In final debate, Bevin and Beshear were asked to be nice to each other. They weren’t.
There is a classic debate question that sometimes comes at the end of particularly nasty campaigns. After months of trading insults and airing advertisements with scary-sounding narrators, the candidates are asked to say something nice about each other.
It was the last question of the last debate of a grueling gubernatorial campaign between two politicians who have been at each other’s throats for three and a half years, let alone the past six months.
Attorney General Andy Beshear and Gov. Matt Bevin struggled to answer the simple question in Highland Heights Tuesday night.
Each had a prepared answers: Bevin complimented Beshear on running for office and Beshear complimented Bevin for his work to improve the foster care system. But it quickly devolved.
“This governor has brought needed attention to [the foster care system],” Beshear said. “And what we do need to see are better results. You know there are fewer foster parents today than there were four years ago.”
“That’s a lie, that’s not true....” Bevin said. “It may be written down on your sheet and someone may have told you that, but that is an absolute lie.”
Reforming the foster care and adoption system in Kentucky has been one of Bevin’s primary missions. His administration said October 24 that more than 1,000 foster homes have been added since Bevin took office and that adoptions are up 37.5 percent. That’s as the number of kids in the child-protective system has increased as Kentucky faces the effects of a brutal opioid crisis.
The Beshear campaign did not cite the source for his claim.
Throughout the campaign, the word liar has been thrown around by the candidates more than University of Kentucky basketball players throw lobs. At this point, the attacks unfold like scripted exchanges.
Exchange 1: Beshear talks about his devotion to public schools. Bevin calls Beshear out for sending his kids to private schools. Beshear says Bevin is attacking his kids and isn’t fit for office.
Exchange 2: Beshear answers a question about opioids. Bevin accuses Beshear of playing a secretive role in the state’s settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, because Beshear worked for the law firm that defended drug maker. Beshear replies, calling it a conspiracy theory, and says he was not even working for the law firm when the case was settled by former Attorney General Jack Conway.
Or, recently, exchange 3: Beshear accuses Bevin of denying that the governor said someone commits suicide in a casino every night. Bevin says Beshear’s lying, but doubles down on the issue, saying in Las Vegas, someone commits suicide every other day. Beshear accuses Bevin of making up facts to suit his purpose.
On Tuesday, all three of those exchanges occurred.
In the final week of the campaign, both candidates have settled on their closing message. For Bevin, it’s his ties to President Donald Trump and his conservative values. For Beshear, it’s Bevin’s brash persona and his focus on public education.
Often, those messages were overshadowed by the candidates hurling insults at each other and getting stuck in the ruts of the same fights they’ve been having for years.
When Beshear refused to answer whether he would place a toll on the Brent Spence Bridge, the audience laughed at him. When Beshear reluctantly said he didn’t support an assault weapons ban, Bevin said he “backed into that one.” When Bevin aggressively went after Beshear for refusing to defend the legislature’s bills restricting abortion rights, he got booed.
“You can’t get through one debate without being nasty,” Beshear said.
“It’s not nasty, it’s called the truth,” Bevin said. “The truth hurts, I know. It’s painful sometimes.”
“Can you control yourself for one debate?” Beshear said. “Just for one.”
It was a theme underscored when moderator Sheree Paolello asked if either candidate regretted how negative the campaign has been.
Beshear said he would have liked it to be less nasty. Bevin said he was proud of his campaign.
This story was originally published October 29, 2019 at 9:49 PM.
