Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) Elected 2003, 1st term up Dec. 2007
Born:	Nov. 12, 1952, Mt. Sterling
Home:	Lexington
Education:	U. of KY, B.S. 1974, M.D. 1984
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	married (Glenna)
Elected  Office:	KY House of Reps., 1994-96; U.S. House of Reps., 1998-2003.
Military Career:	Air Force, 1974-80.
Professional Career:	Practicing physician, 1984-present; CEO, St. Joseph Medical Foundation, 1997-99.
Office	State Capitol, 700 Capitol Ave., Frankfort 40601, 502-564-2611; Fax: 502-564-2517; Web: gov.state.ky.us.
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There is no question who ordinarily stands at the apex of Kentucky politics: The governor. The governor's appointment powers are wide; until the passage of a constitutional amendment in 2000, the legislature met in regular session for only 60 days in even-numbered years. Beginning in 2001, the legislature began meeting for 30 days in odd-numbered years also but the governor still can shift around line items in the state budget and call special sessions. Kentucky's governor, elected in 2003, is Ernie Fletcher, a Republican who grew up in Mount Sterling, about an hour's drive east of the state capitol. Fletcher got an engineering degree from the University of Kentucky, was an Air Force pilot for five years, intercepting Soviet aircraft; then he went to medical school, practiced medicine, and was CEO of a company that managed medical practices. He did volunteer medical work in India and was a lay minister. In 1994 he was elected to the Kentucky House. In 1996 he won the Republican primary--by exactly 4 votes--and ran against Democratic Congressman Scotty Baesler, a tobacco farmer and onetime University of Kentucky basketball star. With help from national Republicans, Fletcher raised and spent nearly as much as the incumbent and ran a spirited campaign. He lost 56%-44%, but kept his taste for campaigning.

When Baesler ran for the Senate in 1998, Fletcher decided to run for Congress again and won 53%-46%. In the House, Fletcher established a conservative record and became an activist legislator. Unlike other recent Republican doctors elected to the House who have taken on HMOs, he worked to craft the less sweeping Republican alternative on HMO regulation. He advocated the successful ed-flex bill to give the states greater flexibility in education spending, a measure he will surely come to appreciate more in his new position. He twice won reelection; in 2002, no Democrat filed to run.

Kentucky is one of five states that hold governor's elections in odd years, which enabled Fletcher to run in 2003 without the risk of giving up his House seat, a necessary consideration in a state where Republicans last won the governorship in 1967. He did not have a clear path to the nomination. He faced two serious candidates, former Jefferson County Judge-Executive (the county and Louisville city governments were merged in 2003) Rebecca Jackson and state Representative Steve Nunn, the son of Louie Nunn, the state's last Republican governor. Jackson stressed her credentials as an executive and zeroed in on outgoing Governor Paul Patton; she called for his resignation during his scandal-plagued second-term. In early 2002 Patton seemed at the summit of his career; he became head of the National Governors Association in July and he was seen as a likely and formidable candidate against Senator Jim Bunning in 2004. Then, in September 2002, the owner of a nursing home in Hickman County sued Patton for sexual harassment. At first Patton denied her charges, but when the Louisville Courier-Journal obtained phone records showing 440 calls from Patton's office to Conner's home and office, he admitted that they had had an "inappropriate personal relationship," but denied that he had used state government to retaliate. Not surprisingly this was the biggest Kentucky news story of the year. The state's two U.S. attorneys and state Attorney General Ben Chandler announced they were investigating. A few days after his confession Patton said, "I do not anticipate, in the foreseeable future, any involvement in the political process, including the U.S. Senate race." Republicans ran ads for the November 2002 legislative races urging voters to "stand up to Paul Patton and the scandals in Frankfort"; Patton's chief of staff had been indicted for violating campaign finance laws in the 1995 election.

In January 2003, Patton's lieutenant governor, Steve Henry, announced his withdrawal from the governor's race. "I'm part of an administration," he said. "In the end, that would have been used against me." But he had other troubles: the federal government had sued Henry, a surgeon, for overbilling Medicare and Medicaid. That left Attorney General Ben Chandler, House Speaker Jody Richards and health care entrepreneur Bruce Lunsford as the most serious candidates in the Democratic primary.

