Ernie Fletcher
Ernest Lee Fletcher 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. Harold Fletcher also worked for Columbia Gas. When Ernie was three weeks old, Harold was transferred to Huntington, West Virginia. Two years later, the Fletchers returned to Robertson County, Kentucky, where they lived until Ernie Fletcher began the first grade. The family moved once more and finally settled in Lexington.Fletcher attended Lafayette High School in Lexington, where he was a member of the National Beta Club. During his senior year, he was an all-state saxophone player and was elected prom king. After graduating in 1970, he enrolled at the University of Kentucky. He pledged and became a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. After his freshman year, he married his high school sweetheart, Glenna Foster. The couple had two children, Rachel and Ben, and four grandchildren.
Fletcher aspired to become an astronaut, and joined the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps. In 1974, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, graduating with top honors. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Air Force. After flight training in Oklahoma, he was stationed in Alaska where he served as a F-4E Aircraft commander and NORAD Alert Force commander. During the Cold War, his duties included commanding squadrons to intercept Soviet military aircraft. In 1980, as budget cutbacks were reducing his squadron's flying time, Fletcher turned down a regular commission in the Air Force. He left the Air Force with the rank of captain, having received the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Outstanding Unit Award.
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. In 1984, he graduated medical school with a Doctor of Medicine degree, but his deteriorating eyesight forced him to abandon his dreams of becoming an astronaut.
In 1983, the Lexington Primitive Baptist church that Fletcher attended ordained him as a lay minister. In 1984, he opened a family medical practice in Lexington. Along with former classmate Dr. James D. B. George, he co-founded the South Lexington Family Physicians in 1987. For two years, he concurrently held the title of chief executive officer of the Saint Joseph Medical Foundation, an organization that solicits private gifts to Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lexington. In 1989, Fletcher's church called him to become its unpaid pastor, but over the years, he grew to question some of the church's doctrines, desiring it to become more evangelistic. Consequently, he left the Primitive Baptist denomination in 1994 and joined the Porter Memorial Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation.
Legislative career
Through his church ministry, Fletcher became acquainted with a group of social conservatives that gained control of the Fayette County Republican Party in 1990.. Fletcher accepted an invitation to become a member of the county Republican committee. In 1994, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Democrat Leslie Trapp. He represented Kentucky's 78th District and served on the Kentucky Commission on Poverty and the Task Force on Higher Education. He was also chosen by Governor Paul E. Patton to assist with reforming the state's health-care system.As a result of legislative redistricting in 1996, Fletcher's district was consolidated with the one represented by fellow Republican Stan Cave. Rather than challenge a member of his own party, Fletcher decided to run for a seat representing Kentucky's 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives later that year. After winning a three-way Republican primary by 4 votes over his closest opponent, he was defeated by incumbent Democrat Scotty Baesler by just over 25,000 votes. In 1998, Baesler resigned his seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated due to the retirement of Senator Wendell H. Ford. Fletcher won the Republican primary for Baesler's seat by a wide margin. In the general election, Fletcher faced Democrat Ernesto Scorsone. The Lexington Herald-Leader billed the race as "a classic joust between the left and the right". Fletcher was strongly opposed to abortion, advocated a "flatter, fairer, simpler" tax system, and called for returning most federal education funding to local communities. Scorsone supported abortion rights, called a flat tax "too regressive", and favored national educational testing and standards. Fletcher defeated Scorsone by a vote of 104,046 to 90,033, with third-party candidate W. S. Krogdahl garnering 1,839 votes.
Within months of arriving in Washington, D.C., Fletcher was selected as the leadership liaison for the 17-member freshman class of Republican legislators. 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. The committee's purpose is to oversee the rules for employer-paid health plans, among other issues, and although it is rare for a freshman legislator to attain a committee leadership post, Boehner cited Fletcher's experience in the medical field and work on reforming the Kentucky health care system as reasons for the appointment. Fletcher also served as a member of the House Committees on the Budget and Agriculture. In June 1999, he sponsored an amendment to a youth violence bill that allowed school districts to use federal funds to develop curricula which included elements designed to promote and enhance students' moral character; the amendment passed 422–1. Later, Fletcher was assigned to the Committee on Energy and Commerce and was selected as chairman of the Policy Subcommittee on Health.
During the debate over the proposed Patients' Bill of Rights legislation, Fletcher opposed a Democratic proposal that would have allowed individuals to sue their health maintenance organizations, favoring instead a more limited bill drafted by Republican leadership that expanded the patient's ability to appeal HMO decisions. 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. Fletcher's position cost him the support of the Kentucky Medical Association. After contributing to his campaign against Scorsone in 1998, KMA backed Scotty Baesler's bid to regain his old seat from Fletcher in 2000. However, Baesler only captured 35 percent of the vote to Fletcher's 53 percent. The remaining 12 percent went to third-party candidate Gatewood Galbraith.
After the 2000 election, Fletcher crafted a compromise bill that allowed patients to sue their HMOs in federal court, capped pain and suffering awards at $500,000, and eliminated punitive damage awards. 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.
Fletcher faced no major-party opposition in his re-election bid in 2002 after the only Democrat in the race, 24-year-old Roy Miller Cornett Jr., withdrew his candidacy. 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.