Kentucky Lt. Governor Steve Pence announced this week that he will not be seeking re-election with indicted Governor Ernie Fletcher and that he will resign as the state's Justice Cabinet Secretary.
The announcement comes amid months of controversy in the administration, which is currently under investigation for illegal hiring practices. The Lexington Herald-Leader reminds us:
Pence's departure from next year's ticket and resignation from the Cabinet is the latest blow -- and by far the biggest -- to Fletcher's circle of advisers, which has seen the departure of three other prominent Cabinet secretaries in the last seven months.
All of the "departures" were brought about by the investigation. Pence's role in the hiring scandal is minimal, although his departure seems to suggest that more and more Republicans are distancing themselves from Fletcher. Fletcher was indicted last month for political conspiracy, political discrimination, and official misconduct. Pence fell short of endorsing Fletcher for the Governor's race in 2007 and of vowing to keep himself out of the race:
Pence said, "I have no plans to be on a different ticket in '07." When asked if he wouldn't run for any statewide office in 2007, he said, "I don't have any plans to run for any public office. But I have to tell you this, when I became a candidate in 2003 for lieutenant governor, the month before that I had not planned on becoming lieutenant governor."
As to whether he'll support Fletcher's re-election in 2007 with some other running mate, Pence, "Right now I'm going to focus on the elections coming up in 2006."
Fletcher has assigned an advisor to compile a list of potential running mates, a process which we are told will take time since Fletcher, according to his communications director, "has been blindsided by a lot of things."
If Fletcher's 2007 campaign wasn't already crippled, Pence's departure does not help matters because according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, Fletcher must return all money raised under the Fletcher-Pence banner since Pence voluntarily withdrew from the ticket. The law only makes exceptions for changes on the ticket in cases of disqualification or death.
The day following Pence’s announcement, the Governor’s office announced that Fletcher has asked Pence to resign as Lt. Governor. Pence, however, told Fletcher he intended to keep his job because “cooler heads need to prevail.”
Kentucky can look forward to a Democratic governor come next fall.
way to go demcrats
Your post title reminds me of the political cartoon in Louisville's Courier Journal a few days ago. The Democrats are only going to win if they can successfully prove that, like Nixon, Gov. Fletcher is a crook who broke the law. The only hope for Republicans is to prove that Attorney General Greg Stumbo is investigating Gov. Fletcher for political reasons. So far, they have fumbled the ball on this. Gov. Fletcher has used his pardon power to shield his aides from prosecution. If they were innocent, why do they need to be pardoned? Can't we let a judge decide this? In addition, it doesn't help that someone important has been asked to leave but won't. Good luck Gov. Fletcher. You will need it.