As the confetti dropped and candidate Steve Beshear took the stage as governor-elect on Nov. 6 in Frankfort, his staff looked relieved to get the draining final days of a campaign behind them. Situations such as these call for a week or two resting away from work, but unfortunately for the staff of any newly elected governor ó and perhaps for the commonwealth as a whole ó Kentucky's constitution provides no rest for the weary.
According to the state constitution, five weeks following Election Day is the governor's inauguration, while the constitutional officers aren't sworn into office until January. A lot more is jammed into those five weeks than just who sits where in the office; first a governor's transition team must be formed to decide who gets to even have a seat.
Daniel Groves, who served as outgoing Gov. Ernie Fletcher's chief of staff during the 2003 transition and first year in office, said the tight timeframe between election and inauguration "is a pretty arduous task to try to undertake this kind of transition in five weeks. It was particularly difficult for us as the first Republican administration in 32 years to undertake a five-week transition period, but you do it; you've just got to get it done.
"Once the votes are counted, the very next day that task suddenly sort of weighs much, much heavier on your shoulders," Groves said. "It is a very tough process and a very short time frame to get it all done.
There are the obvious tasks