Governor Beshear shifts money to keep a meal program for senior citizens going.

A challenger to Congressman Thomas Massie, with President Trump's backing, jumps into the race.

Democrats and Republicans choose their candidates in a special state Senate election in Louisville.

A key lawmaker again pushes an amendment to restrict a governor's power to pardon.

Heading into the week that leads to Halloween and then November.

Comment is next on KET.

You can feel that fall.

Chill out there.

Good evening, I'm Bill Bryant.

We welcome you to comment on Kentucky, a look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Sylvia Goodman, Capitol reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, Laura Cullen, Glasscock, editor and publisher of the Kentucky Gazette.

And joining us remotely is Russ Cassidy, regional editor of Appalachian Newspapers.

Also tonight, a new emphasis on tourism in eastern Kentucky, and no Kings rallies were held across the state.

We'll start with the move this week to keep a senior meal program going.

Governor Beshear shifted around about $9 million in what he calls a temporary solution.

>> No Kentuckian should face hunger.

And while I'm glad we found a temporary solution, we must ensure that we understand our people's needs as well as the cost controls and procedures for the senior meal program to appropriately budget and run these programs in the future.

>> Sylvia $305 million state budget shortfall and the end of the Covid era dollars means these programs were on the verge of being substantially cut, right?

>> And essentially, they were.

So during the Covid era when there was these extra funds coming to the state, Beshear told area development districts that they should get rid of their wait lists, that they should use this extra funding to significantly increase their rolls.

And they did.

And so for some of these places, their rolls doubled or even tripled in some cases, especially in some rural areas where need was very great.

And then, you know, as federal dollars dwindled post Covid, you know, there wasn't as much money to fund those programs.

But Beshear was able to find different places to keep that program going, at least for the last year.

There's also, for the first time, state budget dollars directed towards this program.

But then mid budget year, the Beshear, the Beshear administration told area development districts that there would be no more funds coming, that they were just getting the budgeted amount for the year.

Many of them had already spent close to or up to that budgeted amount on their expanded roles.

But this funding means that they will be able to continue largely at that expanded level, at least till the end of the fiscal year.

Like you said.

Like Beshear said, I should say it is a temporary solution.

>> Well, so there's quite a demand apparently for this, right?

>> Definitely, definitely.

>> Laura, there's a temporary solution now that the governor mentioned.

And then an effort to find a long term solution.

I know the Republicans, like Senator Greg Elkins, are leading the charge for these senior meal programs to be part of the spending plan, but when they start talking about that budget, there is going to be a lot of competition.

For every dollar.

>> There is going to be a lot of competition.

And that's typical every year or every two years, I should say.

People come to Frankfort with their wish lists and they want their projects and programs funded.

And besides the usual schools and transportation and, you know, the infrastructure stuff that has to be funded.

There are these other programs that they still have to be funded to.

Of course, I didn't mean it like that, but the, the, the social programs that might be more at risk because of cuts to federal dollars.

So there is going to be a lot of shifting around.

You're also seeing organizations getting in front of that.

The Kctcs Board of Regents has already made its budget request public for the biennium.

So we're seeing people jockeying early earlier than normal.

I think.

>> I also think it's worth noting that we're also seeing the effects of income tax cuts, too.

We're going to see some reduced state budget dollars revenue dollars.

So that's definitely going to be coming into play as well.

>> And then you might end up dipping into the rainy day fund.

Right.

So there is going to be a lot of that shifting around of what money.

>> Goes where someone will dip into the rainy day fund for new initiatives so that yeah, a lot of discussion about money.

And Russ, I know you've been following this issue closely with the the programs for the seniors.

And poverty is highest in our state in eastern Kentucky.

>> It is.

And we also have an aging population.

This isn't just an issue about meals, even though that's obviously part of it.

But for some of these seniors who are, for example, shut ins, this may be the only contact they have with the person outside their home.

So, you know, these programs are absolutely vital.

A lot of the discussion right now is about who's to blame.

State Auditor Alison Ball and Commonwealth Ombudsman Jonathan Great sent a letter to legislators this week blaming the Beshear administration and saying this was all preventable.

