Ernest Lee Fletcher (born November 12, 1952) is an American politician who was the 60th governor of Kentucky from 2003 to 2007. He previously served three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives before resigning after being elected governor. A member of the Republican Party, Fletcher was a family practice physician and a Baptist lay minister and is the second physician to be elected Governor of Kentucky; the first was Luke P. Blackburn in 1879. He was also the first Republican governor of Kentucky since Louie Nunn left office in 1971.
Fletcher graduated from the University of Kentucky and joined the United States Air Force to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut. He left the Air Force after budget cuts reduced his squadron's flying time and earned a degree in medicine, hoping to earn a spot as a civilian on a space mission. Deteriorating eyesight eventually ended those hopes, and he entered private practice as a physician and conducted services as a Baptist lay minister. He became active in politics and was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1994. Two years later he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost to incumbent Scotty Baesler. When Baesler retired to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Fletcher again ran for the congressional seat and defeated Democratic state senator Ernesto Scorsone. He soon became one of the House Republican caucus's leaders regarding health care legislation, particularly the Patients' Bill of Rights.
Fletcher was elected governor in 2003 over state Attorney General Ben Chandler. Early in his term, Fletcher achieved some savings to the state by reorganizing the executive branch. He proposed an overhaul to the state tax code in 2004, but was unable to get it passed through the General Assembly. When Republicans in the state senate insisted on tying the reforms to the state budget, the legislature adjourned without passing either and the state operated under an executive spending plan drafted by Fletcher until 2005, when both the budget and the reforms were passed.
Later in 2005, Attorney General Greg Stumbo, the state's highest-ranking Democrat, launched an investigation into whether the Fletcher administration's hiring practices violated the state's merit system. A grand jury returned several indictments against members of Fletcher's staff, and eventually against Fletcher himself. Fletcher issued pardons for anyone on his staff implicated in the investigation, but did not pardon himself. Though the investigation was ended by an agreement between Fletcher and Stumbo in late 2006, it continued to overshadow Fletcher's re-election bid in 2007. After turning back a challenge in the Republican primary by former Congresswoman Anne Northup, Fletcher lost the general election to Democrat Steve Beshear. After his term as governor, he returned to the medical field as founder and CEO of Alton Healthcare. He is married and has two adult children.
Early life
Ernest Lee Fletcher was born in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, on November 12, 1952. He was the third of four children born to Harold Fletcher Sr. and his wife, Marie. The family owned a farm and operated a general store near the community of Means. When Ernie was three weeks old, Harold was transferred to Huntington, West Virginia. After graduating in 1970, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky. After his freshman year, he married his high school sweetheart, Glenna Foster. In 1974, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, graduating with top honors. During the Cold War, his duties included commanding squadrons to intercept Soviet military aircraft.
Fletcher enrolled in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, hoping that a medical degree, along with a military background, would earn him a civilian spot on a space mission. Fletcher was strongly opposed to abortion, advocated a "flatter, fairer, simpler" tax system, and called for returning most federal education funding to local communities. He was appointed to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and John Boehner, chair of the committee's employer/employee relations subcommittee, chose Fletcher as his vice-chair. Many doctors in the Republican legislative caucus felt their party's bill did not go far enough; Fletcher and Tennessee Senator Bill Frist were notable exceptions. After contributing to his campaign against Scorsone in 1998, KMA backed Scotty Baesler's bid to regain his old seat from Fletcher in 2000. Despite an eventual compromise allowing patient lawsuits to go to state courts under certain circumstances and heavy lobbying in favor of Fletcher's bill by President George W. Bush, the House refused to pass it, favoring an alternative proposal by Georgia's Charlie Norwood that was less restrictive on patient lawsuits. Independent Gatewood Galbraith again made the race; Libertarian Mark Gailey also mounted a challenge. In the final vote tally, Fletcher received 115,522 votes to Galbraith's 41,853 and Gailey's 3,313. On December 2, 2002, he announced that he would run on a ticket with McConnell aide Hunter Bates. Bob Heleringer, a former state representative from suburban Louisville and the running mate of Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Nunn, joined the suit as a plaintiff.
