Wallace Glenn Wilkinson (December 12, 1941 – July 5, 2002) was an American businessman and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. From 1987 to 1991, he served as the state's 57th governor. Wilkinson dropped out of college at the University of Kentucky in 1962 to attend to a book retail business he started. The business rapidly became a national success, and Wilkinson re-invested his profits in real estate, farming, transportation, banking, coal, and construction ventures, becoming extremely wealthy. In 1987, he joined a crowded field in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. After running behind two former governors and the sitting lieutenant governor for most of the race, Wilkinson began to climb in the polls after hiring then-unknown campaign consultant James Carville. Wilkinson campaigned on a promise of no new taxes and advocated a state lottery as an alternative means of raising money for the state. Wilkinson surprised most political observers by winning the primary and going on to defeat his Republican challenger in the general election.
Wilkinson was able to secure passage of a constitutional amendment allowing a state lottery. He also helped craft a significant education reform bill in response to a ruling by the Kentucky Supreme Court that declared the state's entire public school system unconstitutional. Wilkinson's term was plagued by political scandal and an uneasy relationship with the state legislature. He advocated an amendment to the state constitution that would allow him to seek a second consecutive term as governor, but the amendment was defeated in the General Assembly. His wife Martha attempted to succeed him, but withdrew from the campaign amid weak support for her candidacy. Following his term as governor, Wilkinson encountered difficult financial times. In 2001, he was sued by a group of creditors, and during the proceedings, it was revealed that he was operating a Ponzi scheme to keep his businesses afloat. Both he and his wife Martha filed for bankruptcy later that year. In 2002, Wilkinson was hospitalized with arterial blockages. His condition was complicated by a recurrence of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He suffered a stroke on July 4, 2002, and his family withdrew his life support the following day in accordance with his previously expressed wishes.
Early life
Wallace Wilkinson was born on a farm in Casey County, Kentucky, about southwest of the city of Liberty, on December 12, 1941. The son of Hershel and Cleo (Lay) Wilkinson, he had two older brothers and a younger sister. His parents were farmers and also operated a small general store. and Andrew Stafford Wilkinson (1972); Later, he and two friends borrowed money to open the Kentucky Paperback Gallery in Lexington; Wilkinson left school later that year to attend to the business full-time. At the time, Kentucky high school students were required to purchase their own textbooks, but there was no marketplace for buying and selling used books; Wilkinson's business catered to this market and was highly successful. In January 1971, he considered issuing more stock to raise capital to buy Providence, Rhode Island–based Barnes & Noble, but the executive committee of Wallace's was averse to purchasing a company so far away and blocked the move. After investing in the unfinished Bluegrass Commerce Center in Lexington in early 1977, he purchased one-third interest in the Purcell building on Lexington's Vine Street later that year. In 1984, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government secured a lease from Wilkinson to develop a temporary municipal park on the site. Critics claimed that the city-county government bailed Wilkinson out of a bad investment by purchasing the property from him and by giving him a government-subsidized, low interest rate on his $12 million mortgage for the apartment building. In 1977, Wilkinson had provided Jernigan with start-up money for Jernigan Export Timber, Inc., a company that manufactured and exported wood veneers internationally. The company went defunct around the time of Jernigan's divorce from his wife, the secretary-treasurer of the company, in December 1980. Wilkinson said he had been making the requested payments, but that when he refused Jernigan's request on April 10, Jernigan presented him with a four-page suicide note, then produced a pistol and told Wilkinson, "I'm going to kill you first." Wilkinson, who owned an interest in New Farmers National Bank, told Aldridge he needed $500,000 as soon as possible. The court-appointed psychiatrist found Jernigan competent to stand trial, and he was released in late May on a $25,000 bond. On July 18, 1984, Jernigan's son Randy found him dead in the room.
Political life
After announcing his plans for the World Coal Center, Wilkinson began attending meetings of the Lexington Urban City Council, where he advocated his fiscally conservative political views. In the 1983 Democratic gubernatorial primary, he served as finance chairman for Harvey Sloane's campaign. After a month of consideration, however, Wilkinson endorsed the entire Democratic ticket. The following year, he managed former governor Brown's brief senatorial campaign. Relatively unknown statewide, Wilkinson was the first candidate to enter the race. Wilkinson financed his own campaign and campaign manager Danny Briscoe suggested that he hire a campaign consultant to reach out to the state's large concentration of undecided voters. Meanwhile, Wilkinson attacked all of his opponents in the race as political insiders while touting his own rise from poverty to financial success. While Harper began his general election campaign immediately, Wilkinson made few public appearances – except for fundraisers – until the second week in September. He also refused to endorse the $125 million education reform measure that sitting governor Martha Layne Collins had guided through the legislature in 1985, which cost him the endorsement of the Kentucky Education Association. The association endorsed Harper, marking the first time in its history it had endorsed a Republican gubernatorial candidate, but endorsed Brereton C. Jones, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.
Harper attacked Wilkinson's lottery proposal as "Alice in Wonderland" economics. Gary Stafford, Wilkinson's brother-in-law who was serving as president of Wallace's Book Store, pleaded guilty to illegal wiretapping and rolling back the odometers on company vehicles. Gable also hired a private investigator who determined that there was "substantial reason" to suspect that foul play was involved in the death of Wilkinson's business partner, Jerome Jernigan. Harper was at a substantial fundraising disadvantage, raising only $225,000 for the entire campaign compared to Wilkinson's $8 million. This left him unable to purchase enough media time to solidify any of the ethical questions about Wilkinson in the voters' minds.
