Tag Archives: #AndyBeshear

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Will Governor Andy Beshear break the law to try to steal a Senate seat?

Following Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) freeze-up, there has been speculation that the 81-year-old lawmaker would be unable to serve out his full term, which expires on January 3, 2027. That begs the question: if Mr McConnell resigns or dies before his term is up, who would get the Senate seat?

In 2021, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky passed KRS §63.200, specifying the procedures under which the seat would be filled:

  • (1) (a) The Governor shall fill vacancies in the office of United States Senator by appointment and the appointee shall serve until a successor has been elected and qualified under subsection (2), (3), (4), or (5) of this section.
  • (b) The appointee shall be selected from a list of three (3) names submitted by the state executive committee of the same political party as the Senator who held the vacant seat to be filled, shall have been continuously registered as a member of that political party since December 31 of the preceding year, and shall be named within twenty-one (21) days from the date of the list submission
  • (c) In the event the vacant seat was held by a person who was not a member of any political party as defined under KRS 118.015, the Governor shall appoint any qualified voter who is not a member of any political party as defined under KRS 118.015.
  • (d) Upon appointment, the Governor shall, under the seal of the Commonwealth, certify the appointment to the President of the Senate of the United States. The certificate of appointment shall be countersigned by the Secretary of State.

But now state Democrats are musing that Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) might not follow the law! From what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal:

Ky. Dems predict challenge to Senate replacement law amid focus on McConnell’s health

by Austin Horn | Thursday, July 27, 2023 | 3:18 PM EDT | Updated: 10:35 PM EDT

Questions about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s health were renewed following a widely publicized freeze up on camera Wednesday. The event also re-ignited discussion about the 2021 Kentucky state law he pushed for ensuring that, should he vacate his seat, it would remain in Republican hands.

But Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear may not follow that law.

Governor Beshear vetoed that bill after it passed, but the state legislature overrode the veto, 29-8 in the state Senate, and 70-24 in the state House of Representatives.

“I would imagine you would absolutely see a lawsuit on this,” Michael Abate, a Louisville attorney who’s worked for the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP) in the past, said.

That law, passed by the GOP-led legislature in 2021’s Senate Bill 228, dictates that the governor select a replacement for any U.S. Senator vacating the office from a list of three provided by the state executive committee of the vacating senator’s party. Both of Kentucky’s U.S. senators are Republicans, including Rand Paul whose term is set to expire in 2028 and McConnell who’s term runs out in 2026.

Actually those are the election years for those seats; the terms actually expire on January 3rd of the following year. The reporter’s phraseology was sloppy.

Mitch McConnell’s election history, from Wikipedia. Click to enlarge.

While a bit slower than other Southern states, Kentucky has moved to become solidly Republican. Despite being outspent by Amy McGrath Henderson $90.1 million to just a hair under $60 million, Mr McConnell defeated Mrs Henderson by a landslide margin.

Kentucky’s other Senator, Rand Paul, has been elected by landslide margins in all three of his Senate campaigns, including in 2010, which was supposed to be a tight contest. It’s very clear: Kentucky’s voters have chosen Republicans, not Democrats, to represent them in the United States Congress. The Democrats simply want to undermine the will of the voters.

Abate said Beshear would likely push back against the law in one of two ways: ignore the law and appoint the replacement himself or sue against the law.

Either way would deny the Bluegrass State half of its representation in the United States Senate for some time. If Mr Beshear appointed someone not on that list, doubtlessly a Democrat, the Republican Party would immediately file a lawsuit; since the Secretary of State is required to countersign the certification, under KRS §63.200(1)(d), and Republican Michael Adams currently holds that office, Mr Adams could delay his signature long enough for the lawsuit to be filed. If Mr Beshear filed suit himself to challenge the law, he would not be able to appoint anyone to the seat while the lawsuit was in court, and if he tried, the appointment would be held up.

If he took the second option, he would doubtlessly file it in Franklin Circuit Court, for his toady judge, Phil Shepherd, a highly partisan Democrat. We have previously reported on Judge Shepherd’s partisanship.

KRS §63.200(2) specifies that, “If a vacancy occurs more than three (3) months before the election in any year in which any regular election is held in this state,” the seat will come up for a special election to fill it for the remainder of the term. Section 3 specifies that if such vacancy occurs less than three months before a regularly scheduled election, the Governor may appoint a Senator who would serve until the next regularly scheduled election.

President Trump carried every county except two, out of 120, in 2020, and Mr McConnell every county except three. Senator Paul carried every county except three, the same three — Jefferson, Fayette, and Franklin — in 2022. With the Democrats only real strength being in Louisville, five of the Commonwealth’s six congressmen are Republicans, and with the GOP having an 80-19, with one previously Democratic vacancy, margin in the state House, and 31-7 in the state Senate, there’s no question for whom Kentucky voters have chose. But Governor Beshear has never actually cared about the will of the people.

