma of the political hiring scandal that has dogged his administration.

Both Fletcher and Beshear have records of public service. Both want to enhance economic development to provide more better-paying jobs, improve education at all levels, pay teachers better, relieve the impact of college tuition costs, raise the state’s standing in many competitive categories and provide better,

affordable health care to children and seniors. Whoever is elected surely will be challenged by tightening state revenues to try pay for all their campaign promises.

The big difference: Ernie Fletcher is the only candidate who has had 28 staff members indicted by a grand jury of ordinary citizens. He is the only candidate who has used his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer the questions of those citizens on the grounds the answers somehow could get him in trouble. He is the only candidate who pardoned indicted and unindicted members of his administration.

Ernie Fletcher is the only one of the two candidates for governor who signed an agreement to free himself of the charges from an investigation he now tells people was a witch hunt. The agreement said “the evidence strongly indicates wrongdoing by his administration with regard to personnel actions within the merit system. …” and that the investigation “benefited the commonwealth and ensured that abuses of the state’s merit system will be eliminated.”

Ernie Fletcher campaigned four years ago promising to clean up the streets of Frankfort. His election was a lifetime opportunity to strengthen the two-party political system in Kentucky. Instead, he has jeopardized not only his place in history, but also the political futures of promising young leaders of his

party. He lost the support of his lieutenant governor and was challenged in a divisive

primary election.

Gov. Fletcher and his running mate Robbie Rudolph would have to continue to spend considerable energy and resources to escape the dark cloud of political scandal that surely would follow them if they are given another four years in Frankfort. Kentucky cannot afford that; the commonwealth needs leadership to unite Republicans, Democrats and independents to face the serious challenges ahead.

The News-Enterprise editorial board recommends that Steve Beshear and his running mate Daniel Mongiardo are in a better position than Ernie Fletcher and Robbie Rudolph to unite the state to take on those challenges and finish the job of cleaning up Frankfort.

---