And I'm sure this is going to be talked about a lot.

But as we go forward, we're also going to be watching to see if this money is allocated in future budgets.

And I know there's going to be a lot of people really pushing for that, especially here in eastern Kentucky.

>> Russ, is the federal government shutdown goes on.

There are now real questions about whether Snap benefits will be added on to the cards on November 1st.

That's next weekend.

We note that the fifth Congressional District in eastern and southern Kentucky is a place where nearly 23% of people get benefits.

What would be the impact if those benefits don't show up?

>> Well, the impact will be great.

I mean, some of the counties in our four county coverage area in eastern Kentucky have as much as a quarter of the population that receives Snap benefits.

So you're going to have families that are impacted, that aren't able to afford food, that are putting more pressure on food pantries that are already stretched due to high food prices.

And then, you know, you add all this up and it really does cause like this crisis that's growing.

And I don't think people are really paying enough attention to it.

I mean, businesses are going to be affected from Snap and employees.

So, I mean, you know, this is a wide ranging potential, really big issue.

>> And we'll all be watching in the days ahead.

Let's talk some politics.

There were no Kings rallies around the nation last weekend, and that included several in Kentucky.

Russ, those demonstrations were maybe most robust in the metropolitan areas of the state and the larger cities.

But there were protests in eastern Kentucky as well.

>> Oh, absolutely.

There were small protests in hazard, Pikeville and Prestonsburg.

Like I said, you know, small crowds came out.

They were very peaceful rallies holding signs asking for community support.

They didn't receive a whole lot of opposition in person.

There's been a lot more social media activity regarding those and back and forth on social media regarding them.

And there was there in person.

So, you know, the opposition is there.

It's small, but there are some people who who felt strongly enough to go out there.

>> Laura, we know this is a very divided time in our country.

The level of political activism on, on all sides seems to be much higher these days than it had been in years past.

>> Yeah, it seems like we're definitely divided into two camps.

And what we see, too is, is some of these no Kings rallies and other protests are involving a lot of young people.

They're still older folks out there, too, of course, but a study from the United Way in Washington, D.C.

found that about a third of Gen Zers say that they participate in activism, and about over 50%, just over 50% said that they have attended a rally or a protest at some point.

So there are a lot of younger people who feel like to make their voices heard as a group, because those in power are not listening to them.

>> All right.

Let's talk about some of the races.

The fourth district U.S.

House race has come to life as President Trump's choice to challenge Congressman Thomas Massie officially entered the race this week.

Retired Navy Seal Ed Gallrein is taking on Massie, who will be well funded and who has turned back challengers before Sylvia.

Will this be one to watch?

>> Oh, it's going to be a really interesting one to watch.

Obviously, Thomas Massie is is very popular in his own district.

He's been there a long time.

He has great name recognition.

But I mean, you can't discount President Trump's name recognition either.

And he has already indicated he is extremely interested in this race, and he's going to put a lot of pressure on his candidate, on his allies to support this race and make it competitive.

Obviously, like you said, Massie has turned back challengers.

Before.

It seemed like Trump was really working to even get a candidate going in this race.

He's been talking about finding a challenger for a while.

I do not envy people in this district.

They've already started seeing ads.

They're going to see a lot more before primary day comes.

It's going to be a lot of money going into this race and a lot of, I think, national watchers, watchers to yeah.

>> Massie has drawn a lot of national attention.

Excuse me for opposing Trump.

To me, it's going to be interesting to see how Ed Gallrein shifts his campaign focus from being the establishment candidate he was when he ran for the state Senate in District seven last year, 2024, and he lost that race to current state Senator Aaron Reed by only 118 votes.

So that was a very close race.

But again, the point we've made many times is the name recognition is going to be a deterrent for Gallrein, I think, because Massie is so well known to get to come from Shelbyville, which is, you know, that western part of that district to try to get your name out there might be a little tough for him.

>> I would think the population center of that would be Northern Kentucky.

Yeah, yeah.