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Governor Andy Beshear hurts the poor in Kentucky

Steve Beshear, the former Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, has a guesstimated net worth of $1.5 million. Mr Beshear spent almost his entire adult life in politics, and:

is an American attorney and politician who served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 to 1980, was the state’s 44th attorney general from 1980 to 1983, and was the 49th lieutenant governor from 1983 to 1987.

He ‘suffered’ through an interregnum when he finished third in the Democratic primary for Governor, and he spent twenty years practicing law with Lexington’s prestigious firm of Stites and Harbison. Briefly put, Mr Beshear led a reasonably privileged lifestyle in the Bluegrass State’s second largest city.

The former Governor’s son, Andy Beshear, wound up leading a similarly privileged lifestyle, able to attend Vanderbilt University, the only private school in the Southeastern Conference, current estimated cost of attendance $80,546 per academic year, and then the University of Virginia School of Law, current estimated cost of attendance for out-of-state students $91,704 per academic year.

In 2005, he was also hired by Stites and Harbison. No ambulance-chasing for the younger Me Beshear.

The younger Mr Beshear was elected state Attorney General in 2015, and subsequently Governor in 2019.

When the COVID-19 pandemic, or panicdemic as I sometimes call it, arose in early 2020, Governor Beshear issued draconian executive orders which shut down much of the ‘non-essential’ businesses in the Bluegrass State. Fifteen days to flatten the infection curve, we were told!

View from Natural Bridge, October 23, 2021. Photo by Dana R Pico. Click to enlarge.

Fast forward to this autumn. The Pico family visited Natural Bridge State Park on Saturday, October 23rd. It wasn’t a long visit, in that we didn’t have much time, so we took the skylift to the top of the bridge, from which I took the photograph.[1]Photos copyright by Dana R Pico. May be freely used with proper attribution.

When one of my Twitter friends replied, “I am surprised more leaves haven’t turned yet!” I resolved to return in two weeks to repeat the photo. So, we returned on Sunday, November 7th, and I got the photo, which will appear further down.

We had more time on Sunday, so while we took the skylift up, we decided to hike down Balanced Rock Trail, which ends not at the bottom of the skylift, but at Hemlock Lodge, the park’s hotel, gift shop and dining room facility.

Signs on the doors to Hemlock Lodge. Photo by Dana R Pico. Click to enlarge.

And Hemlock Lodge is where we found these signs on the doors, requiring masks for entry. Well, we didn’t have masks with us, and entered anyway, quickly discovering that the signs were mostly honored in the breach by park visitors, though employees did wear the infernal things.

What we also found was that the once-thriving restaurant was closed to dining! There were two ladies working therein, who would get carry-out orders. I asked them why the place was closed, and was told that the facility had been shut down due to COVID-19, and that was in March of 2020. Most of the staff had been laid off, and now, twenty months later, they still were not back.

Natural Bridge State Park is located in the Red River Gorge geological area, and straddles Powell and Wolfe counties in Kentucky. These are two very poor counties:

  • Powell County: The median income for a household in the county was $25,515, and the median income for a family was $30,483. Males had a median income of $26,962 versus $18,810 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,060. About 18.90% of families and 23.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.00% of those under age 18 and 20.00% of those age 65 or over.
  • Wolfe County: The median income for a household in the county was $19,310, and the median income for a family was $23,333. Males had a median income of $23,859 versus $18,952 for females. The per capita income for the county was $10,321. About 29.90% of families and 35.90% of the population were below the poverty line, including 50.20% of those under age 18 and 26.70% of those age 65 or over.

As much as people hear about jobs going begging for people, much of that is in suburban and urban areas; rural eastern Kentucky is not like that. When Governor Beshear — a Democrat, of course — shut down so much of the state parks, he put people out of work that had fewer prospects for finding something else.

View from Natural Bridge, November 7, 2021. Photo by Dana R Pico. Click to enlarge.

For restaurant workers? There’s Miguel’s Pizza, right across State Route 11 from the entrance to the state park, but it offers lower wages and doesn’t have state employee benefits. Governor Beshear, reared in wealthier Lexington, the scion of a prominent family, doesn’t really understand what he has done to rural Kentuckians, or, if he does understand, he doesn’t really care.

This has been the problem with the Patricians all along: they are so wrapped up in their own little worlds that they have lost any concept of what it is like for the plebeians. For the well-to-do, well, heck, two weeks to flatten the curve was nothing, they could handle it!

But for the working class, two weeks without their jobs isn’t nothing; it’s two weeks without bills getting paid. Governor Beshear doesn’t understand that, and doesn’t want to understand that.

