Matt Gunterman July 5th, 2007

Speaker Jody Richards (D) and the other Democratic leaders in the House deserve much praise for calling the hand of Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) on this wasteful and unconstitutional special session, a move that Fletcher hoped would prop up his flailing reelection campaign. Short and sweet: Fletcher called this session to provide political welfare to his waning candidacy.

I am proud of the House Democrats for what they did today.

In dramatic fashion, Richards addressed the House from the floor of the chamber. From the Herald-Leader’s PolWatchers blog:

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“I take the unusual step of rising to address this body on a simple but important question: has the governor justified calling the General Assembly into special session at a cost of $60,000 per day to the Kentucky taxpayer?” he asked rhetorically. “Anyone who has followed events since the governor first threatened to call a special session knows that the answer to this question is a clear, resounding and unequivocal, ‘No.’”

Richards said it was “simply not good stewardship of the taxpayer money,” he said, sparking applause at 4:25 p.m.

He argued that the revelation that the plant Fletcher’s administration has been referring to is a coal-to-natural gas facility, which Richards said undermines the governor’s argument that the project could help reduce dependence on foreign-produced oil.

It would “not produce a single gallon of transportation fuels.”

“When gubernatorial politics are taken out of the equation, we all know that the legislature will be able to timely address this and all other important issues when we convene the regular session in January,” he said.

He continued his speech saying that none of the 67 items Fletcher called the General Assembly into special session to consider rise to the level of emergency.

“Not only does this show no concern for the enormous daily cost of a session, it also flies in the face of the constitution,” Richards said. “The framers did not intend for governors to identify a single emergency issue as a pretext to shoehorn myriad non-emergency issues in an extraordinary session. Rather, they specifically warned against lumping in dozens of local projects, which would unduly lengthen the session at taxpayer expense.”

He called Fletcher’s call for a session “ill-conceived” and called upon the Senate to adjourn as well and forfeit their legislative salaries, he said, sparking scattered applause.

“We have a duty to protect the Constitution from being manipulated for the sake of political expediency,” he said.

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• Ernie Fletcher , Jody Richards , Special Session
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