In the general election, Wilkinson defeated Harper by a vote of 504,674 to 273,141. Under governors Brown and Collins, the legislature had become increasingly independent of the governor, and Lexington Herald-Leader reporters opined that House Speaker Don Blandford and Senate President Pro Tem John "Eck" Rose would be reluctant to cede power back to the chief executive. A month later, Wilkinson recanted, saying he "misspoke" and only intended to use his PAC to promote passage of the lottery amendment. Despite the governor's promise, the legislature passed Rose's bill. During the campaign, Jones was quoted as saying that he had talked with Wilkinson about being more open with the press and said that, if elected, he would not be a "yes man" for Wilkinson. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported that this would not be Jones' primary role in the administration but that no other specifics had been provided. Another amendment passed during Wilkinson's term required landowner approval before strip mining could occur on a piece of property. The amendment became one of Wilkinson's top priorities in the 1988 legislative session, and he threatened to work against legislators who opposed it. After the session, Jones told a crowd in Owensboro that if Wilkinson called a special session to insist that legislators pass his educational agenda, that the General Assembly would probably "throw it back in his face".
Creation of the Kentucky Lottery
Leaders of the Southern Baptists and United Methodists led opposition to the amendment during Wilkinson's administration, activating the Coalition Against a State Lottery. Days after the election, Wilkinson signed a proclamation calling a special legislative session to begin November 28 to pass legislation to implement the lottery. The call instructed the legislature to consider a bill based on the recommendations of Wilkinson's lottery commission. The other seven members of the board would serve staggered terms, would be appointed by the governor, and be confirmed by the Senate. The suit was brought against Wilkinson's predecessor, Martha Layne Collins, and several members of the state government by a group of poor school districts as a means to equalize funding for all the state's school districts. An advocate for education, Wilkinson dropped the governor's office's defense in the suit and joined the plaintiffs when Corns' decision was appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court. On appeal, the Supreme Court declared Kentucky's entire public school system unconstitutional and mandated that the legislature reform it. Wilkinson presented a budget proposal to the General Assembly that contained measures increasing taxes on cigarettes and corporations and eliminating sales tax exemptions on legal, engineering, and advertising services. Legislators favored raising the sales tax to six percent instead. Then on March 9, 1990, Wilkinson announced that he would drop his opposition to the tax in exchange for the Assembly's approval of a $600 million bond issue to finance road improvements he had promised during the campaign. On April 11, 1990, the Assembly passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) to comply with the Supreme Court's decision. Besides increasing funding for schools, it mandated high performance measures and held schools accountable for meeting them. Wilkinson threatened to veto the measure, claiming he did not need the General Assembly's approval to issue the bonds, but ultimately, he chose to allow it to become law without his signature. Most of the overridden vetoes were on bills strengthening the legislative branch relative to the executive branch. One allowed the legislature to call itself into session – a power constitutionally reserved for the governor – if two-thirds of its members signed a petition to do so.
The political debates and posturing leading up to the passing of KERA also permanently breached the relationship between Wilkinson and Lieutenant Governor Jones. During a teachers' rally in Frankfort, Jones was sympathetic to their demands for more money for education than Wilkinson was supporting. Additionally, Scott Paper Company opened a plant near Owensboro and North American Stainless, a Spanish-owned steel company, located a plant near Carrollton.
The Wilkinson administration was dogged by ethical questions that eventually resulted in prosecution of some members. Before being elected governor, Wilkinson asked the Kentucky attorney general to rule on his ownership of the Holiday Inn Capital Plaza Hotel in Frankfort. The ruling stated that he should sell the hotel, and in November 1987, Kentucky Central Life Insurance, a state-regulated company, purchased the property for $12 million, which included $8.2 million of debt. Kentucky Central became insolvent in 1994 and was ordered into liquidation. The following year, Kentucky Insurance Commissioner George Nichols III assumed the liquidation and brought suit against Wilkinson stating that the property was only worth $6 million. Franklin County Circuit Judge Earl O'Bannon dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Wilkinson had not knowingly participated in Kentucky Central's breach of financial responsibility, even though it had, in his words, an "odor of politics." The move was widely seen as a surrogate candidacy so that her husband could continue his administration for a second consecutive term. Jones, who succeeded Wilkinson as governor, used the provisions of the law to remove Wilkinson and several of his appointees from the university boards.
On February 5, 2001, a group of Wilkinson's creditors filed suit to have his companies seized. Wallace's Bookstore was liquidated for just over $31 million, and ecampus.com was sold for $2.5 million. Wilkinson had previously instructed his family not to continue life support after all hope of recovery was gone; accordingly, they decided to withdraw life support, and Wilkinson died on July 5, 2002. He was originally buried at Blue Grass Memorial Gardens in Nicholasville, Kentucky. In August 2002, his coffin was moved to a locked mausoleum at Sarasota Memorial Park in Sarasota, Florida; the family chose July 4, 2002 as the date of death for his marker.