References

References
↑1 Photos copyright by Dana R Pico. May be freely used with proper attribution.
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Faked concern from Andy Beshear

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) has been very, very, very concerned over the health of Kentuckians, and, of course, distraught that the voters of the Commonwealth elected a General Assembly which promised to, and did, rein in his oh-so-nobly intended executive actions.

So, when the Governor tweeted,[1]The image to the right is a screenshot of the tweet, which you can enlarge by clicking on it. The hyperlink to the original is embedded in the word “tweeted”. “Listen, even if you disagree with me – even if you’ve stood outside my house or this Capitol and yelled about me – I care about you. I care about you and your families and I want you to be safe. These vaccines are safe. Please, go out and get yours,” everybody just knew that it was a deeply heartfelt and personal message, right?

Except, of course, if you had actually paid attention to our Governor’s tweets. The image to the left is from the Governor’s Twitter masthead, and notice: it states that, “Tweets from Andy are signed ^AB.”

The Governor’s oh-so-caring tweet was not signed ^AB, which means that it was written by one of his minions, not the Governor. https://i0.wp.com/www.thepiratescove.us/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_yahoo.gif?w=612&ssl=1

Of course, we all knew that politicians’ Twitter accounts are frequently handled by their subordinates, but when I see something like, “even if you’ve stood outside my house or this Capitol and yelled about me,” I know that it is meant to be personalized, and to fool those who aren’t really paying attention.

Protesters hanged Governor Andy Beshear in effigy, May 24, 2020.

The meaning behind it? On May 20, 2020, a rally in the state capital, Frankfort, included the hanging of the Governor in effigy. The Governor was hardly so charitable at the time:

    Beshear on effigy: ‘I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down’

    Sarah Ladd | Louisville Courier Journal | May 26, 2020 | 5:37 PM EDT | Updated: May 27, 2020 | 11:23 AM EDT

    A defiant Gov. Andy Beshear on Tuesday called the group of people that hanged him in effigy outside the Kentucky Capitol on Sunday a “mob” that carried out “a celebration of assassination on our Capitol grounds.”

    “I will not be afraid. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down,” Beshear said of the group who also brought a demand for his resignation to his doorstep.

    The demonstration followed a Second Amendment rally on Sunday that drew more than 100 people to Frankfort.

    Republican and Democrat leaders alike were quick to condemn the effigy, which bore a sign that said “sic semper tyrannis,” which means “thus always to tyrants” and is believed to have been shouted by John Wilkes Booth following his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.

Further down:

    Chanting “on the other side of the glass from where I raise my kids” was “an action intended to use fear to get their way,” Beshear said.

    And he called out politicians who at a May 2 rally encouraged people to remove masks, saying they were partly responsible for heated tensions. “You cannot fan the flames and then condemn the fire,” he said.

    “Standing in front of a radical militia group, these elected officials claimed that people including me aren’t Christian, and even told them that people wanted babies to be murdered,” Beshear said. “What do you think was gonna happen after throwing out those type of claims to this group? Shouldn’t they have known what was going to happen?”

Of course, Governor Beshear does want babies to be murdered, having tried to loosen restrictions on abortion clinics and deciding, in his ’emergency’ decrees of March, 2020, that abortion clinics were ‘essential businesses’ which could remain open, but that churches had to be closed. Remember: the Governor sent the Kentucky State Police to record license plate and vehicle identification numbers of cars in church parking lots on Easter Sunday!

Hanging, or burning, in effigy of political figures has a long history: George W Bush, Barack Obama, and even George Washington, have been hanged in effigy as parts of political protests. That Mr Beshear got his panties in a wad over it does not bother me in the slightest; it actually amuses me.

So no, I don’t believe that the Governor’s (purported) tweet of yesterday afternoon expressed a serious concern on his part.

Fortunately, while it took far, far, far too long, the General Assembly did rein in the Governor’s ’emergency’ authority, frustrating the actions he’d like to take. That is a very good thing.

References

References
↑1 The image to the right is a screenshot of the tweet, which you can enlarge by clicking on it. The hyperlink to the original is embedded in the word “tweeted”.
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Andy Beshear is displeased that the state legislature refused to do his bidding, but it’s his own fault

Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

As I said, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) regrets having called the General Assembly into special session, but he has no one to blame but himself. On July 10, 2020, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that Mr Beshear stated he wouldn’t involve the legislature because he believed that they wouldn’t do his bidding.

    Beshear was asked at Friday’s news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

The Governor refused to call a special session of the legislature during 2020. Republican candidates for the legislature ran against the Governor and his edicts, and the voters rewarded them with 14 additional seats in the state House of Representatives, and two in the state Senate.

