Time now for our end of week.

Check in on some major political developments this week inside Kentucky politics with our dynamic duo from McCarthy Solutions.

We have on the left side of the screen Sherman Brown, a Democratic strategist.

On the right side, Amy Wickliffe, a Republican consultant and strategist.

Thank you both for being with us.

So let's just talk about the bills that the governor signed at the time.

We should say a disclaimer.

We taped this conversation on Thursday afternoon, shortly after 4 p.m.. Lots could happen by the time we make air on Friday.

But Sherman, can you give us some perspective about the kinds of bills that the governor has been signing up to this point?

I think what you've seen so far is the governor bringing people in, signing some some bills that are bipartisan in nature.

There's a lot of a lot of bills that he's had seeing made a Bledsoe's first bill that she had passed, recognizing her for that he's had folks come in and call them together, kind of doing several bills at a time, both on Wednesday and on on Thursday during his regular weekly address and talking to folks, having, you know, four or five bills signing those, going over each of those individually.

He's done some other he's done more bills than that overall.

As far as as far as signing throughout the throughout the day and getting those over to the secretary of state to be enrolled.

I want to go to you now, Amy, and ask you about there are some bills that are pretty substantial that are left for the General Assembly to reconcile when they go back into session Wednesday and Thursday.

Talk to us about what we still could see.

And, of course, they forfeit their opportunity to override any veto.

So this must be fairly safe, bipartisan legislation that they think the governor will also favor that they're going to pass.

I think you would hope so.

You are certainly going to see a medical marijuana probably take its next step and hopefully final step here in the house.

Sports betting is still a bill that awaits action in the Senate.

I know that they are looking to make sure that they've got those votes in the Senate as proponents try to work to see that across the finish line.

The bourbon barrel tax issue is one that remains on the list of things to get done.

And this is a bill that is supported by Kentucky's distillers to try to make sure that we maintain the competitiveness in the distillery business here in Kentucky by trying to phase out that tax on a local level to make sure that that is not a barrier for more businesses to grow throughout the state.

So lots more work to be done.

There's a lot of also low hanging fruit as well to be done there.

Senate Bill 79, which is a great measure proposed by Senator Julie Rocky Adams, alongside Secretary of State Michael Adams, which seeks to expand the address competency parity program for victims of domestic violence and stalking.

So a lot of those issues that don't necessarily make the news every day but are going to be real tangible wins once they cross the finish line.

Absolutely.

And we've covered all of those bills.

And I want to ask you a little bit more about some of the bills Sherman had talked about that the governor was taking approach almost thematically about what he was giving special highlight attention to.

And there are some measures that he signed that have real implications.

And we don't talk a lot about them.

But the key scholarship program and that expansion to cover proprietary schools and military.

I just want to give you a little bit of time to talk about how significant that piece of legislation is.

Yes, Senate Bill 54, which was sponsored by Senator Jerry and Jerry Carpenter.

This has been a bill that proponents have worked on for several years at the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce supports it.

The Kentucky Farm Bureau, the Homebuilders Association.

It really seeks to make sure that those key dollars that that students earn while they're in high school can follow them where they go.

So if those students choose to want to go directly into a trade school, specifically in a program that is deemed a high workforce demand sector, meaning we need more workers in those job sectors, that those key scholarships could follow that student there.

So we believe that that is going to open up a lot more help to address our workforce workforce shortage in some key areas.

Clearly, the governor saw that as part of a group of bills that would help address the workforce shortage.

So we were grateful to see him sign that bill.

Yeah, So let's talk a little bit in the time remaining of there has been some action and the governor's race on the Republican side in that primary.

And we get so consumed with the legislature, oftentimes we give short shrift to this.

But I'll start again with you, Amy, on this.

A lot of movement here and the candidates are seeking to stake their claim from an op ed from Allen Keck to a new plan by Ryan Corales.

And it seems that Cameron and Crafters is mix it up on these ads.

That's right.

We have entered the time of the gubernatorial primary where it's a matter of how many hands can you shake across the state and how many living rooms can you be in by virtue of armed media or paid media on TV and the news?

We did see that op ed from Allen came out this morning talking about how he is the authentic candidate in the race.

Ryan Corales is talking about a tax plan, about ending the death tax, about making sure that coal severance tax dollars go solely back to those counties who earn those dollars, but also talks about foster care and adoption and making sure that our kids have an easier way to work themselves through the process and asking churches to step up.

And then, of course, we've seen on the airwaves Kelly Kraft, of course, has been on TV, I believe, since December.

She is the only candidate who has been on TV.

Although I will say I believe I saw that Eric Peters made a tiny buy up in northern Kentucky.

We're unsure what that is.

I would expect more candidates to go up on air as we near I think we're going to be about seven weeks out from the primary.

So now is the time where all of our focus will really shift to that race.

And I think you'll see candidates try to make very good distinctions between themselves and try to separate themselves from the pack.

The governor has a primary.

He has Pappy Martin in there, who was a Republican before in the late nineties.

And, of course, Jeff Yang.

So what what does the governor do during this time?

Sherman Brown I think you're going to you're going to see him keep doing what he's been doing as far as just his talking points, you know, across the board.

The good part is that he the talking points that he's using are things that he can talk about for the last three years.

You know, being in crisis.

Governor, looking at what he's done with both the floods, the tornadoes, the ice storms kind of going through there and just showing up for Kentucky families, the economy, I mean, where we are right now with with just the electric battery, just that part of the electric battery capital of the world, you're going to you're going to hear those that term over and over and over of order as okay, in Glendale or certain elements in Hopkinsville and a C in Bowling Green.

You're going to hear a lot about those over the over the next couple of months.

And then I think also just the bipartisan nature of things that he's been able to do, getting things done.

And, you know, look at the Brant Spence Bridge project in northern Kentucky that has been a project has been going on for, you know, the needed for for decades and being able to get that done.

But in addition to that, the clean water programs, most of which are in eastern Kentucky, just announced that this past week, you know, that I think those are going to be things you're going to hear about for him over the course of this night, not just for the next six weeks, but but ongoing.

I think that's where it will be.

And he enjoys being the most popular Democratic governor in the country right now.

And again, another thing you're going to hear about, and he's got that.

And it's just from, you know, being out in front of everybody, Amy talked about shaking hands and being on TV.

The earned media, having an hour a day to talk about what and answer any question that was thrown at him during COVID, literally just anything that people wanted to ask.

He just that's going to that's going to give him just a benefit over the next over the next, you know, seven months.

Yeah.

Well, I certainly will say that even some of the Republican contenders have taken up some of the ideas of Governor Beshear medical marijuana.

We've had some endorsement of that and teacher pay.

So we'll see how those messages continue to play out in the weeks to come before May 16th.

Thank you.

Sherman Brown.

Thank you, Amy Wickliffe, it's good to see you.

I hope you're getting some good rest and I'll see you next week.

Thank you.