Time now to go inside Kentucky politics as we break down the political news of the week in Kentucky with a couple of our favorite political pundits, we have Trey Grayson and Bob Babbitt.

Do you see them all the time, especially on election night, which they're still getting rave reviews about?

Let's start, gentlemen.

Thank you for being here.

Happy early holidays.

Let's talk about today and the service for Julian and Carol.

It was quite lovely, relatively short, and I think it was an hour and 5 minutes.

You were there.

I saw you there.

What did you think?

Those excellent And his service, not just the funeral service, but the comments all through the week about how he amassed power came up through the system.

A gifted orator, a scholar of all parts of state government and a very determined person to use the resources of the state at that time to overdue education in a historic way.

Yeah, and we heard from Senate President Robert Stivers, who spoke of him not just as a colleague but as a friend.

Yeah, it was interesting having that final coda to his career as a state senator where he was nearly 20 years.

That's my interaction with him.

He was he got elected the year I started in Frankfurt and he would tell history stories during the committee meetings.

And I always struggle when I run into him because I didn't know whether to call him a senator.

I know.

Or governor.

And so you just called him governor.

Mr. Speaker.

As speaker.

But yeah, he he was always heroes, young man.

He would call me young, young man when I was you know, I've been here a lot longer than you.

And, you know, we've lost quite a few governors in the last over a year.

And it's an important to understand the times in which they live, the good and the bad.

And so we can try to be all better.

And meanwhile, Paul Patton was having a book signing.

Right, right, right.

Which he probably made almost on time.

And and just the fact that Carol ask Stivers Travers, who had been his colleague in the Senate or Carol, had presided over the Senate as lieutenant governor back when that was the norm.

Pretty touching.

This was an emotional, dramatic week in many ways.

And it took him a while back, right, to provide the eulogy.

And the senator said jokingly, not any time soon.

Right.

And so it was it and you can see that service online at TED dot org.

It's right there right now.

Other big news of the week, some some court rulings.

Let's start with what happened on Thursday.

The Kentucky Supreme Court said those maps for the Congress for Congress and for the state House are good to go.

Yet for four years that whoever was in charge of the legislature obviously did gerrymandering through a partizan lens where Republicans did it when they got to control the state Senate.

Democrats have done it since they had control of everything.

But this is the first time had actually been challenged on those grounds.

So it was an issue of first impression for the Supreme Court and the decisions a little confusing because there are some concurrences in part in whole, but they were pretty united to say, yeah, you might not like it, but it's not against the Constitution to gerrymander or to draw districts up through a partizan lens.

So the districts that were drawn in 2022 will remain in effect until the next census.

Yeah, imagine what kind of chaos we would be in if it overturned on.

The lines January 5th, you had to have an immediate emergency law to push that back a couple weeks, which we've done before.

That's right.

Ten years ago.

I think they even did it two years ago to get more time when they redistricting was was delayed.

That's right.

That's correct.

And it's always going to be partizan.

But some states that you read about are really, really grim.

Gerrymandering.

Large gerrymandering in this way is gerrymandering in light.

Except to the minority party.

The minority party.

Especially were gerrymander.

Gerrymander.

Tennessee.

The Republicans got rid of the member of Congress from Nashville.

And in Kentucky, for example, there was some talk about that and they said, no, we want to keep that third district intact with Louisville, right?

Well, particularly since McConnell.

Was the leader.

Of.

Yeah, well, I'm Morgan McGarvey is probably happy to yeah that the court stuck to the plan.

Yeah the other big decision from Franklin Circuit Court Judge Philip Sheppard concerning concerning charter school funding.

So this one, unlike the redistricting, which was the final verdict because it was the Supreme Court, this is at the trial level, not a particular surprise given some of the prior rulings from the court.

But what it said was that the funding formula for charter schools, which was passed a couple of years ago but we don't have any charter schools yet, was struck down basically, the judge at separate said we have this definition of common schools and any money you spend on public education, K-12 public education has to basically go through that common school formula.

So we expect it to be a challenge, although interestingly, the Department of Education will not, even though they're the plaintiff or the defendant, let's say they are the defendant, they will not be party to that, but the attorney general will probably weigh in and allow it to go up.

And so this one will go to the Supreme Court where we'll have to see what it weighs in.

But it is an opening loss.

And there is a charter school application pending.

Yeah, come out of Madison County.

Fontaine.

This one up in the air.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We'll have to keep following that.

Finally, Senator Damon Thayer joins the rash of announcements he's had in the last three or four weeks about retirements.

He doesn't like the word retirement requirement.

Yeah, that's a good word.

I can't say it, but that's a good way to proceed to the next chapter.

Right.

And many were shocked by this.

Were you Bob.

Babbitt?

Say you remember where you were when you heard it?

Yeah.

Yeah, it was.

Big news is big news.

He's had a tremendous impact in his 12 years as leader, 22 years as senator.

And people expressed some shock that he offers the possibility he might run for governor.

I heard talk of a game.

They are statewide 15 or 20 years ago.

I can do that.

But he's always been a prospect just because he is dynamic and a workhorse, to say the.

Least, or a federal office.

Right?

If there was not an incumbent Republican incumbent, he could see himself going to Washington.

Yeah, we've.

Got a couple of dominoes.

The Senate race, the governor's race, and a whole lot of damage.

And I was texting last night.

He's really excited about trying to figure this out, whether it's as a pause for elective politics.

Hiatus is what.

I hate is.

Yes.

Or if it's just to go on to find a new chapter.

Enough to do it.

Either way, let's just say Andy Barr runs for the Senate in 2016.

Sure.

Yeah.

A lot to keep our eyes on the time is never long enough, but it's always good to see you all before the holidays.

And check out the pants and the shoes and the shoes, the socks.

Babbage didn't quite meet the challenge to find.

A role in his defense.

He That's true.

That's true.

But, you know, certainly Trank got the memo.

Oh.

We're going to wear pants.

I never wear pants to a funeral.

Yeah, that's.

A good choice.

Yeah.

Thank you, guys.

Thanks.