Then, as promised, the huge Republican majorities enacted several new laws, over the Governor’s vetoes, restricting his ’emergency’ authority under KRS 39A. So, what did Mr Beshear do then? He went to Democrat sycophant Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd, and got the Judge to enjoin enforcement of House Bill 1, Senate Bill 1, Senate Bill 2, and House Joint Resolution 77.

Can anyone be surprised that the General Assembly is not well disposed to the Governor, and not exactly inclined to do his bidding?

    Beshear rebukes Kentucky legislature for preventing him from issuing a mask mandate

    By Jack Brammer | Updated: September 10, 2021 | 3:23 PM EDT

    A frustrated Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear chided the Republican-led state legislature Friday for getting rid of the state’s mask mandate for public schools and banning any type of statewide mask mandate.

    The legislature’s decision on the mask issues was “wrong” and puts him in a position of trying to fight the alarming spread of the coronavirus pandemic “with one hand tied behind my back,” said the Democratic governor.

    If he had the authority, Beshear said, he would immediately implement a masking mandate for indoor settings and hopes more businesses would impose mask mandates. He also said he encourages school districts to “do the right thing” and require universal masking in schools. Local school officials will have the option of what to do about students wearing masks.

Well, that’s just it: Kentuckians voted for Republicans in last November’s elections because they were fed up with the Governor’s executive orders, and the mask mandate was probably the one which rankled them the most. When Mr Beshear said that if he had the authority he would immediately implement as mask mandate, he was stating the very reason that Republicans enjoy a 75-25 majority in the state House and a 30-8 majority in the state Senate.

    The governor used football analogies to describe the situation, saying for 18 months he has been able “to quarterback Kentucky through this pandemic. I have made the tough calls, sometimes the unpopular calls and I have taken the hits that go along with them.”

Well, that’s just it: a quarterback is only 1/11 of the offense, and without the other ten men on the field, even Tom Brady couldn’t do anything. Governor Beshear thought he could play the game by himself, and leave the other ten players on the sidelines.

Heck, not even on the sidelines, but locked outside of the locker room.

Would the General Assembly have been more willing to play ball with the Governor, if he hadn’t insulted them at every turn, if he hadn’t tried to keep them off the field? Well, who can say, given that he didn’t try it? But instead of trying to put together five offensive linemen, three receivers and two running backs, the Governor created four angry defensive linemen, three mean linebackers, and four fast and hungry defensive backs. So, he got chased back into his own end zone, and sacked for a safety.

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Yup, Andy Beshear regrets having to call a special session of the General Assembly! The state representatives and senators did the will of the people who voted for them

I asked yesterday if Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) would regret calling a special session of the General Assembly to deal with his COVID-19 programs now that the state Supreme Court has ruled that the injunctions against the General Assembly’s restrictions on his authority had to be dismissed. The Governor got the extension of his state of emergency order for which he asked, but the mask mandate he wanted, and said he would impose if he could? Not just no, but Hell no!

    KY lawmakers override Beshear’s vetoes and end all statewide mask mandates

    By Jack Brammer and Alex Acquisto | Updated: September 10, 2021 | 12:17 AM EDT

    The Republican-led Kentucky General Assembly soundly rejected Gov. Andy Beshear’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic late Thursday night, overriding his vetoes of two bills that stripped the Democratic governor’s ability to issue statewide mask mandates in schools or anywhere else.

    The action came as lawmakers ended a special session of the General Assembly just before midnight. The session, called by the governor to comply with a Kentucky Supreme Court decision last month that said the legislature must approve the governor’s emergency orders, began Tuesday.

    Both the Senate and House late Thursday overrode Beshear’s vetoes of Senate Bills 1 and 2, which he had issued shortly after the bills were initially approved by lawmakers. Senate Bill 1 would nullify emergency regulations mandating masks at public schools and daycare centers, leaving that decision to local officials and business owners. Senate Bill 2 bans any type of statewide mask mandate until June 2023.

    Beshear has said he needs that authority to fight the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of more than 7,800 Kentuckians and is leaving hospitals severely strapped for staff and resources.

The Senate overrode SB1 21-6, and SB2 23-5. The House overrode the veto of SB1 69-24 and SB2 69-22. The reason that Republicans have such huge majorities in the General Assembly was the Governor’s mask mandates in 2020, when 100 state House and 19 state Senate seats were up for election.

The bills outlaw statewide mask mandates by the state government, but do not prohibit local school boards or districts from imposing their own mandates within their jurisdictions. Mr Beshear had asked local school boards to impose such policies, but most declined to do so, so he got angry and made it an order.

