1. A couple of comments posted while I was on vacation raised the question of whether I would have anything to say about recently released report on a possible conflict of interest in the handling of the Kentucky Central Life Insurance Co. liquidation. The answer is yes, I do have something to say. Former Jefferson Circuit Judge Richard Revell, who reviewed the report when it was prepared in 1995, says criticism of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear on this issue "has absolutely no merit." Since Revell is a Republican who supports Gov. Ernie Fletcher's re-election and has contributed to his campaign, I consider his defense of the work Beshear and the Stites & Harbison law firm did on the Kentucky Central case to be particularly compelling.
2. I found it interesting that Robbie Rudolph, Fletcher's running mate in the gubernatorial race, had not contributed to the campaign prior to the filing of the finance report last week. I wonder if he was just waiting until after these reports were filed to decide how much of his personal wealth to put into the campaign.
3. Back in the days when gubernatorial elections tended to be settled in the Democratic primary, a fall race that prompted as little buzz as this one is producing would have been understandable. When I started thinking about how little excitement this campaign is generating, I was tempted to compare it to former Gov. Paul Patton's sleepwalk to re-election against the token candidacy of Peppy Martin in 1999. But I decided that would be unfair to Peppy. After all, she did liven things up with her prom dress.
