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Fletcher pays visit to JMAM
by Tom Berry, The Cadiz Record EmailTom
Fletcher, R-Lexington, told about 20 supporters gathered for the informal event during a short campaign stop in Cadiz on Feb. 19 why he is willing to leave his federal office to come back home to work in the governor's mansion. "I don't look at it as something that I have always aspired to all of my life - being governor of Kentucky - but I see it as an opportunity not as an ambition," he said. "It's an opportunity to take Kentucky to the next level." Fletcher said he wants to do what he can to help the state through some dark social, political and economic clouds. "I saw a state government that was just getting bigger and bigger with more regulation and becoming more intrusive and I saw a health care system that wasn't serving people as well as it could be," he said. The candidate - who was rated the GOP's frontrunner in a Courier- Journal Bluegrass Poll two weeks ago - said he wants to initiate reforms that would return more health insurance companies to the commonwealth and cut health care costs by increasing competition and giving patients more choices. He also emphasized the need for tort reform that, he said, is raising health care costs by increasing malpractice insurance premiums for doctors. Fletcher said he wants to do something about "government waste" and a healthcare system in Kentucky that is threatening small businesses' ability to offer the benefit to employees. He also criticized the state's funding of the welfare system that he said was "capturing people in a cycle of dependency." "We've got to trim the excess fat upstairs because it's your tax dollars," he said. On the issue of education, Fletcher said he would work to remove what he called "bureaucratic barriers" and get more resources into the classroom - particularly in the area of teacher qualifications. "The most important factor in education - other than the home life - is the quality of the teacher in the classroom," he said. Fletcher currently represents the 6th Congressional District of Kentucky in the US House of Representatives. He was born in Mt. Sterling and is a longtime Lexington resident. He said he wants to help move Kentucky forward. "Kentucky is facing some difficult dark clouds," he said. "We have a window of opportunity, but it's going to take a leader with courage and a leader that is willing to make major changes in Frankfort." "One on one in the governor's office I believe I can take that experience and do some good for the people of Kentucky," he said when asked if the state could afford to lose him in the House. Fletcher served in the US Air Force as an F-4 aircraft commander and NORAD Alert Force commander where he led flights that intercepted Soviet military aircraft during the Cold War. His political service began in 1995 as a state representative for the 78th District of Kentucky. During his term in office he served on the Kentucky Commission on Poverty, the Task Force on Higher Education and was chosen by the governor to assist with reforming Kentucky's ailing health-care system. Editor's note: The Janice Mason Art Museum does not sanction political candidates. The JMAM Board of Directors volunteered the use of the facility as a public service.
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