GOP chairman: Edelen should resign
By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com
Steve Robertson, chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky
The chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky on Wednesday called for Adam Edelen to resign as Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear’s chief of staff because of recent controversies involving Edelen.
Steve Robertson, the GOP chairman, also called for Attorney General Jack Conway to investigate Edelen’s activities in the governor’s office.
Robertson cited Herald-Leader stories showing that Edelen friend and business partner Ralph Coldiron complained to Edelen in e-mails last fall that he was hurting financially. Later, Beshear gave Coldiron a job in the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security. Beshear also raised the pay for that job from $80,000 to $100,000, although state law said that only the Commercial Mobile Radio Service Board could set Coldiron’s pay, something that a Beshear spokesman said the governor did not know.
Edelen and Coldiron were partners in a land-development company with top Frankfort lobbyist Bob Babbage, who failed to disclose his business ties to the governor’s chief of staff in a mandatory financial disclosure form last year. The men recently dissolved that business after the Herald-Leader reported on it.
“This administration came to office on the promise to ‘clean up Frankfort’ and strictly follow personnel and hiring laws in state government,” Robertson said in a prepared statement. “I now call on Adam Edelen to resign his position and the attorney general’s office to launch an immediate investigation into Edelen’s illegal activity.”
In response, Beshear spokeswoman Jill Midkiff said: “We do not wish to engage in such partisan shouting matches.”
A spokeswoman for the attorney general said Conway has not received an actual request to investigate from Robertson, but if he does, he will handle it according to his usual investigative procedure.
Filed Under: Featured • Jack Conway • Republican Party • State Government • Steve Beshear
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Investigate according to usual investigative procedures is code words for “Since he is a democrat I do not need to investigate because he would not do anything wrong”.
When you lose your integrity, you can no longer serve. submit your resignation Adam!
We do not wish for the Governor’s Chief of Staff to engage in illegal, inappropriate and unethical political patronage for his business partners.
It would seem a shouting match is the least of your worries.
Once your integrity is gone, you have nothing else to offer and Edelen has lost all simblance of integrity..He should do the right thing and resign immediately.
I voted for this administration and to say that I have been disappointed is putting it mildly…no way they will get my vote again.
Maybe Gov. Steve can just pull an Ernie and pardon everyone for anything they have done or might do. You neocons just amaze me. After 8 years of W twisting every law for his benefit and 4 years of Ernie and his cronies doing the same, you want to yell for Edelen’s head? I know, the right wing motto is do as I say not as I do!
Skyhawk,
I’m a Democrat and when I see something that smells like corruption, I’ll call for someone’s head regardless of what party they are with.
Gav. Beshear said he would clean up Frankfort and then went out and pardoned Ron Berry, a convicted child molester..he started losing my support then and now this is happening.
I think the Gov. needs to get a dictionary and check the meaning of “cleaning up.
If that is what you want in a Gov. and his administration, then ride that bus, but you just might be on it by yourself
At lest he won’t have to pardon them– This weak golfing AG would never take on a Democrat.
Governor, this guy is going to drag you down even more. He should resign at once to save face for you.
Does Steve Robertson have any shred of credibility remaining?
While he may very well be correct about Edelen, Edelen having permitted the apparent and appearance of a conflict of interest to exist, Steve Robertson is one of those who claim to this day that the Ernest T. Fletcher scandal, a scandal in which real crimes occurred, in which individuals accepted pardons for their crimes, a scandal still under investigation and prosecution by federal prosecutors, was a ‘Stumbo Witch Hunt.’ In comparison, Edelen hasn’t broken any laws I know of, isn’t accused of any, but has permitted, as I said, the appearance of a breach of ethics.
So, Steve – if you’re reading this, why don’t you ‘man up’ and explain yourself?
Cheves reporting is a joke an Robertson’s quote is just the latest bad punchline. Gimme a break. Almost everything reported about Edelen and Babbage over the past 2 weeks has been trumped up nonsense. Going to get a canned quote from the mouthpiece for the completely discredited Ky Republican party to perpetuate this non-story isn’t reporting, its just lazy reporter looking to fill columns. If anybody should resign = it’s Cheves.
I can’t believe what I’m reading. Does Robertson think that the Fletcher administration he still defends didn’t have a revolving door for their buddy lobbyists. John McCarthy and Ellen Williams practically lived in there after they became lobbyists immediately leaving Fletcher’s employ. Robertson said he hoped that all lobbyists would be treated with the same open door policy. What a joke, the Fletcher soldiers wouldn’t even see lobbyists that weren’t their buddies and even went out of their way to get clients to dump them and hire good little Republican lobbyists like McCarthy and Ellen Williams.
Skyhawk
get your head out of the sand!
Both Fletcher and Beshear and their staffs appear to be cut from the same cloth. The only difference is they have different initials at the end of their printed names.
Political back and forth between supporters is what keeps this state in the pitiful shape it is and will forever be until we elect trust worthy people. Each of you needs to admit your man is corrupt and its right here in black and white. Open your eyes and call a spade a spade and move on to improve this state.
If a frog ran for office the next election cycle, it gets my vote because it can’t do any worse.
Story from November Herald:
Beshear’s homeland security chief is longtime friend Thomas Preston, a Lexington public relations executive who joined the state payroll as senior adviser to Beshear for $125,000 a year.
Preston said he agrees that homeland security leaders should have relevant experience. For example, his consulting firm, Preston Global, spent years helping businesses set up counter-terrorism plans, he said.
Having taken his job in June, Preston said he didn’t hire most of his 22-person staff. Many were chosen by Edelen, a former candidate for Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council who was Beshear’s original homeland security director until he became chief of staff this summer, he said.
So, even Beshear’s own guy, Preston (a PR professional!!!) indicates that the Coldiron hire was done by who? Edelen!!! coldiron’s business partner to whom he sent the email.
Any Republican worth his salt will admit that when Fletcher was in office, he played fast and loose with hiring when it came to merit jobs. I am a conservative Repbulican, and I admit it.
I voted for and supported Fletcher but acknowledge that he got what he deserved for failing to follow the rules. The difference is, Republicans for the most part acknowledge our failures and seek to remove those in our party that have caused the blight. dems cannot say the same.
There may be a few in the dem party that seek honesty in government, the poster above named Rick seems an honest chap, but by and large, dem politicians are corrupt as the day is long. It is no excuse, but what Fletcher did pales in comparison to the skullduggery with which democrats have wrought upon the Commonwealth. Hades has a special place just for them.
to have him resign is out of the question he has done many wrongs however this can be done by democrats in washington,new mexico,illinois,baltimore,detroit,lexington airport,and frankfort and everyone just believes that all of it was trumpt up nonesense.
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