So we will certainly be watching there in the fourth district now in the fifth district, Congressman Hal Rogers is the longest serving member of the U.S.

House.

He was elected in 1980.

Laura, you made the point that we were in high school then.

>> Yeah.

>> Democratic challenger Ned Pillersdorf is taking him on.

Can Pillersdorf for us gain traction with the now the criticism of the budget cuts that Rogers supported or with this government shutdown, which I understand he is attempting to criticize and gain with?

>> Yeah, I was going to say, you know, whether it will work or not.

He's definitely doing it.

I mean, you know, Congressman Rogers votes on these issues are going to play a role in this race.

How much?

We don't know.

I mean, I think a lot of that's going to depend on the actual impacts of any kind of cuts or shortfalls or temporary pauses or extended pauses in programs.

I think people are going to be factoring that in.

You know, we're still a ways off from that potential race.

So we've got a lot of time to see what's going to happen.

But yeah, I mean, it is going to be a factor for Eastern Kentuckians.

As I said, we rely a lot on those programs.

A lot of our people do.

So they're going to be thinking about that when they go into the polling place.

>> Rogers, of course, said he wanted to make programs leaner and more effective, and so they could be sustained.

Was his reason in supporting the budget.

You would anticipate, though, that he would campaign vigorously to to hold on to his seat, right?

>> Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

I mean, Congressman Rogers has a reputation for bringing money home.

That's kind of been his his primary attribute that he's put out there.

And so I don't think that's going to end anytime soon.

So, you know, there's going to be a lot to kind of parse out as we go over the next year.

>> All right.

In Central Kentucky, in the sixth district race, where Andy Barr is hoping to go to the Senate, there's a there are crowded primaries on both sides.

And, Laura, you argue that really nobody has an advantage on either side.

>> I don't see it yet.

It's still so early and people don't pay attention.

You know, the average citizens don't.

Obviously we are.

And I think in the sixth district you had mentioned earlier when we were talking, if wondering if senator, former state Senator Ralph Alvarado, Doctor Alvarado and former state Representative Sherilyn Stephenson had a natural advantage because they're former state lawmakers.

And I would submit they don't at this point because of the campaigning, the the name recognition, the fact that most people don't pay a lot of attention to state affairs, unfortunately, you know, we can bring in a conversation about civics education at this point.

But but it still kind of early.

Also, Sherilyn Stephenson is having money troubles.

She is in the hole.

She has negative balance on her FEC report of of September 30th.

Alvarado has $376,000 in 320 cash on hand, but Stevenson was 30 in the hole, 30,000 in the hole at the end of that reporting period.

So is she going to raise the money?

That's what you have to wonder.

And then you look at others.

Democrats like David Kloiber, who ran for Lexington Mayor, his name got out there.

He can self-fund a campaign.

And in fact, he is, because he's given himself $127,000 loan already.

So there's there's still a lot of money that's in the in the race that could change things.

Fundraising does not necessarily equal votes, but it does let you get your name out there.

And so, you know, the the money is going to matter for name recognition for all of these folks outside of Lexington.

>> Well, it's interesting to see how much some of them are investing in their own campaign.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

At the top of Kentucky's ballot next year will be that race to fill the seat that U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell is leaving open.

We'll look at the race right now.

On the Republican side, the best known candidates are Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Congressman Andy Barr, businessman Nate Morris.

We're also hearing more now about Michael Farris, who has far less money but is managing to get his word out there.

>> Yeah, he is a veteran and he owns a helicopter repair business.

And so he is in his website's really nice.

I mean, I looked at it, it's very professional, very well done.

So yeah, he's he's working that race really hard to.

>> On the Democratic side, we are hearing the name Charles Booker once again that the report today from Austin Horn at the Lexington Herald Leader.

They have a crowded field to Amy McGrath.

House Minority Leader Pamela Stephenson, a former CIA agent Joel Willett, former Secret Service agent.

Logan Forsythe McGrath has name recognition, obviously, but we all remember that Booker ran quite a primary race against her in 2020.

>> And a former Senate race, of course, against Rand Paul.

Yeah, no, it's going to be a really interesting race.

