FRANKFORT Republican Gov. Matt Bevin proclaims the days of “pay to play” ended with his arrival in Frankfort.

But some House Democrats say if you’re not willing to play, Bevin isn’t reluctant to make you pay.

One, Rep. Kevin Sinnette, D-Ashland, says Bevin threatened him politically and attacked him personally when he rebuffed the new governor’s request to switch party registration as part of an effort to give the GOP control of the House of Representatives.

Jessica Ditto, Bevin’s communications director, refused comment, claiming the allegations are untrue.

Sinnette said that on the day after he told Bevin he would not switch parties, recorded phone calls went out to voters in his district implying Sinnette supports abortion and asking voters to call him and urge him to switch parties. Sinnette is opposed to abortion.

CNHI News obtained a recorded copy of the call to Sinnette’s district captured on a voice mail machine. It confirms Sinnette’s general description of the call. The caller identified himself as Dr. Frank Simon, a conservative activist and allergist from Louisville, who acknowledged in a separate interview that he made the call. Simon denied he made it on behalf of either Bevin or the Republican Party.

At the time, two other House Democrats — Denny Butler of Louisville and Jim Gooch of Providence —had announced they were switching parties while two more Democrats resigned to accept job appointments by Bevin. Two Republicans would shortly resign their House seats after winning election to constitutional offices at the same time Bevin was elected.

Those changes created four vacancies and reduced Democrats’ majority to 50-46. Republicans hoped to flip two or three additional Democrats in order to give the GOP control of the chamber even prior to special elections in March for the four vacant seats. (That didn’t happen and Democrats won three of four special elections to increase their advantage to 53-47.)

Sinnette said he was invited to meet with Bevin in the basement of the governor’s mansion one evening in late December.

An independent Republican source confirmed to CNHI News that a meeting between the governor, Sinnette and others occurred.

Because of multiple family members’ illnesses, Sinnette had briefly considered not running for re-election. But by the time of the meeting with Bevin he’d decided to run and had scheduled a fundraiser. But he hadn’t yet filed for re-election and the deadline to switch registration wasn’t until Dec. 31.

“Out of respect for the governor more than anything else, I thought I should go,” Sinnette said. “I felt like if the governor asked, then I should meet with him.”

The meeting began cordially but Sinnette said the tone changed quickly.

“It got kind of condescending,” Sinnette said. “He just kind of talked down to me. He told me (Democrats) didn’t know what we’re doing, that he had a mandate and I’d better get on the change train — like I was a hillbilly.

“And then, in the same breath, he said, ‘If you don’t, I’ll do everything in my power to get you beat and take you down.’ I took it as more than just an election thing. In my 26 years of practicing law and eight years in the legislature, I don’t think I’ve ever been talked to that way.”

The governor, Sinnette said, tried to bully him.

An angry Sinnette told the governor that “with all due respect, Governor, I don’t take kindly to threats. When you threaten me, you also threaten my district.”

Sinnette said he recounted for Bevin the advice he’d received from his father, one-time Boyd Circuit Judge Charles Sinnette, who died just before Kevin Sinnette won the 2008 general election for the District 100 House seat.

“He told me the most important thing I’d take to Frankfort is my word and a reputation for honesty,” Sinnette told Bevin. “He told me it takes years to build a reputation but it can be destroyed in a split second.”

With that, Sinnette told Bevin he would not change parties and left.

The next day, the recorded phone calls went out to Sinnette’s district.

Sinnette said road and coal severance projects for his district were removed from the budget by the Republican Senate, although he acknowledges he can’t prove that was in retaliation for his refusal to switch parties.

The only bill Sinnette sponsored that passed the General Assembly last spring was one to offer incentives to AK Steel to refurbish a steel furnace, something Bevin had previously endorsed.

Sinnette said he and Bevin’s predecessor, Democrat Steve Beshear, “had differences too, and he’d try to change my mind, but he never threatened me.”

Sinnette said other Democratic lawmakers were approached in a similar fashion by Bevin or other Republicans.

“I know for a fact that others were subjected to the same kind of thing,” said Sinnette. But he declined to identify them, saying it should be their decision to come forward.

Sinnette struggled with his own decision to go public about the Bevin meeting for fear of retaliation. But in the end he concluded the public should know what happened.

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.