Fletcher chose Steve Pence, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, as his new running mate. The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected that argument on May 7, 2003, though the justices' reasons for doing so varied and the final opinion conceded that "[t]his is a close case on the law, and Heleringer has presented legal issues worthy of this court's time and attention". Fletcher capitalized on these issues, promising to "clean up the mess" in Frankfort, and won the election by 109,125 votes. The plan was drafted with input from seven Democratic legislators in the House, none of them in leadership roles, leading to claims that Fletcher was trying to circumvent House leadership. As the session wore on, Republicans insisted on tying the tax reform package to the proposed state budget, while Democrats wanted to vote on the measures separately.
The 2004 session marked the second consecutive session in which the General Assembly had failed to pass a biennial budget; the first occurred in 2002 under Governor Patton. As it had been in 2002, spending was governed by an executive spending plan created by the governor.
On May 19, 2005, the Kentucky Supreme Court issued a 4–3 decision stating that the General Assembly had acted unconstitutionally by not passing a budget and that Fletcher had acted outside his constitutional authority by spending money not specifically appropriated by the legislature. The majority opinion rejected the lower court's exception for "specific essential services", saying "If the legislative department fails to appropriate funds deemed sufficient to operate the executive department at a desired level of services, the executive department must serve the citizenry as best it can with what it is given. If the citizenry deems those services insufficient, it will exercise its own constitutional power – the ballot."
Legislative interim and 2005 legislative session
In June 2004, Fletcher's aircraft caused a security scare that triggered a brief evacuation of the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court building. Shortly after takeoff en route to memorial services for former president Ronald Reagan, the transponder on Fletcher's plane malfunctioned, leading officials at Reagan National Airport to report an unauthorized aircraft entering restricted airspace. The investigation determined that miscommunication by air traffic controllers sparked the panic, and in the aftermath of the incident, the FAA adopted policies to prevent future errors of a similar nature. Shortly after the announcement, late-night comedians Craig Kilborn and Jay Leno made some tongue-in-cheek suggestions for the new slogan on The Late Late Show and The Tonight Show, respectively. Eventually, four slogans were chosen to be voted on online as well as at interstate travel centers. In December 2004, "Kentucky: Unbridled Spirit" was chosen as the winning slogan and was printed on road signs, state documents, and souvenirs. Further, 64% of those surveyed across a ten-state region recognized the slogan and logo, higher than any other brand tested in the study. Acknowledging that out-of-pocket expenses would rise, Fletcher proposed a 1% salary increase to offset the additional costs. Immediately after the session adjourned, the Kentucky Educators Association voted to cancel their proposed strike. A group of doctors requested an investigation by the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure to determine whether Fletcher's medical license should be revoked for that action.
During the General Assembly's 2005 session, Fletcher again proposed his tax reform plan, and late in the session, both houses passed it. The plan raised sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, as well as upping taxes on satellite television service and motel rooms. Businesses were also subjected to a gross receipts tax. The investigation was prompted by a 276-page complaint filed by Douglas W. Doerting, the assistant personnel director for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. Upon his return from Japan, Fletcher denied that the "mistakes" by his administration were illegal and called the investigation by Stumbo "the beginning of the 2007 governor's race", an allusion to Stumbo's potential candidacy in 2007. All of the indictments were for misdemeanors such as conspiracy except those against Administrative Services Commissioner Dan Druen, who was charged with 22 felonies (20 counts of physical evidence tampering and 2 counts of witness tampering) in addition to 13 misdemeanors. Fletcher exempted himself from the blanket pardon.
In mid-September, after Fletcher issued the pardons, a Courier-Journal poll found Fletcher's approval rating at 38 percent, tying the lowest rating reached by his predecessor, Paul E. Patton, during the sex scandal that tarnished his administration. On September 14, 2005, Fletcher fired nine employees, including four of the nine he pardoned two weeks earlier. The firings were praised by Fletcher critic Charles Wells of the Kentucky Association of State Employees, who said: "When all else fails, the governor did the right thing."
