Daniel Cameron deserves a chance to fix Kentucky’s persistent woes | Opinion

Re-election campaigns are, at their core, referendums on the incumbent. While Andy Beshear received praise for his early handling of COVID, it’s when decisions got harder that the cracks begin to show. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t fix the cracks in Beshear’s record. His failures to collaborate with others, to take action when problems arose, or to take responsibility for anything that went wrong under his watch, of which there was a lot, shows he is undeserving of a second term and we should give Daniel Cameron a chance to lead.

During COVID, Beshear operated in a closed silo with little input from people on the ground, making decisions that were at best ill-informed (such as leaving big box stores open but closing mom-and-pops) and at worst smelled of corruption (like allowing Beshear-donor owned Kentucky Kingdom to open but keeping other outdoor recreation businesses closed). When questioned about his decision-making process, he lashed out and accused those asking of being uncaring and cruel.

When the state unemployment system failed, leaving tens of thousands scared and confused, he blamed the previous administration and took what could charitably be described as marginal actions to remedy the problem, paying outside contractors (who provided nearly zero help) with the millions marked to update the 1970’s era software system that was the root of the collapse. He was unapologetic and has since made little effort to fix the system.

When disaster struck in the east and west, Beshear set up a multi-million-dollar relief fund not as a charity but as a line-item inside his Finance Cabinet, with little accountability or oversight. When it was found the charity had sent thousands of checks to people unaffected by the tornados, he blamed FEMA. FEMA had no idea what he was talking about. In the mountains, when state contracted bulldozers cleared homes that were sheltering the few remaining belongings of flood-ravaged families, he said he hadn’t read the story and then blamed the contractors.

This newspaper has reported numerous stories on the deplorable state of the Commonwealth’s juvenile justice system, with young girls being raped and abused by those tasked with overseeing them. Still, punishments have been few and changes have been fewer as Beshear attempts to pass the blame to the legislature.

Foster kids are sleeping on the floor of administration buildings; but it’s not the fault of the cabinet, overseen by Andy Beshear! Again, it’s the legislature!

His campaign accepted tens of thousands in illegal straw donations and ‘someone’ solicited the Barren County Area Development District to donate taxpayer money to the Democratic Governors Association. Of course, the man for whom Tim Longmeyer was serving as Deputy Attorney General when he was arrested and convicted for corruption can’t be blamed for that!

His administration issued reports that showed violent crime had dropped under his watch. But wait! The numbers were wrong, crime has risen 40%, and Beshear blamed Louisville police for the reporting error.

Our kids were among the last in the country to be allowed back in school, causing immeasurable, generational, learning loss. Beshear offers no apologies and no plan.

He vetoed multiple tax cuts during times of record inflation, only to finally sign another despite complaining that he didn’t like it.

No one of note has been fired or punished. “The buck stops here” is not a phrase Andy Beshear is familiar with.

Daniel Cameron deserves a chance. He has a plan to attack learning loss. He’ll take responsibility and work with the legislature to fix foster care and juvenile justice. He’ll continue to push our income tax to zero. He’ll fight against national Democratic policies and be an advocate for Kentucky, not Joe Biden.

At the end of the day, Andy Beshear is just your basic nepobaby, everything handed to him but responsible for nothing. You don’t have to dislike him personally to see it’s time to thank him for his service and elect Daniel Cameron Governor.

Tres Watson is the former spokesman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, founder of Capitol Reins PR and the host of the Kentucky Politics Weekly Podcast.

This story was originally published November 3, 2023 at 7:11 AM.