Go ahead and call it wishful thinking, or whistling past the graveyard, on the part of this union card-carrying lifelong Kentuckian whose politics are left of liberal.

But I’m not the only one who sees a potential Fletcher Factor in Matt Bevin’s election as Kentucky’s governor. Okay, it seems like everybody else who sees it too it is a Democrat who, like me, voted for Attorney Gen. Jack Conway, our party’s candidate.

“Ernie Fletcher and his posse rode into Frankfort determined to flatten the place, and the natives rose up and brought him down,” the no-holds-barred, liberal Blue in the Bluegrass blogsite recalled. “It’s Bevin’s turn now.”

Still, I’m wondering if at least some establishment Republicans are a tad worried that the tea party-tilting, uber-conservative Bevin could be the sequel to One Term Ern.

Fletcher won the governorship in 2003 on an anti-government and anti-union platform. He catered to Christian conservatives and emphasized hot-button social issues. Bevin’s campaign looked like a carbon copy of Fletcher’s.



I’m wondering if at least some establishment Republicans are a tad worried that the tea party-tilting, uber-conservative Bevin could be the sequel to One Term Ern.

Like almost all true believers—left-wing and right—Fletcher and Bevin have big egos. Fletcher’s vanity led him into a hiring scandal that resulted in some administration officials getting indicted. Fletcher’s fate was disgrace and defeat in 2007.

Anyway, in his election night victory address to the faithful, Bevin urged everybody to work together, regardless of party. That’s what every winner says in every election, even a dog catcher-elect.

Before he ended his speech, Bevin ditched the kumbaya stuff, obviously self-serving as it was. He led the flock in chanting “Flip the house! Flip the House!,” a call to wrest the legislature’s lower chamber from the Democrats next November.

I doubt Bevin’s fans need worry that their guy has gone soft on the Democrats.

By working together, Bevin meant the Democrats need to hoist the white flag, come out with their hands up and get on board with his radical right-wing program.

Maybe I missed it. But nowhere on the campaign trail did I hear Bevin even hint at a willingness to meet the Democrats halfway. He was the compromise-is-surrender, show-no-quarter ideologue to the end.

At the close of their final debate, Conway complimented Bevin for adopting some children from Africa.

Given a chance to say something nice about Conway, Bevin snapped, “I look forward to you having the opportunity to join the private sector.”

On Friday in Frankfort, the state capital, Bevin “repeated his election night comment that Republicans and Democrats must work together as ‘one Kentucky’ to tackle the challenges ahead,” USA reported. “We have a clear political mandate where the people clearly state, ‘We want something new. We want to be heard,'” the paper quoted him.

Bevin beat Conway 53-44. But less than 31 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. In other words, Bevin’s “mandate” came from about 16 percent of signed up voters.

A more thoughtful candidate might be careful about claiming “a clear political mandate” when 84 percent of voters stayed home on election day or voted the other way.

Anyway, a dozen years ago, Fletcher became One Term Ern. Four years from now, Bevin just might become Four And Out Matt.

Berry Craig

AFT Local 1360