The Governor rescinded his mask order following the state Supreme Court ruling, but by then had persuaded the state Board of Education to issue such an order lasting through the entire school year. The Governor needed his emergency declaration extended — it would otherwise have expired today — but by calling the special session, he lost the state Board of Education’s mask mandate. Whether the state Board’s order was covered by the Kentucky Supreme Court’s August 10 decision is legally up in the air, but it would at least have lasted longer if it had to be adjudicated; now, it’s history, or at least it will be in five days, to give local Boards of Education time to meet and take their own decisions. It is expected that at least the large districts in Fayette and Jefferson counties will impose their own mask mandates, but smaller districts in more rural counties might not. In the Bluegrass State, local Boards of Education are elected, and the Board members must be responsive to the wishes of the voters.

Parents can, of course, tell their children to wear masks even if the local school district does not.

It’s amusing to see the reader comments on the Lexington Herald-Leader article cited above, all claiming that the General Assembly was gambling with the lives of students, but the facts are plain: the members were doing the will of the voters who elected them.

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Will Andy Beshear regret calling a special session?

As we have previously noted, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) really, really doesn’t like the state legislature, but he didn’t have much choice but to call a special session of the General Assembly. Getting the General Assembly involved is something the Governor very much did not want to do. On July 10, 2020, Mr Beshear stated that he wouldn’t involve the legislature because he believed that they wouldn’t do his bidding.

    Beshear was asked at Friday’s news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

In the Bluegrass State, the legislature’s regular sessions are restricted by the state constitution, to sixty days, the last of which cannot go beyond April 15th in even numbered years, and thirty days, not to run beyond March 30th, in odd numbered years. The Governor, however, can call the legislature into special session, and he has the power to set its agenda during a special session. The General Assembly cannot call itself back into session outside of the constitutional restrictions.

But, with the COVID-19 state of emergency that the Governor declared in March of 2020 set to expire on Friday, September 10th, thanks to the state Supreme Court’s decision on the laws reining in the Governor’s emergency authority, Mr Beshear needed the special session to extend that. The General Assembly voted for an extension of that until January 15th, at which time the legislature will be in its regular session.

However, the Republican-controlled legislature hasn’t been doing much that the Governor wanted. We had previously noted that the Governor had asked school districts to put mask mandates in place, but most districts made them optional. The Governor then got pissed off, and made it an order.

    Bill ditching KY school mask mandate approved by House committee on the second try

    By Valarie Honeycutt Spears | Updated September 8, 2021 | 7:15 PM EDT

    It took two attempts, but the House Education Committee on Wednesday passed a bill that would eliminate the state’s mask mandate in K-12 schools and specifies when districts could close to in-person learning.

    The House Education Committee first met at noon Wednesday, when House Bill 1 failed because it only got 11 of the 12 yes votes it needed to win approval in the committee of 22. There were seven no votes and three pass votes.

    Later, a second meeting of the House Education Committee was called for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. At that meeting, the committee quickly reconsidered and approved the bill. It now moves to the full House of Representatives, and similar legislation remains alive in the Senate. The second vote was 16 yes votes, 2 no votes and no passes. . . . .

    At the second meeting, several lawmakers said they were changing their vote so that the legislation could be heard in the full House. Others said they were afraid if the bill died, schools would miss out on the help the legislation could provide. One provision makes it easier for retired teachers to return to the classroom to ease staff shortages.

There’s more at the original.

The Governor had already said that he would reimpose his despised statewide mask mandate if he could, and when the state Supreme Court ruled that his authority had been limited, he ran an end-around, to get the state Board of Education to issue one, a mandate lasting for the entire school year. I had been noting for awhile that the Governor was looking for an excuse to reimpose the mask mandate, and he admitted it, stating that the high number of COVID-19 cases and hospital staffing shortages would have spurred him to enact a statewide mask mandate for indoor settings.

However, under the proposed bill, local school boards and districts would still have the authority to issue mask mandates for their jurisdictions.

The truth is simple: it was the hated statewide indoor mask mandate which was the primary impetus for voters in the Commonwealth to give Republican legislative candidates such huge majorities in the 2020 elections.

The bill also includes language to allow schools more flexibility on ‘non traditional instruction’, NTI, days. In the regular session last winter, the legislature, fighting the closure of schools and long term use of remote instruction, mandated that no schools could take more than ten NTI days without having to make them up in in-person days. As several districts, at least 38 of them so far, have had to close down due to COVID, those days, normally used for snow days during the winter, would quickly get used up. The legislature is still looking at limits, but with more flexibility for schools who confine NTI to those students or classes which must be quarantined, rather than entire school systems. We do not yet know what the final form will be.

