Beshear quiet, for now, on casinos

By Ryan Alessi - HERALD-LEADER POLITICAL WRITER

Around this time last year, Steve Beshear the candidate began backing off his pitch to allow casino gambling in Kentucky after receiving criticism from his Republican opponents.

Now, Beshear the governor appears to have walked away again from a push for casino gambling after watching the collapse of his first attempt to pass a constitutional amendment during this spring's legislative session.

He has rarely mentioned the subject over the last two months.

Aides and some lawmakers, however, say they don't think Beshear has completely abandoned his central campaign platform from 2007, especially in light of increasingly bleak state budget figures and the pain those numbers can inflict on education and health programs.

"I think the governor ought to stick with it," said state Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway.

Beshear's chief of staff, Jim Cauley, said Beshear hasn't "chosen a path yet" on how to pick back up the gambling issue -- or any measure to increase revenue.

"It's definitely something we're interested in, but we've got to find an opportunity," said Cauley, who is leaving the administration next month.

One possible opening might be a proposal being floated by Rep. Greg Stumbo of Prestonsburg that would create at least a trial period for horse racetracks to offer slot machines. Or it might be something else, Cauley said.

But Cauley, who ran Beshear's campaign before serving as his top aide for the first six months of the administration, said he and the governor haven't discussed the gambling issue much since the session.

Beshear, in fact, has said little lately about how to address Kentucky's budget woes, which continue to manifest themselves in various ways.

The Health and Family Services Cabinet, for instance, announced it would slash $7.6 million for programs that help social workers keep children with their biological families as part of $31.5 million of that agency's cuts.

And the University of Kentucky had to eliminate 188 jobs and impose a hiring freeze even as it strives to be one of the nation's elite schools.

Over the last 18 months, Beshear has been all over the map when talking about ways to bolster the Kentucky government's bottom line.

"We're not going to need any new revenue from the cigarette tax or anything else," he declared confidently on an April 2007 Kentucky Educational Television debate as he made his case for casinos.

By March 2008, he belatedly announced his support for a 70-cent cigarette tax increase when it became clear his gambling bill was in trouble.

Beshear hasn't signaled what his next move will be.

That silence might be part of a necessary cooling-off period, said former Gov. Brereton Jones, who complained publicly in April about the governor's handling of the casino legislation.

"On an issue that requires a constitutional amendment, you have to take time to let that simmer down and regroup," he said.

But Jones said something must happen because cutting education "is probably the biggest mistake we can ever make."

Paths to office

With the departure of Cauley from the governor's office, Beshear has brought in Adam Edelen, who had been executive director of the state's homeland security office.

Edelen, however, has always held ambition to run for office. He had expressed interest in seeking the state auditor post in 2007 if the incumbent, Crit Luallen, chose not to.

If he still wants to be elected, he might have been better off staying at homeland security, said Danny Briscoe, a Louisville-based campaign consultant.

"In that position, you go into a county and give a grant. You're on the local radio and in the local paper," Briscoe said. "You do that over and over for four years, and you make a lot of friends."

The chief of staff has a lower profile and must make decisions that please some groups but anger others, he said.

"If you do it the right way, you do make a lot of enemies because you do what the governor tells you to," added Jones, who was governor from 1991 to 1995.

But he said that shouldn't preclude Edelen from keeping an eye on getting elected.

"Sure, I think he'll be able to one day run for office," he said. "And the better job he does in helping the state move forward, the better chance he'll have."