Brereton Jones or Steve Henry

Who would you pick if you had to choose between Brereton Jones and Steve Henry as the Democratic candidate for Governor?

My answer, none of the above and here’s why.

Brereton Jones:

If I’m the Republican running for governor the first thing I bring up about Brereton is Kentucky Health Care Reform Act. This Act was Frankenstein’s Monster, it was done for all the right reasons, but it was still a monster. Fortunately most of it has been repealed.

It’s a rare topic that, Kent Ostrander and Martin Cothran and I agree on, but this is one.

From the Family Foundation of Kentucky:

“So, if we start with all of the people covered by insurance in the state, remove those who are insured by large corporations, those whose companies self insure, those who purchase through an association, and those whose policies have yet to come up for renewal under the reform because of the governor’s extension, we are left with a handful of policy holders (100,000) whose costs have skyrocketed in order to bear the burden of insuring the technically “uninsurable.”

These individuals and small businesses do not have any “collective bargaining” clout. They have been singled out to carry the huge burden of covering the most high-cost participants in the state, and they are defenseless.”

Now what they don’t say is that a large percentage of those individuals carrying the load for this monster were State Employees and Teachers. From personal experience as a state worker, I saw my out of pocket cost for health insurance sky rocket, far in excess of the two and three percent annual salary raises I received during the same time.

If you want the underlying reason Ernie Fletcher almost had a teacher’s strike over health care costs look at Brereton Jones. The teachers and state employees weren’t about to bend over so another Governor could look good.

The second thing I'd beat him over the head with is gambling. Come on, how many people really feel sorry for needy horse farm owners. Casinos are a bad idea. It’s the gutless easy way out of making the kind of changes in taxation and spending needed to run the government. I’d have every minister in the state beating on him with the sin of gambling.

Also let’s not forget the Brereton Jones, before he was the Democratic Governor of Kentucky, was the Brereton Jones, Republican House Minority Leader in West Virginia.

Steve Henry:

As a Republican candidate, you would have to love Steve Henry as your opposition.

First there is his settlement of the fraud lawsuit:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Lt. Gov. Steve Henry settled a federal lawsuit Tuesday that accused him of defrauding Medicaid and Medicare programs while he was teaching at the University of Louisville Medical School.

Henry has agreed to pay the federal government $162,000 to settle the charges contained in the suit, filed in November.

Then there is the state supported wedding to Heather French:

Well, the honeymoon in Frankfort appears to be over.

No, not the honeymoon of Lt. Gov. Steve Henry and former Miss America Heather French Henry. We assume they are living in wedded bliss, provided the definition of “bliss” includes near daily media reports that Kentucky's taxpayers had shelled out several grand for the couple's Oct. 27 wedding and a three nights at hotels in Lexington for Mr. Henry.

And of course there was the shameless self promotion of Heather from the Lt. Governor’s Office.

You know if Heather wants to be Governor, I wish she would just run, I’d come a lot closer to voting for her than either of these two guys.