Beshear: “I’m ready to get to work” ABC 36 sits down with governor-elect

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — Governor-Elect Andy Beshear will be inaugurated a week from Tuesday.

ABC 36’s Christy Bollinger sat down with him for our first one-on-one interview since the election and covered a lot of ground.

“What kind of governor do you want to be?” asked Bollinger.

“I want to be a caring, thoughtful, productive governor for all Kentuckians. Whether people voted for me or not, I want to do a good job by them,” answers Beshear.

Next week, Beshear will be sworn in as the state’s highest-ranking officer. We asked him what comes next after that day.

“In the first seven days that I’m governor we’re going to reorganize the Board of Education to ensure that its members support public education. We’re gonna restore the voting rights to all non-violent felons that have served out their terms. That’s over 140,000 people. We’re gonna rescind the Medicaid waiver which would remove healthcare from 95,000 Kentuckians and we’re gonna save about $200-million while we’re doing it,” says the governor-elect.

Beshear says he also wants to change the tone in Frankfort. Ss he puts it, restore civility.

“We have an opportunity to truly lead. To show people that we can be a model of civility. That when we agree, let’s enjoy it and move forward. When we disagree, no more name calling. We don’t need to make each other miserable,” says Beshear.

He’s an advocate for public education, long before he ran for governor and before making promises to teachers during the campaign.

“A $2,000 across-the-board raise is gonna be in my first budget. That’s to address a teacher shortage that is hurting our students but that’s also because I believe no teacher should be living in poverty or relative poverty by doing work that we desperately need them to do,” says Beshear.

And he’s promised to protect teachers’ pensions. But how is he going to do all this? And, who’s going to pay for it?

“There’s never gonna be enough money for everything we need to do. So let’s lead with our values. Mine start with public education. We’re gonna do what needs to be done to move our education system forward, to give opportunity for all our kids, to make sure we’re not failing one of them,” says Beshear.

Despite Beshear’s vocal support of public education, he’s been criticized for sending his own children to private school.

“My kids got an opportunity that all kids should and that’s to go to preschool. So my kids in preschool went to a school that my family fell in love with so they’re gonna finish out elementary there. My son is going to be going to a public middle school next year,” says the governor-elect.

Beshear knows he has many challenges ahead, including how he’s going to work with a republican-controlled legislature and attorney general’s office to avoid political gridlock. He’s optimistic that can happen.

“We started our initial conversations and I think we’ve all agreed to wipe the slate clean. Let’s start fresh, all of us with each other, with how we interact. Let’s try to do this right. I think everybody sees our opportunity here,” says Beshear.

He says these meetings have been good, positive.

“We know some areas that we’ll disagree on. We don’t talk about ’em right now. Let’s establish the areas we know we can move forward in,” says Beshear.

We all know the contentious relationship Beshear had as AG with Governor Matt Bevin. He wants his relationship with Attorney General-Elect Daniel Cameron to be different.

“I think that he and I both want a relationship where we can talk and we won’t always agree,” says Beshear about Cameron.

Beshear and Bevin’s many legal battles grabbed headlines but Beshear says that kind of adversarial relationship is often the norm.

“An AG has had to sue a governor on something just about every term even when everybody was in the same party. Just because we might not agree on an ultimate position of law and we have to go the courts to settle it doesn’t mean we have to be disagreeable. That’s the process,” says Beshear.

Despite spending the last four years as political enemies, Beshear says since the election his relationship with Bevin has improved.

“He has been very good in advising his folks about the transition and to work with us. So we’re looking forward to being ready on day one and the governor is helping to enable that to happen,” says Beshear.

His journey will begin next Tuesday, December 10th.

“I’m ready. I’m ready to get to work,” says Beshear.