I admit that I am a skunk at any garden party, but I thought I would write about what Kentucky Governor Elect Andy Beshear’s plans are for when he takes office next week. Beshear has a short list of executive orders that he will issue to undo some of the damage inflicted upon Kentuckians by the superodious DEFEATED Republican Governor Matt Bevin. Translation: elections have consequences, and this time they are good news.
Apparent Kentucky Gov.-elect Andy Beshear pledged Wednesday to immediately rescind the state’s Medicaid work requirement, a controversial measure backed by the Trump administration that requires people to have work or job training to gain coverage.
In week one, the administration will rescind the measure, “saving health care for 95,000 Kentuckians,” Beshear said at a press conference Wednesday, following his apparent victory late Tuesday against Republican Matt Bevin in the state’s election for governor.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 27% of people in Kentucky are insured through Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor. Bevin’s administration forecast that 95,000 of the 400,000 Kentuckians on Medicaid would lose coverage if the requirement were implemented.
Arkansas did this same damn thing, and 18,000 people lost their Medicaid coverage. This is what Republicans want. No money spent on those “other people.” Note: I’m a white guy who at one time got on Medicaid because my shitty employer — tutoring company — didn’t give me enough hours or pay and no benefits. I’m overly educated to boot. But I’m on of those terrible people who “wants free stuff.”
With no more obstacles standing between Beshear and the governor’s mansion, Beshear’s promise to immediately restore voting rights to those with felony convictions for non-violent offenses could spell big trouble for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) 2020 reelection hopes.
When Beshear declared victory in the gubernatorial race more than a week ago, he said one of his first acts as governor would be to sign an executive order expanding the right to vote more than 140,000 people with non-violent felony convictions, people are currently disenfranchised by state law. Kentucky and Iowa are the only two states with lifetime bans precluding persons convicted of felonies from voting while only Maine and Vermont have no voting restrictions for ex-convicts
Under Beshear’s proposed executive order, the racial makeup of Kentucky’s electorate would see drastic changes, as state law currently bars approximately 26-percent of all black adults, compared to just eight-percent of the rest of the population, according to a report from The Appeal. Beshear’s father, Steve Beshear, who preceded Bevin as the state’s governor, signed an executive order restoring the franchise to ex-felons in 2015. The order was one of the elder Beshear’s last official acts in office. Bevin overturned the order.
Despite traditionally low turnouts, a newly-minted bloc of voters could still have a significant impact on Kentucky’s 2020 Senate election. According to studies in other states that restored voting rights, black voters within the ex-felon population “overwhelmingly register with the Democratic Party” at a rate of approximately 87 percent.
This will not make McConnell happy. The good news for McConnell is that the SOS of Kentucky is one of his creatures, so I expect Republican mischief at the voting booths next year.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Gov.-elect Andy Beshear is poised to become the first Kentucky governor since the passage of a landmark education reform law in 1990 to completely overhaul the state’s education board by executive order, a move he has pledged to make on the first day of his administration.
Such a sweeping reorganization could ultimately wind up in court if disputed by any of the 11 current voting board members appointed by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.
Beshear, as attorney general, sued Bevin over his 2017 reorganizations of education-related boards, but the Kentucky Supreme Court sided with Bevin in a unanimous decision. That ruling, Beshear has said, gives him authority to reconstitute the state board once he takes office Dec. 10.
Therefore, I don’t see those on the Kentucky Board of Education being able to sue Beshear on this issue not after the Kentucky Supreme Court let Bevin do what he wanted with placing his cronies on the board. And I do mean cronies. The Bevin constituted Kentucky Board of Education got rid of the Education Commissioner and replaced him with Wayne Lewis. Mr. Lewis is an charter school advocate, and he played enforcer for Governor Matt Bevin with his political vendetta against teachers who took a sickout over his attempts to screw teachers on their pensions.
And Beshear has let it be known that he hopes the newly reorganized Board of Education will FIRE Lewis.
Sometimes, good things happen with elections of Democrats. Go figure.