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Andy Beshear hates the state legislature, but he had no choice but to call them in

Most of my articles on Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) are primarily sourced from the Lexington Herald-Leader, but he wrangled an invitation from NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, and came to the attention of The New York Times:

    Kentucky governor says the state’s Covid surge is ‘dire.’

    by Melina Delkic | September 5, 2021

    Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY)

    Kentucky’s Democratic governor on Sunday described the state’s surge of Covid cases as “dire,” and pointed out that Republican state lawmakers had limited his options to control the record wave of infections there.

    “If I had the ability to do it right now, we would have a masking order when you are in public and indoors,” said Gov. Andy Beshear, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” news program. “We know that’s a proven way to slow the spread of the virus and ultimately help our health care capacity.”

Right: if the Governor had the authority to issue a statewide mask mandate, he would have done so, and that is precisely why the voters of the Commonwealth gave Republican state legislative candidates such a huge margin in last November’s elections, because Mr Beshear had issued a statewide mask mandate last year.

Getting the General Assembly involved is something the Governor very much did not want to do. On July 10, 2020, Mr Beshear stated that he wouldn’t involve the legislature because he believed that they wouldn’t do his bidding.

    Beshear was asked at Friday’s news conference on COVID-19 why he has not included the legislature in coming up with his orders. He said many state lawmakers refuse to wear masks and noted that 26 legislators in Mississippi have tested positive for the virus.

And, as it happens, Kentucky’s legislators are not wearing masks today, as the special session opens:

    Kentucky special session on COVID-19 starts with many lawmakers not wearing masks

    By Jack Brammer | Updated: September 7, 2021 | 5:12 PM EDT

    With most members not wearing masks, a special session of the Kentucky General Assembly started Tuesday morning to deal with the state’s surging COVID-19 pandemic.

    Lawmakers acted quickly on Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s call to extend the COVID-19 state of emergency that has been in place in Kentucky since March 2020 and more time for a state of emergency to deal with August flooding in Nicholas County. House Joint Resolution 1, which extends the states of emergency and many of the governor’s emergency orders, was expected to clear the legislature before the end of the day.

    House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, gaveled his chamber into session at 10:13 a.m. and 94 of the 100 members responded to the roll call and heard the proclamation of the special session. Thirty-four members of the 38-member Senate convened at 12:16 p.m. with most members going without a mask. The two physicians in the Senate — Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, and Karen Berg, D-Louisville — wore masks.

    Lawmakers returned to the state Capitol in Frankfort at the call of Beshear, who has presented them with an agenda to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 7,900 lives in Kentucky.

    The Democratic governor made the session call Saturday, two weeks after the Kentucky Supreme Court said his emergency orders dealing with the pandemic needed approval by the Republican-led legislature.

As far as I have heard, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has not yet lifted his injunctions against the legislation that the state Supreme Court ordered him to do, and the parties to the lawsuit were supposed to appear before the judge today, but I have been unable to find any reports concerning that. Nevertheless, Governor Beshear at least appears to be acting as though those injunctions have been lifted.

The legislature quickly approved the Governor’s request to extend the state of emergency until January 15th, the state House of Representatives voting 92-3 in favor, and the state Senate 32-4, sending it to Mr Beshear for his signature.

By extending the state of emergency until January 15th, when the General Assembly will be in its regular session, the Governor would have the power to issue a statewide mask mandate, lasting for thirty days, but the General Assembly might just deny him that one:

    Bill ditching mask mandates for KY schools and daycare centers gains momentum

    By Valarie Honeycutt Spears | Updated: September 7, 2021 | 4:32 PM EDT

    Hours after the Kentucky General Assembly began a special session Tuesday to deal with COVID-19 policies, the Senate Education Committee approved a bill that rejects the Beshear Administration’s emergency regulations requiring universal masking of people age two or older in K-12 schools and daycare centers.

    Senate Bill 1 declares the regulations requiring masks in schools and daycare centers null and void.

    The bill, approved by the committee with a 8-5 vote, now goes to the full Senate. Lawmakers who voted no voiced concerns about lifting the mask mandates at a time when transmission of COVID-19 and resulting hospitalizations are at an all-time high in Kentucky.

    Education Committee Chairman Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, said individual school boards will be free to decide their own policies about masking in schools.

    Wise said the bill would become law as soon as Gov. Andy Beshear signs it or the legislature overrides his veto, given that it is considered emergency legislation.

We had previously noted that the Governor had asked school districts to put mask mandates in place, but most districts made them optional. The Governor then got pissed off, and made it an order.

There’s more at the original, much of it devoted to the legislature’s plans to ease the restrictions on ‘non-traditional instruction,’ meaning those days in which school is conducted remotely. The legislature wants to keep schools from closing down for everybody because some students or staffers test positive for COVID-19.