I think you're right that McGrath does.

And Booker too.

They both have some name recognition benefits.

But also they've both lost a race.

So you know I think that there's still a lot of movement possible here.

Just kind of depends on, you know, both their fundraising potential, especially for those newcomers to see how they do and then also to see, you know, how they create their their brand in this race that, you know, frankly, most people still think, most pundits think will go towards Republicans.

How will Democrats be able to show that they can launch a competitive race here?

>> Yeah.

And Booker did not comment as to whether he has interest.

But apparently Austin was hearing quite a bit of that.

>> I've heard sources say that to write that book and that excuse me, the D triple C has talked with Booker.

>> Apparently we had thought there'd be no elections in 2025, but there will be a special election in Louisville in December to fill the seat of David Yates, who's been appointed Jefferson County clerk.

Both parties have now chosen their nominees.

Sylvia, we have there names and pictures there on screen.

Gary Clemons, who will represent the Democrats, and Calvin Leach for the Republicans.

>> Right.

We also have a third, Wendy Higdon, who's running as a libertarian.

Those are the three who filed.

Filing deadline has passed, I understand.

And so those are the three names that will be on the ballot.

Gary Clemons, local union leader in south Louisville.

Calvin Leach, retired U.S.

Army veteran.

And it's going to be an interesting race since it's such a close, tight deadline.

Now, I should note that today I actually I published a story about Calvin Leach.

I unearthed a 2018 blog post from him in which he pretty strongly denigrated women, especially of his own generation.

He used some pretty crass epithets to refer to women, calling them promiscuous and untrustworthy.

A lot of other things, too.

He has defended that post to me as of when I talked to him on Thursday, you know, saying that it was mostly dating advice, not political, but, you know, so that's something to keep in mind also.

But this race is really just starting to get going at all.

>> Has he since responded to your reporting?

>> He hasn't responded to my article itself.

As far as I'm aware, the Louisville GOP did tell the Courier-Journal that they were not aware of that.

The article that he wrote when they picked him for the nominee.

>> All right.

It will be an interesting race to watch.

They'll be campaigning during the holidays.

But former Vice President Kamala Harris carried that district with 52% of the vote.

Yates was popular, usually had a larger margin, but we'll be watching that very closely.

It could affect the the the margin in the Senate, which it's.

>> It's it's it's not a close margin in the Senate.

>> Democrats only hold five seats.

Yates was.

>> The sixth.

>> 33 for Republicans.

So it wouldn't exactly change the balance of power.

But it is you know, Democrats need to hold on to the seats that they have.

>> So in Frankfort, the 2026 legislative session now just over two months away.

And there's a push, again, for a constitutional amendment to limit a governor's pardoning power.

State Senator Chris McDaniel unsuccessfully pushed this before, but he is bringing it back up again.

Laura, the catalyst for this is that the pardons the former governor, Matt Bevin, issued.

>> That's right.

This actually is the seventh time.

So maybe for Senator McDaniel, this will be lucky.

Number seven.

And he's basically using that as a, as you said, as a catalyst with Bevin's pardons after he when he was leaving office, he pardoned a lot of people who later went on to or not a lot, but he pardoned people who went on to commit other crimes.

And the constitutional amendment that Senator McDaniel is proposing would create a window during which governors would not be able to pardon people.

So it would it would be centered around the election itself.

>> All right.

Fluoride in the water is back as an issue.

There are proposals to allow local water providers to handle that question as they as they are dentists, of course, don't like that approach.

>> We have 79 years of quality science showing that this is effective.

And, you know, it's no different than the done in the salt, which when was the last time you saw somebody with a goiter, you know, or the vitamin D in the milk.

So I think, you know, there's different ways to look at a lot of different things.

This is considered one of the top public health campaigns in the history of the United States of America.

Is the fluoridation of water.

>> Okay.

So this is something that Sylvia were watching very closely right now.

It failed last time, but is back again, right?

>> It's been proposed quite a few times at this point, but it seems in the past couple of years at least, it's been moving, inching further and further closer to reaching the end of the line.

