Political Notebook: Is the KY legislature setting Ryan Quarles up to run for governor?
Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, was venting about broadband internet — and Gov. Andy Beshear — at lunch one day.
Pratt believes the Beshear Administration has repeatedly failed to take action on getting internet access to rural communities. He pushed the Beshear to use federal stimulus money to boost internet access, but was told the administration couldn’t.
Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles, a fellow Georgetown native, was sitting at the table. He asked if he could take on the job.
“The General Assembly recognizes that things have to be done competently and this administration hasn’t risen to the occasion,” said Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville. “We think that if Gov. Beshear can’t do it, Ryan Quarles will.”
It is no secret that Republicans in Frankfort dislike Beshear or, at least, how Beshear has used his power as governor. It has resulted in a steady stream of legislation to weaken the office of the governor and hand that power either to the legislature or the other constitutional officers.
Quarles has been taking advantage of the effort. There are four bills to give some of the governor’s authority over to the agriculture commissioner, two of which have already passed (one of which has been vetoed by Beshear, in which the governor called the agriculture commissioner “an inferior officer under the constitution”).
Beshear is the lone Democrat standing in the way of complete Republican control of Kentucky politics; a blueberry floating in a bowl of tomato soup. Republicans, who see his election as an anomaly, are already lining up at the newly installed security fence around the Governor’s Mansion waiting for their chance to get in.
Quarles is one of them. With his term expiring as agriculture commissioner in 2023, he’s been laying the groundwork for a potential gubernatorial bid and is one of the names most frequently mentioned (along with national political players like former U.N. Ambassador Kelly Craft and U.S. Rep. Jamie Comer, R-Tompkinsville).
“State legislators have moved a handful of government functions from Gov. Andrew Beshear to other constitutional officers, not to set any one person up to challenge him in 2023, but because they lack confidence in his leadership,” Quarles said. “Any mainstream, serious conservative in this state is going to be well-positioned to challenge Gov. Andrew Beshear because of his go-it-alone approach to COVID-19 and his bungling of the unemployment system.”
Lawmakers say they have no intention of boosting Quarles while he mulls a potential gubernatorial run.
“I think it’s not only wrong, but way too early for the legislature to start engaging in 2023 primary gubernatorial politics,” said Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, who’s helped out with Quarles’ past campaigns.
The reason for these bills, lawmakers say, is Beshear.
There are two things stuck in the craw of Republican lawmakers that can both be tied back to one decision: the removal of the former executive director of the Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy. In the headline of the press release announcing the new executive director, it said “Governor Andy Beshear’s Office of Agriculture Policy.”
Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, has consistently killed proposals to move the Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy away from the governor’s office (it has been filed several times by Thayer). This year he sponsored the bill to do so, citing his outrage over the name “Governor Andy Beshear’s Office of Agriculture Policy.”
“He’s trying to use it for his political gain and that bothers me,” Hornback said.
Beshear’s office says the name never officially changed and Beshear called it a “goofy drama that is totally fake” in August.
When asked whether the bills were an attempt to boost Quarles, Hornback said he doesn’t do things because of politics. Still, he said, he wouldn’t be surprised if other people make the connection.
“I’m sure everyone else reads into it, but that’s fine,” Hornback said.
Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, said he sees the bills more as an attempt by Republicans to hurt Beshear, rather than an attempt to help Quarles.
“I think it gives the legislature a chance to try and poke the governor in the eye,” McGarvey said. “In the short term, it benefits a former legislator who might be running for governor. And in the long term, it shifts power from the governor to the ag commissioner, where both the legislature and the ag community have more influence.”
Even if the bills are not a direct attempt to boost Quarles (it would only be a short term benefit, as any bill to weaken the power of the governor’s office ultimately affects anyone who would become governor) they can still serve that purpose. Throughout the administration of former Gov. Matt Bevin, Beshear positioned himself as the Democratic foil, filing lawsuits against some of Bevin’s most controversial actions. Beshear went on to narrowly beat Bevin in the 2019 gubernatorial election.
“Politically, it’s certainly a convenient setup,” said Tres Watson, a Republican consultant and Quarles ally. “But it was made possible by the governor.”
As for Pratt, after filing a bill to give more power over broadband to the Department of Agriculture, he says he’s suddenly gotten a lot more attention from Beshear’s senior advisor, Rocky Adkins.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 2:35 PM.