Those were the two things which rankled the legislators, and Kentuckians in general, the most: the mask mandate and the schools being closed, and those are the two things the General Assembly appears to be most eager to prevent from happening again. Of course, it’s going to take a few days to see how this will play out, and what the legislature passes. But at least a wannabe dictator of a Governor has been reined in by the democratically elected General Assembly and the Kentucky Supreme Court.

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Remember: you cannot trust Democratic governors. The left say they are for democracy, right up until the will of the voters goes against them

I lived in the Keystone State for fifteen years before moving back to Kentucky for my retirement, and I can assure you that I did not vote for Governor Tom Wolf (D-PA)!

    Gov. Tom Wolf will require masks in Pa. schools, sources say

    The governor could outline the proposed requirement at a 2 p.m. news conference about coronavirus measures in schools.

    by Justine McDaniel, Erin McCarthy, Andrew Seidman, and Maddie Hanna | Tuesday, August 31, 2021 | 2:11 PM EDT

    Masks will be required in all Pennsylvania schools, Gov. Tom Wolf said Tuesday, announcing a mandate days after the Republican-led legislature rejected his call to pass one via legislation.

    Aiming to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the order issued by the Department of Health requires face coverings indoors in all K-12 schools, both public and private, and licensed child care centers beginning next Tuesday.

    The mandate is a reversal for the Wolf administration, which had previously said it would leave decisions about how to reopen up to individual districts. In announcing the decision in a statement, the governor cited misinformation about mask-wearing that he said was “pressuring and intimidating school districts to reject mask policies.”

    It comes as many are already back in session, some with masks required and some without, and the rest are poised to start within days. Certain districts have already spent months battling over the mask question, which has stirred heated conflict among some parents.

There’s more at the original. But the issue is pretty simple: the people have rejected the mask mandates, but the Governor wants it, and he is going to use every means at his disposal to overrule the will of the public.

In May, Pennsylvania voters approved two constitutional amendments:

    The first proposed constitutional amendment will make it so that the state’s General Assembly could terminate or extend a disaster declaration at any time without approval from the governor. The Pennsylvania Constitution will have to be amended so that the disaster declaration power will be shared by the governor and the General Assembly.

    Previously, only the governor could declare the end of a disaster. According to state law, the General Assembly has the option to pass a resolution that would terminate the declaration, but the governor can still veto. If the assembly could gather support with a two-thirds majority, they could overturn the governor’s veto.

    This exact scenario played out last summer over the COVID-19 pandemic disaster declaration, when the state Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature could not overturn the governor’s declaration without his ability to then veto it.

    The second question proposed that the time limit on a disaster declaration be shortened from 90 days to 21 days unless the General Assembly votes to extend it.

As we have noted previously, Governor Wolf was very upset that local school boards, people elected by the voters, were choosing a different course than the one he favored.

    The Wolf administration implemented a school mask mandate last year without legislation, as it also did for a statewide masking requirement. But with this year’s reopening helmed by districts, Wolf said earlier this month that he would not mandate masks. The new mandate would be done under authority of the state’s disease control and prevention law, said one source.

In other words, the Governor believes he has found a legal loophole to get around what the state legislature and a majority of the voters wanted to do: restrict his executive authority to issue restrictions.

The people of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have spoken, but that doesn’t matter to petty dictators like Tom Wolf.

And in the Bluegrass State, Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY) hopes to impose some restrictions himself, though the decision of the state Supreme Court requires that he work with the General Assembly this time:

    Beshear plans to call special law-making session soon to fight COVID-19

    By Jack Brammer | August 30, 2021 | 6:05 PM EDT

    Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday his goal is to call state lawmakers into a special session as soon as legislative leaders and he reach “a general consensus” on what steps to take to fight the raging coronavirus pandemic.

    He said it needs to happen soon but did not mention a specific date. Only the governor can call a special law-making session and set its agenda

    The Democratic governor and Republican legislative leaders are in negotiations over what actions should be taken to fight COVID-19, which Beshear said continues to hit the state “harder and harder.” He said a record 2,198 Kentuckians are now in the hospital with the virus, with a record 615 in intensive care units and a record 384 on ventilators. . . . .

    Asked about a rumor that he plans to call a special session to begin next week, Beshear said a session is needed to keep in effect the state of emergency for the pandemic he declared in March 2020.

    He said he will be pushing “for some other things.”

    He noted that schools that are shutting down now because of the virus need more flexibility on having non-traditional instruction days when students can do online work from home.

    The state education commissioner now can waive up to 10 so-called NTI days to count towards student attendance days in the school districts’ calendars.

    “I’m going to seek all the tools I can,” said Beshear. “I’m not going to hold off on calling a special session if I don’t get all of them.”

Some things actually make sense, such as allowing an exception to the NTI limit. Since the regular session of the legislature is just three months away, a special session could authorize some gubernatorial actions for up to 120 days, and then the regular session would take them up if the Governor wanted to continue them.

