Time now for an end of week review of some major political news this week as we go inside Kentucky politics with Morgan Eves, who was a Democratic strategist and education consultant, and Trey Watson, who is the founder and leader of Capitol Rains PR.

Good to have you both here.

Great to be on.

So let's start with some news that happened today.

Probably most people suspected that Ryan Quarles is the former candidate for governor, a Republican, also former state lawmaker got the appointment.

He will be the fourth president for the Kentucky community and Technical College system.

Trey, you go.

Ryan's one of my best friends.

The world ran Zach Mr. race in 15.

Very happy for him.

I know he's excited.

You know, people kind of look at it.

Same, huh?

The commissioner But remember, he's.

He's got a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt and higher leadership, a master's from Harvard and higher ed leadership and is a lawyer.

So checks a lot of boxes and a theme of the day.

That job is largely about going to the to the to the state and federal government and asking for money.

And he's got great relationships there and proved himself very successfully at the national level.

He helped lead the last several farm bills from the from the State Department agriculture angle.

So I think he's a great fit to be able to get that that that organization kind of back on track and get the money that they need to make the changes.

They need to really be a great community college system.

Some people were concerned, Morgan, about politicizing these kind of offices, that it's higher education, not to be confused with politics or influenced by politics.

Do you think there's a fine line there?

There is a fine line, but as Trey pointed out, he is someone who has the education background that aligns with this job and equal to what Trey said, it's it's a lot about visibility and fundraising and.

Relationships and.

Relationships.

And we know who controls the budget.

That's the state legislature.

And so if he has those relationships, which he does and he had a large number of state legislators come out to endorse him during the campaign, he'll be able to have those conversations a lot easier than than people who are a little bit more removed.

From some of those board members are gubernatorial appointed.

So if Andy Beshear wanted to make a political, he probably could have.

So I think it shows that appointing a Republican is something that the governor could have could have weighed in on the show.

There's probably not as much to fear on the politics side.

Good point.

So speaking of politics, let's get down to abortion, is we keep that keeps being a resurfacing issue.

And Attorney General Daniel Cameron seems to be swapping his stories out here.

Trey.

What's that about?

Would he sign a bill that was sent to him or would he only act and include exceptions for rape and incest and the anti-abortion laws if a court made him do it?

What's really the truth here?

I think what he said on the radio was probably, you know, when you're speaking extemporaneously, it's somebody whose political events, especially when you get a question, sometimes the words don't come out exactly right.

And, you know, you've been around half lawyers, Rene.

Sometimes they pass their words in awkward ways that you're like.

But I think what's on the radio is is correct.

I think he was probably referring to because I think there's a line of demarcation between edits to this law or passing a different law on the radio.

He said that he would he would sign a law if the General Assembly passed it.

Right.

But he's also said he supports this law, which those two things aren't necessarily opposite of each other.

They, you know, they do work together.

So I think it's just it's just kind of parsing words.

And, you know, you do enough of these events sometimes the the border of words come out of your mouth.

I don't think there's any concern to think that he's he's changing positions again.

Well, some voters might see it a little differently, though, Morgan.

Kentuckians are right to be concerned about that stance.

You know, this is the first big statewide election since the constitutional amendment failed.

And I think he's struggling to capture not only the extreme part of his party, those no exception, no abortion at all believers.

And what the majority of Kentuckians showed that they believed, which is this should should be an issue that's left to individuals and not to the state.

So looking back at his changing over the past three weeks, he's had three different statements and three weeks.

He needs to get it right because this is an issue Kentuckians can care about.

And we'll see.

I'm sure there will be a fourth change to that opinion coming soon.

Well, how impactful because I haven't got a chance to ask you this.

Do you think that ad is featuring the now young woman, 21 year old, who talks about being raped by her stepfather at age 12?

Right.

How can you look at that and not feel compelled to advocate for someone like her?

She is someone who, at the age of 12, was raped by her stepfather and fell pregnant and is advocating for access to services.

People that age and people of all ages need, you know, the the the fight for exceptions to this law is real.

She's showing that it's about real people.

It's not a statistic that you can throw out there.

There are real people with real stories behind that message.

That is the most impactful campaign commercial I think we will see possibly nationwide this year.

I think if you look at the what's interesting about the abortion ads that the campaigns have been putting out, though, is it never mentions the word abortion and that's because Andy Beshear wants to talk about Daniel Cameron, but he won't talk about himself because nearly 70% of Americans support a 15 week ban, with exceptions.

And Beshear said publicly, as attorney general, he would not defend the state's 20 week ban.

So Andy Beshear is also outside of the mainstream on this issue.

So he kind of wants to point fingers at Daniel Cameron, but he doesn't want the finger pointing back himself.

So I think the wording of those ads are interesting, that they never mention the word abortion, because A&E, the governor didn't want to talk about his position, his record on that either.

So taxes, they are trying to make their positions known on income taxes.

And we know that we didn't quite make both of those triggers to have it reduced in 2025.

What's the messaging now?

I'll start with you from the Beshear camp.

When the Beshear camp is he's touting his enactment, you know, as governor, he has the power to enact laws.

So there is a recent campaign commercial that touted his ability to an act and enact those tax cuts, which he did this past legislative session.

He had vetoed the first original bill that kind of set all that up.

Correct.

And his concern, which he voiced again after signing the most recent bill, was that it could impact future funding for necessary services within the state.

He also noted that in a time of extreme inflation, it's really important to put those dollars back in Kentuckians pockets.

You can have both opinions and he and he does.

It's laughable to say he supported it.

It would have become law without it without his signature, because the legislature would have overridden a veto as he did many, many times.

He didn't support the law that actually set up the ability for the taxes to drop.

He did say he doesn't support the drop, but kind of basically said it's an election year.

So I'll let it slide.

You know, I mean, it's it's it's a humorous to me that he's attempting to take some sort of credit for it.

Now when he he fought tooth and nail against it.

More talk about always.

But thank you, both of you.

Have a great weekend.

Thank you.

Thank you.