LINK nky extended multiple offers to do a sit-down interview with Gov. Andy Beshear but did not hear back from his campaign.
As Kentuckians head to the polls to vote for governor, one of only three gubernatorial elections in the country this year, Republican nominee and Attorney General Daniel Cameron said he has shown up early and often for Northern Kentucky.
“I want the folks here to know how important this area is, how important this Tri-County region is whether it’s on the issue of crime or education or our economy,” Cameron said at LINK nky’s office in October. “We need a governor that’s going to represent their interest in values and that’s why I’ve been here so much.”
Kentucky is one of only three states that hold off-year gubernatorial elections, which can mean much lower turnout, according to local voting data and former Northern Kentucky political science professor Ryan Salzman.
In the 2019 election, for example, voter turnout was just under 40% in Campbell County, according to data from the state board of elections. But for the presidential race in 2020? Turnout was over 60%.
“It’s critical to get people to show up to the Nov. 7 election and early voting as well if you want leadership that is going to stand up for your values,” Cameron said.
Cameron said he has confidence he will win on Nov. 7, noting that voter registration has flipped.
“Since Andy Beshear has taken the oath of office, the voter registration has flipped from leaning Democrat to lean Republican,” Cameron said. “There are 70,000 more registered Republicans than there are Democrats.”
According to the Commonwealth of Kentucky State Board of Elections, as of October, there are 1,527,087 registered Democrats and 1,603,069 registered Republicans in the state.
He said the data was also in his favor from the 2019 gubernatorial race when Gov. Beshear beat former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin because there was a third-party candidate who received 30,000 votes.
“There was a Libertarian candidate in that race who siphoned off 30,000 votes from Matt Bevin,” he said. “Gov. Bevin only lost that race by 5,000 votes, so all the metrics and all the data are in our favor.”
Voter fraud
A concern that often arises during election seasons is voter fraud—something Cameron said he fights against in his role as attorney general.
He said the attorney general’s office runs a task force with a hotline that people can call if they see something they want to report during the election process.
“This is fundamental to who we are as people to have trust and confidence in that process,” he said.
Affordable housing and inflation
When asked about the Northern Kentucky Area Development District’s Northern Kentucky Housing Data Analysis, which studied eight Northern Kentucky Counties for its affordable housing needs, Cameron said one of the “great failures” of Beshear’s leadership is affordability.
Cameron attributed the lack of affordability to a term he calls “Bidenomics,” which he said means a 40-year record high inflation and the war on coal.
“I just saw a couple of days ago, there was a report that came out that said interest rates have hit 8% for homes, making October the least affordable month in this century to buy a home,” Cameron said. “That is what we are living under right now.”
A lack of affordable housing, a lack of affordable rental spaces, and contractors and subcontractors that want to build homes, Cameron said, are challenged by trying to find people to work to make them. He said Kentucky has the 47th lowest workforce participation rate in the country.
“A lot of that is driven by the fact that Andy Beshear told people to stay home for two years, and we’ve got a governor right now who has established a culture of dependence on government, and I want to reestablish a culture of work,” Cameron said.
He said he wants to eliminate Kentucky’s income tax to get people’s money back into their pockets. Aside from that, Cameron said he would work with the federal delegation to ensure that the state has policies in place in Washington, D.C., that ease inflationary pressures.
Cameron said one of the reasons Kentucky has gotten a profile of having reliable, low-cost energy is because of coal generation—something he said the state needs to produce more of.
“Biden’s administration, which Andy Beshear supports, wants to destroy the coal industry by 2035,” he said. “That would ruin Kentucky’s economy, and so I’m going to continue to stand up and oppose Joe Biden’s decision to try and destroy the coal industry.”
Certificate of need
Talk about certificate of need has been circulating specifically in the Northern Kentucky area.
Medical certificate of need laws require that Kentucky healthcare institutions providing certain services must first prove a communal need for such services before establishing facilities in an area. They are issued by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and there are currently 21 medical services that require a certificate of need, according to Kentucky’s state health plan.
The Kentucky legislature is currently considering whether or not to reform or repeal the decades-long program after creating the Certificate of Need Task Force during the interim legislative session.
“I think it’s healthy to have our legislature be a part of a meaningful conversation about what CON looks like going forward, but I don’t want to put in jeopardy our rural healthcare community,” Cameron said. “I certainly want to make sure that they have the resources they need to continue to maintain the important health care work that they’re doing.”
In his judgment, Cameron said the focus should be on the workforce and how to get more nurses into the field.
Teacher pay
Cameron said as voters head to the polls on Nov. 7, one of the reasons they should vote for him is his plan to increase teacher pay, including starting pay.
“There’s actually a few different funding streams,” he said. “So, there’s the increase in starting pay. If you’re a teacher that decides to help us with the Cameron Catch Up Plan, the 16-week portion of that plan, we’re going to pay you to do that as well.”
He said there is also a discretionary fund that superintendents will have access to that allows them to reward teachers that they deem appropriate to do so.
“We need to pay our teachers more, and the difference between me and Andy Beshear is that I’ve already got buy-in from the legislature on this plan,” he said.
