In a forum that promotes non-partisan discussion of the issues, the issue was partisanship.
At its semi-annual breakfast meeting at Keeneland, the Lexington Forum heard from Gov. Steve Beshear that partisan bickering gummed up the works yet again during a Frankfort legislative session.
"The first problem I faced (after taking office) was a financial crisis. The second problem I faced was a dysfunctional legislative process. And don't underestimate that folks," Beshear said. "For the last six years, we have in the legislature involved ourselves inÖ very rank partisanship, the squabbling, the bickering and most of the time has been spent on that kind of thing as opposed to being spent on moving this commonwealth forward."
Beshear spoke to the Forum the morning after the legislature delivered a compromised budget to his office. Calling the budget "painful," Beshear said political divisions that have permeated Washington in the past decade-and-a-half have filtered down to the states, hitting Kentucky especially hard since the Senate went Republican earlier in the decade.
"I hope that we will be able to convince the leadership in the House and the Senate, whatever party may be in that role after the elections are over with, that its time to put (partisanship) on the backburner until the next election," the governor said in response to a question from a Forum member.
"It is going to take awhile for them to come back together and to learn how to work together with a governor in order to move this state forward in a bipartisan fashion," the governor said.
This was Beshear's first session as governor though he has served in the House, as attorney general and lieutenant governor, ceremonially presiding over the Senate in the latter role. The 2008 session was marred almost as much by infighting within houses and parties as it was marked by battles between opposing chamber leadership. At one point Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley (D-Richmond) remarked to reporters he had an easier time working with Senate Republicans than House members of his own party.
Beshear told the Forum he spent some time finding ways to accomplish goals by circumventing the legislative process and the roadblocks encountered when initiatives are left to the general assembly.
Beshear rerouted unspent state park money earmarked for capital improvements at other parks to the Kentucky Horse Park to fund the construction of a new stadium and an addition of exhibit space to the indoor horse arena that is already under construction. "I'm finding that I need to be looking for (things that can be accomplished outside of the legislative process) from time to time," Beshear said.
The governor also changed executive branch ethic rules and restored voting rights for some felons by executive order to avoid sending the measures through the legislative process. "In our legislative process we are constantly faced with the kind of rank partisanship that is detrimental to getting things done in the commonwealth," the governor said.
After his comments to the Forum and a question and answer session where he assured those in attendance that the follies of the session did not make him regret running for governor, Beshear told reporters Kentucky's system of government was fine, it is the people in the system that are causing the problems.
"The problem is not in the structure, the problem is in the rank partisanship that has developed over the last few years and that needs to be tempered and the legislature needs to work together in a more bipartisan fashion and I'm hoping that over the long haul we'll be able to make that happen," he said.
Both the House and Senate will elect leadership at the start of the 2009 session, and indications point to the possibility of new leadership in at least one of the two chambers.
The Lexington Forum will meet again on Thursday May, 1 at the Campbell House. The topic of discussion will be the federal elections and the upcoming May 20th primary. The panel will include Scott Jennings, a former advisor to President George W. Bush; and Ryan Alessi, political writer for the Herald Leader. A third panelist had not confirmed at press time.