The Patton administration scandals gave the Republicans field a strong theme to run on but Fletcher and Nunn, both of whom campaigned as agents of change, became enmeshed in legal struggles. Fletcher's original choice for lieutenant governor, Hunter Bates, a former top aide to Senator Mitch McConnell, was disqualified after a lawsuit successfully challenged his eligibility. The Kentucky constitution requires that the governor and lieutenant governor must have lived in the state for six years when elected; Bates had moved back to the state less than two years before. Steve Nunn's choice for lieutenant governor, Bob Heleringer, then sued to prevent Fletcher from choosing another running mate, a gambit which, if successful, would have made Fletcher himself ineligible for the nomination. The state supreme court ruled in Fletcher's favor and he then named U.S. Attorney Steve Pence--who had been prosecuting Steve Henry in the overbilling case before resigning--as Bates's replacement.

Chandler, who was unpopular with some insiders but popular with voters for his prosecution of Patton's chief of staff and two union leaders, reminded voters that he had taken on Patton and had "convicted corrupt politicians." But Fletcher, as the nominee of the party that hadn't held the governor's office in over three decades, had the more persuasive argument. He promised to "clean up the mess in Frankfort." In the background loomed a $300 million budget deficit facing the next governor. Both Fletcher and Chandler promised to address the shortfall by cutting waste, abuse and fraud in state government. Fletcher also signed a pledge not to raise taxes. In June, the Republican Governors Association released a poll showing Fletcher with a 7-point lead, the first time, noted political reporter Al Cross of the Courier-Journal, that any Republican gubernatorial nominee had ever led in a published poll in Kentucky. Chandler focused on job losses and national Republican economic policies, a questionable tack considering George W. Bush's popularity in Kentucky (he would win 60% in 2004). Chandler also hammered Fletcher for a 2003 congressional vote against reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada; he said Fletcher was too close to drug manufacturers, who were big contributors to Fletcher while he was in Congress.

Fletcher won 55% to 45%, carrying 86 of 120 counties. He carried Northern Kentucky, won Lexington's Fayette County 54%-46% and only narrowly lost Louisville's Jefferson County 51%-49%; Fletcher ran weakest in traditionally Democratic areas, the Pennyrile to the west and in the coal-mining eastern mountain counties. He outspent Chandler $5.7 million to $3.8 million and was assisted by close to $2 million in television ads bought by the RGA. His win capped a decade-long Republican surge that, by the end of 2004, left Republicans in control of both Senate seats, 5 of 6 House seats, and a majority in the state Senate. Republicans also in 2003 won two state offices that had been in Democratic control since 1971--secretary of state and commissioner of agriculture --and picked up 7 state House seats to the narrow the Democratic margin to 57-43.

Kentucky governors begin their terms in December and by mid-January 2004 Fletcher could point to several accomplishments. He reduced the number of executive branch cabinets that operate state government, abolished the mismanaged Kentucky Racing Commission and replaced it with a Kentucky Horse Racing Authority, and balanced the 2004 budget with $302 million in spending cuts. But his first year as governor failed to achieve much beyond that. The legislature adjourned in April without having passed a budget, divided over Fletcher's proposal to overhaul the state's tax code. The state teachers association voted to strike in October in response to Fletcher's 2005 state health plan, which they claimed would increase out-of-pocket costs. Fletcher had to call the legislature back into special session in October; the final plan that emerged cost close to $200 million more than Fletcher's original and the strike was averted. In November, death penalty opponents sought an opinion from the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure as to whether Fletcher, still a licensed doctor, violated medical guidelines by signing a death warrant for a convicted killer. The board unanimously dismissed the complaint, saying that the governor had acted as a governor, not a doctor, when he signed the order. Fletcher also attracted additional unwanted attention in June when the state police plane taking him to the funeral of Ronald Reagan was nearly shot down by two F-16 fighters in Washington airspace after air defense officials were unable to identify the aircraft; the incident caused the evacuation of thousands from the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court building.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2003 general	Ernie Fletcher (R)	596,284	55%
	Ben Chandler (D)	487,159	45%
2003 primary	Ernie Fletcher (R)	90,912	57%
	Rebecca Jackson (R)	44,084	28%
	Steve Nunn (R)	21,167	13%
	Other	2,365	1%
1999 general	Paul Patton (D)	352,099	61%
	Peppy Martin (R)	128,788	22%
	Gatewood Galbraith (Ref)	88,930	15%
	Other	6,934	1%