As the confetti dropped and candidate Steve Beshear took the stage as Governor-Elect on Nov. 6 in Frankfort, his staff looked relieved, relieved to get the draining final days of a campaign behind them. Situations such as these call for a week or two away from work resting, but unfortunately for the staff of any newly elected governoróand perhaps for the commonwealth as a wholeóKentucky's constitution provides no rest for the weary.
According to the state constitution, five weeks following Election Day is the governor's inauguration. Other 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 even gets to have a seat.
Daniel Groves, who served as 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 weeksÖbut you do it. You've just got to get it done.
There are the obvious tasks such as naming cabinet secretaries and filling in a governor's main support staff