But one action the legislature will never approve is the odious mask mandate. If there was any one thing that the Governor forced last year that pushed the voters toward the tremendous surge for the GOP, it was the hated mask mandate. The Governor has already said that he would impose it again, if he could.

Technically, he could again . . . for thirty days. If he does, I will not comply, and I would guess that a bunch of other Kentuckians wouldn’t either.

Nevertheless, there’s a danger. As we have previously noted, despite being ordered to do so by the state Supreme Court, Phillip Shepherd, the Governor’s toady judge has not yet lifted him injunctions, and has ordered the Governor and Attorney General to present their arguments to him, on September 7th, on the Governor’s lawsuit seeking to have several of the restrictions placed on him by the General Assembly declared unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court left him very little room to do so, but Judge Shepherd makes up things as he goes along, and appears to be inclined, personally, to take Mr Beshear’s side on everything.

It really doesn’t matter whether you think mask or vaccine mandates are a wise idea; what ought to matter is that the voters have rejected politicians who have tried to impose authoritarian restrictions and regulations on a free people.

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Impeach Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd!

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd. Photo: Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts.

I wrote Impeach Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd! back on March 3, after he issued his illegal and unconstitutional injunctions against laws passed by the General Assembly, and it appears I was right. It took way, way, way too long for the state Supreme Court to rule that the injunctions should not have been issued, and order the injunctions dissolved:

    We find that this matter presents a justiciable case or controversy but that the Franklin Circuit Court abused its discretion in issuing the temporary injunction.[1]Cameron v Beshear, Section B, pages 13 forward. Accordingly, we remand this case to the trial court with instructions to dissolve the injunction.[2]Cameron v Beshear, page 2.

Now, five days later, we find that Judge Shepherd is not going to follow the instructions to dissolve the injunctions!

    KY judge delays following Supreme Court COVID order as Beshear & lawmakers negotiate

    By Jack Brammer | August 26, 2021 11:57 AM

    Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and legislative leaders are working together on a new set of COVID-19 emergency orders, which they hope to present to a Franklin Circuit Court judge before he dissolves an injunction against new laws that will torpedo Beshear’s existing emergency orders and regulations.

    At a status conference hearing Thursday morning, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said he will follow the Kentucky Supreme Court’s instructions in a ruling last Saturday for him to dissolve the injunction but he will wait until the court hears more about the work between the Democratic governor and the Republican legislative leaders.

    The high court unanimously said the injunction was wrong and that the new laws limiting Beshear’s emergency powers during the coronavirus crisis should not have been blocked. A provision in one of the new laws would limit Beshear’s executive orders to 30 days unless renewed by the legislature.

Just where in the Court’s ruling does it give Judge Shepherd the discretion as to when to dissolve the injunctions?

    Beshear has said he would like to implement a statewide mask mandate, but lawmakers have shown little interest in that suggestion.

Of course they haven’t: getting rid of the mask mandate was what the voters elected the legislators to do!

    David Fleenor, counsel for Senate President Robert Stivers, told Shepherd he did not know exactly when the negotiations between the governor and lawmakers would be completed but said he expects it to be in days, not weeks, quickly adding, “I hope I’m not being overly optimistic.”

The Court specified that the General Assembly makes policy for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, not the Governor,[3]Cameron v Beshear, page 20: “As we have noted time and again, so many times that we need not provide citation, the General Assembly establishes the public policy of the Commonwealth.” yet somehow Judge Shepherd believes he has the authority to hold off on following the Supreme Court’s instructions to dissolve the injunction until he hears more about what, if any, negotiations are ongoing between the Governor and legislative leaders.

That was not part of the Court’s ruling.

Judge Shepherd has told the parties to report back to him on Tuesday, September 7th, 12 days from now, and 17 days since the Supreme Court issued its ruling. Judge Shepherd, who had already suspended the laws which the state Supreme Court noted were passed legally, for 171 days, now thinks he can add another 17 days on top of that. That would be one day short of 27 weeks, more than half a year.

The state House of Representatives needs to impeach this judge when the regular session begins next January, and the state Senate needs to remove him from office and attaint him from ever holding another office in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The state Court of Appeals needs to overrule him and dissolve the injunctions, if the Supreme Court doesn’t beat them to it; I would expect Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R-KY) to immediately appeal Judge Shepherd’s refusal to dissolve the injunctions, and move that he be removed from the case.

References

References
↑1 Cameron v Beshear, Section B, pages 13 forward.
↑2 Cameron v Beshear, page 2.
↑3 Cameron v Beshear, page 20: “As we have noted time and again, so many times that we need not provide citation, the General Assembly establishes the public policy of the Commonwealth.”