So, you know, when I first covered the legislature two years ago, it made it past a committee vote.

Last year, it made it this year, I suppose this year it made it past a House vote.

It died in the Senate.

But it's definitely really interesting to watch.

It's all part of the this campaign.

I think Robert F Kennedy Jr has pushed that, you know, promotes some fears about public health campaigns.

This is was considered one of the greatest public health campaigns of the 20th century.

Now some people are pointing to newer research that higher levels of fluoride higher than is in Kentucky water double actually more than double than Kentucky water can have some negative impacts on child brain development.

And essentially this would just give the water districts the ability not to put fluoride.

It would reverse the mandate that is currently in effect.

>> Russ, this issue comes up.

A lot of cities provide water to county water districts.

And what if one wants it and the other doesn't?

Would a system be capable of splitting its supply?

>> Well, I think more likely what would happen, because we do have conflicts that arise between city and county water districts over, you know, issues of rates and things of that nature.

I mean, they would have to come to the table and figure it out, or it would more than most likely just end up in court and be decided there, that that's kind of the direction that these kinds of issues, the conflicts between districts go.

>> So Senator Rand Paul is hoping to develop a non-government tourism trail in eastern Kentucky.

He visited and he talked about the beauty of the mountains.

I think we have a bite from Senator Paul.

>> I think we can compete with Tennessee and North Carolina.

Our mountains are every bit as beautiful, if not more beautiful.

And but they're getting a lot of traffic.

And it's so crowded down in Tennessee and places that I think we can siphon off a lot of that business.

I think we're talking about millions of dollars of business.

I think the future of Eastern Kentucky, a lot of it is tourism.

>> Yes, correct.

>> Russ Paul wants something, he says, similar to the Bourbon Trail with with known attractions and stopping points.

But he says this can be done with private dollars.

>> Yeah.

In speaking with the senator last week, you know, his focus is on building a system that self-sustaining in that the businesses that would benefit from the tourists coming in would be the ones kind of funding it, and they would all kind of work together.

And, you know, I asked about, you know, what happens if an area like the Red River Gorge starts getting overrun with tourists.

And he said, you know, that a system like this would allow people to direct to a community like Whitesburg, which might not be seeing as many tourists.

But yeah, he's he was big on the no government funding for it and allowing it to sustain itself.

>> State Representative Bobby McCool published an op ed in your papers indicating he will push other tourism measures.

One bill would say that local landowners would not be liable for rock climbing accidents or falls and such as that.

>> Yeah, that's been a massive factor in the establishment of the ATV trails that we have been able to establish in eastern Kentucky.

Obviously, if a landowner is ultimately held liable for what happens on their property, they're not going to allow potentially dangerous activities like rock climbing or ATVs on that property.

So yeah, it if you want these kinds of adventure tourism things to occur, then there has to be some forgiveness of liability for these property owners, or they're just not going to let these activities occur.

>> Russell's talk.

Cole, just a moment.

The Trump administration and the Kentucky legislature trying to reverse some policies.

You have some numbers that show just how steep the decline is in terms of the number of those now employed in coal mining.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

So according to data from the Appalachian Regional Commission, in 2000, we had just over 12,000 people employed in the mining industry in Appalachian Kentucky.

By 2023, that had fallen to about 3200.

It's about a 73% decline.

And you know that right there is you know, what has happened to Eastern Kentucky's economy in a nutshell.

So, you know, there's a lot of talk about making changes to regulations to make coal mining more palatable, or at least to do more of it.

And, you know, really, though, in talking with numerous experts on economics and politics and things of that nature there.

The word of the day is uncertainty when it comes to coal, because there's there's really no way to know whether these policy changes will reverse the move away from coal that has already occurred over the past two decades.

>> And Eastern Kentuckians are remembering Steve Cawood, who passed away last week.

Cawood was a lawyer who was known as a champion for coal miners, clean water, better schools, governor Beshear said Steve dedicated himself to work that helped build a brighter future for Kentuckians.

Steve Cawood was 82 years old.

That's common on Kentucky.

We thank you for joining us, and you make it a good week ahead.