Rotary Program: 8/20/03

Program Chairperson: Jerry Kanney

Speaker: Ernie Fletcher, Sixth District Congressman and Candidate for Governor of Kentucky.

The Pikeville Rotary Club was the setting for the latest campaign stop for the Republican candidate for Governor in Kentucky. Ernie Fletcher is a practicing physician and the current Congressman from the 6th Congressional District which covers areas of Central Kentucky. He was born in Montgomery County (Mount Sterling) and has practiced medicine in Lexington for 12 years. He married his high school sweetheart, Glenna Foster and they have two children, Rachel and Ben as well as four grandchildren, Kathryn, Hannah, Joshua and Mason. Dr. Fletcher earned his B.S. Degree from the UK School of Engineering and went on to become a doctor at the UK College of Medicine. He also was an F-4E fighter pilot in the USAF and a commander with NORAD stationed to intercept Russian air craft during the cold war. He was first elected as a State Representative in 1994 and then to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998 where he has served on the Kentucky Commission on Poverty, the Higher Education Committee and various committees on health care. Dr. Fletcher also serves as a lay minister in the Baptist Church.

Some issues of great concern to Dr. Fletcher for some time have now prompted him to seek the office of Governor. He is very passionate about the fact that Kentucky has lost ground in the areas of economic development, job stability, and the general leadership in Frankfort. He says that the bureaucracy has become bloated and inefficient and new faces are needed to bring about positive change. He wants to clean up the political mess in Frankfort by bringing much needed reforms, reducing wasteful spending, more efficient use of taxpayers’ dollars, Higher Education reform, Health Care initiatives, especially for drug pricing for Senior Citizens, creating incentives for economic development to bring real jobs for our children, and restoring the rock-solid values that will once again gain the trust that has been lost by the people of Kentucky in their government. To do that, Dr. Fletcher says, we must begin with education and put more of the funding that has been gained in recent years to the children in the classroom. Good teachers must be recruited and the quality teachers that we already have must be retained by making sure that the level of salary meets or exceeds that of the states surrounding Kentucky. Secondly, we must see that every student in Kentucky is reading at grade level and begin with the first graders to make sure that good teachers are well-trained in bringing that goal to reality. He says that Health Care rates are too high and doctors are leaving the state in alarming numbers due to bloated malpractice insurance rates. Hospitals are often forced to close their obstetric wards due to the lack of doctors to man them because of this crisis. Dr. Fletcher also stated that Coal Severance Tax monies must come back to the producing states at the intended level of 50% and that flexibility in how that money is spent on infrastructure is a must. He has sponsored bills on Clean Coal Technology that will convert existing power plants to produce the energy we need while preserving the environments from which it is taken. He would like to see tourism in Eastern Kentucky become the untapped resource that could change the way of life for so many of us and include us in a statewide marketing initiative to promote the beauty of clean streams and pristine mountains to attract visitors from all over the country. Finally he addressed the growing problem of drug abuse and the crime associated with deadly drugs such as oxycontin and methamphetamines. He vowed to meet this challenge with the help of his running mate in a three-prong effort of education, enforcement and rehabilitation.

Based on a clear commitment of restoring hope that once existed in Kentucky, Dr. Fletcher asked that we support his bid for the office of Governor of Kentucky.

- J. Morgan Chapman