The grand jury continued its investigation, issuing five more indictments after Fletcher issued his blanket pardon. Two were returned against members of Fletcher's staff, and two were against unpaid advisors to Fletcher. Immediately after the Court of Appeals' ruling, Fletcher announced his intent to appeal the ruling to the Kentucky Supreme Court. Doctors at St. Joseph East hospital in Lexington found a gallstone in his common bile duct and also diagnosed him with an inflamed pancreas and gallbladder disease. Fletcher staffers insisted that his absence did not have a negative impact on his ability to get legislation passed during the session. A right-to-work law and a repeal of the state's prevailing wage law – both advocated by Fletcher – failed early in the session, but both had been considered unlikely to pass before the session started.
The Assembly passed a biennial budget, but did not allow enough time in the session to reconvene and potentially override any of Fletcher's vetoes. In an attempt to avoid "excessive debt", Fletcher used his line-item veto to trim $370 million in projects from the budget passed by the Assembly.
One of Fletcher's priorities that was not resolved during the session was the correction of unintended tax increases on businesses that resulted from the tax reform plan passed in 2005. Fletcher called a special legislative session for mid-June so that the legislature could amend the plan and also authorize tax breaks designed to lure a proposed FutureGen power plant to Henderson. Republican Senate President David L. Williams asked Fletcher to include tax breaks for other businesses as well, but Fletcher insisted on a sparse legislative agenda. The session convened for five days and passed the tax breaks and amended tax reform plan unanimously in both houses. Fletcher applauded the legislature's efficiency.
Investigation concludes
As the Kentucky Supreme Court prepared to hear Fletcher's appeal on whether the grand jury could continue to indict people covered by his blanket pardon, two of the court's seven justices recused themselves from the case, citing conflicts of interest. Kentucky's constitution provides that, in the case of more than one recusal on the court, the governor is to appoint special justices to replace them. The Kentucky Supreme Court sustained Stumbo's complaint. The ruling did not affect indictments for crimes allegedly committed after the pardon was issued.
Just prior to the Supreme Court's ruling, the grand jury handed down indictments against Fletcher for three misdemeanors – conspiracy, official misconduct, and political discrimination. Fletcher did not appear at his arraignment on June 9 because he was on vacation in Florida; his attorney entered "not guilty" pleas to all three charges on his behalf. Melcher asked that the two sides work together to reach a settlement in the case. On August 24, Fletcher and Stumbo announced such an agreement.
2007 gubernatorial election
thumb|right|upright|alt=A brown-haired woman in her early fifties wearing a white blouse, black jacket, and pearl earrings|Anne Northup challenged Fletcher in the 2007 Republican gubernatorial primary.
In early 2005, Fletcher announced his intent to run for re-election. Shortly after Fletcher was indicted by the grand jury in 2006, Lieutenant Governor Pence announced that he would not be Fletcher's running mate during his re-election bid. Senator Mitch McConnell, the consensus leader of the Kentucky Republican Party, declined to make an endorsement in the primary, but conceded that Northup was "a formidable opponent". Northup secured the endorsements of Jim Bunning, Kentucky's other Republican senator, and Lieutenant Governor Pence. In the primary, Fletcher garnered over 50% of the vote and secured the party's nomination. His rival Northup struggled with name recognition and found few areas of support outside the Louisville district she represented in Congress. Democrats nominated former Lieutenant Governor Steve Beshear to challenge Fletcher. Additional legislation stalled after negotiations over how to make the state's retirement system solvent reached an impasse. In July, Fletcher called the session and included 67 items on its agenda. Democrats in the state House of Representatives maintained that none of the items were urgent enough to warrant a special session.
In the general election campaign, Fletcher attempted to make the expansion of casino gambling, rather than the merit system investigation, the central issue. Beshear favored holding a referendum on a constitutional amendment to allow expanded casino gambling in the state, while Fletcher maintained that expanded gambling would bring an increase in crime and societal ills. He has served as CEO of the company, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 2008.