I want you to take a look at this quote from Fox News following the election of Steve Beshear over Ernie Fletcher:
Twenty years after a failed run for governor, Democrat Steve Beshear capped a political comeback with a lopsided victory over Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican weakened by a damaging hiring scandal.
"People were ready for a change," Beshear said of Tuesday's election result. "They were, I think, fed up with what's gone on the last four years."Fletcher won four years earlier on a campaign promise to clean up Frankfort but was indicted on misdemeanor charges that he rewarded politically connected Republicans with jobs at the expense of Democrats. [Fox News]
Now, today, Jacob Payne over at PageOneKentucky.com is all over the story reported by the Courier Journal that the Mongiardo campaign is actively using its web technology to potentially reward people with job appointments by the Governor.
Yes, I know these are non-merit positions, but this is so closely tied to the Mongiardo campaign as to reek of political payoff in exchange for CPR for his dying senate bid.
An e-mail sent Monday by Richard Starnes, chief technology officer for the Mongiardo campaign, lists openings on nine state boards and asks that names of potential appointees be sent to Dick Prelopski, the [Mongiardo] campaign's director of field operations.
Prelopski, who resigned as an executive director in the Beshear administration’s Department for Local Government on June 30 to join the Mongiardo campaign, said he directed the e-mail be sent to help the administration find applicants for jobs that can be hard to fill.
Mark Riddle, campaign manager for Attorney General Jack Conway, Mongiardo’s main Democratic opponent in next year’s Senate race, said he found the e-mail troubling.“Campaign e-mails should not imply that Mongiardo operatives have the ability to influence official actions of the governor,” Riddle said. [C-J]
Well, Mark, I have a suggestion, get your boss, the Attorney General, to investigate this and the other looming "blow up" that Mongiardo has apparently now leaked to the press.
It seems that in exchange for his threatened exposure of some "Fletcher like" problems he knew about in the Beshear administration, Mongiardo has successfully gotten Beshear back in the row boat.
So much so in fact that Beshear is giving the appearance that his former Director of Local Governments is cleared to offer jobs to people seemingly in exchange for support of Mongiardo.
Hey Jack Conway, if you don't know what to do, call Greg Stumbo!
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