Beshear says he’s ‘done with politics’ but the politics of the pandemic are firing up
For nearly a month, Republicans and Democrats mostly played nice as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded in Kentucky.
Many Republicans gritted their teeth and smiled while attempting to present a united front behind Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat. The party put out statements focused on what Republican elected officials were doing and the Republican-led legislature passed a bill codifying some of the executive action Beshear was taking.
Sure, there was the dust-up about how the legislature would resume its session. Many in the party bristled over the fact that abortion clinics got to remain open while doctors who perform elective procedures had to close their doors. But on the surface, things were mostly hunky-dory.
Things change.
Many people, starting to get antsy, are pushing to find out when things will start reopening again. Business owners, facing potential financial ruin, feel the same.
The silence broke.
On Tuesday, as the legislature came back into session for its final two days of business in 2020, Beshear was met with a critical statement from Kentucky’s five other constitutional officers (all Republican), criticism from the Republican Party of Kentucky, and the prospect of a House bill that would shift the conversation from which businesses are non-essential to which businesses are “safe” to open.
“I don’t care,” Beshear said when asked about the criticism. “I am done with politics, I’m doing what I can to save lives every day. If people try to take my ability away to do that, I’m going to fight for that ability because my job is to protect you. At the end of the day, when we are judged by how we reacted to this coronavirus, no one is going to say it was leader X or Y in the legislature. They’re going to hold me accountable. And you should.”
Beshear went on to address the significant hurdles that come with reopening the state — COVID-19 testing capacity, staffing for contact tracing, personal protective equipment and compliance with CDC guidelines — but there is no concrete timeline people can cling to in the middle of a public health crisis.
“The politics are firing up because Andy Beshear hasn’t addressed the concerns of the people out there,” said Tres Watson, a Republican political strategist. “Beshear is running out of time. If he doesn’t start leading, he’s going to run out of time for the public to just accept the quarantine.”
As much as Beshear says he would like to remove politics, he splashed some fuel to the political fire Tuesday when responding to an effort by House Republicans to insert themselves into the decision making process for reopening businesses.
Their bill, which had not been released to the public at the time of Beshear’s response, requires the boards that license, certify and register businesses in the state to come up with reports on how businesses can operate in a safe manner, consistent with CDC guidelines, and would allow chiropractors to begin seeing patients.
“We’ve been at this, we’ve been doing this, we’ve been flattening the curve,” Beshear said. “So, it’s who do you trust on how and when we reopen things. Do you trust the governor led by the department of public health and all of our medical officials, or do you trust the legislature and lobbyists that are talking to them each day based on monetary interests that are out there? I don’t think that that’s a hard decision.”
His response did not sit well with some lawmakers. Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, said he thinks the legislature was “disappointed” with what Beshear said.
“He took an unfair and factually incorrect shot at legislators,” Nemes said. “His remarks were unfortunate and I think they were off the cuff and I hope he doesn’t mean them.”
Nemes said he has not been contacted by a single lobbyist about reopening businesses. Instead, he said he has been contacted by a lot of local businesses that want to reopen.
Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey said he couldn’t comment on Beshear’s remarks because he hasn’t seen them in their full context. He said claims that the governor isn’t paying enough attention to how to reopen the economy, as the Republican Party of Kentucky has claimed, is “unfounded.”
“I think the governor is doing a tremendous job of trying to keep this non-partisan,” said McGarvey, D-Louisville.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said he doesn’t feel like there’s much of a difference between what the House is trying to accomplish with their coronavirus bill and what the governor is trying to accomplish.
“I don’t see those in opposition to each other because the governor is acting on CDC recommendations and the House is saying these groups and associations need to put out and deliver, as I understand it, how they can reopen and be CDC compliant,” Stivers said. “So I don’t see them as mutually exclusive.”
Beshear, like many other governors across the country from both political parties, has seen a surge in popularity as he’s dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. That makes it difficult for his political opponents to be too critical of him.
Stivers brought up specific decisions made by Beshear that have bothered some people — Beshear’s order to have state police collect the license plate numbers of people who attend in-person church services so the health department could order them to quarantine for 14 days and his decision to allow abortion clinics to continue operating — but said that wasn’t criticism of how the governor is doing as a whole.
“Everybody is espousing their opinion. Some people in here, Democrats, probably don’t agree with the governor,” Stivers said. “But just because we’re being disagreeable doesn’t mean we’re being political.”
Former Gov. Paul Patton said he’s been approached by Democrats and Republicans alike who have talked about how they approve of the job Beshear is doing. He said Republicans should be careful not to appear too critical of a governor while people still appear to approve of the job he’s doing.
“To second guess the governor this early in the game could be a dangerous strategy,” Patton said.
This story was originally published April 15, 2020 at 2:51 PM.
