Klement Gottwald
5th President of Czechoslovakia
Ernie Fletcher
American physician and politician (born 1952)
Ernest Lee Fletcheris an American physician and politician who was the 60th governor of Kentucky from 2003 to 2007. He previously served three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives before resigning after being elected governor.
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About the Ernie Fletcher
Ernest Lee Fletcheris an American physician and politician who was the 60th governor of Kentucky from 2003 to 2007. He previously served three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives before resigning after being elected governor. A member of the Republican Party, Fletcher was a family practice physician and a Baptist lay minister and is the second physician to be elected Governor of Kentucky; the first was Luke P. Blackburn in 1879. He was also the first Republican governor of Kentucky since Louie Nunn left office in 1971.
Fletcher graduated from the University of Kentucky and joined the United States Air Force to pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut. He left the Air Force after budget cuts reduced his squadron’s flying time and earned a degree in medicine, hoping to earn a spot as a civilian on a space mission. Deteriorating eyesight eventually ended those hopes, and he entered private practice as a physician and conducted services as a Baptist lay minister. He became active in politics and was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1994. Two years later he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost to incumbent Scotty Baesler. When Baesler retired to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Fletcher again ran for the congressional seat and defeated Democratic state senator Ernesto Scorsone. He soon became one of the House Republican caucus’s leaders regarding health care legislation, particularly the Patients’ Bill of Rights.
Fletcher was elected governor in 2003 over state Attorney General Ben Chandler. Early in his term, Fletcher achieved some savings to the state by reorganizing the executive branch. He proposed an overhaul to the state tax code in 2004, but was unable to get it passed through the General Assembly. When Republicans in the state senate insisted on tying the reforms to the state budget, the legislature adjourned without passing either and the state operated under an executive spending plan drafted by Fletcher until 2005, when both the budget and the reforms were passed.
Later in 2005, Attorney General Greg Stumbo, the state’s highest-ranking Democrat, launched an investigation into whether the Fletcher administration’s hiring practices violated the state’s merit system. A grand jury returned several indictments against members of Fletcher’s staff, and eventually against Fletcher himself. Fletcher issued pardons for anyone on his staff implicated in the investigation, but did not pardon himself. Though the investigation was ended by an agreement between Fletcher and Stumbo in late 2006, it continued to overshadow Fletcher’s re-election bid in 2007. After turning back a challenge in the Republican primary by former Congresswoman Anne Northup, Fletcher lost the general election to Democrat Steve Beshear. After his term as governor, he returned to the medical field as founder and CEO of Alton Healthcare. He is married and has two adult children.
10 Quotes by Ernie Fletcher
- 1.
I would like this to be a new day. I would hope now that we can focus on doing the people’s business.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 2.
Government cannot do everything, so we need to first decide what government ought to be doing, then figure out what it’s capable of doing, and then follow the jobs we choose to completion.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 3.
Education is our greatest opportunity to give an irrevocable gift to the next generation.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 4.
My vision for Kentucky is a Commonwealth where there is so much economic opportunity, and our quality of life is so high, that people who are born here can stay here, and people who aren’t fortunate enough to be born in Kentucky, can look forward to locating here.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 5.
We will attract more people to Kentucky by lowering our income tax rate. In fact, lowering the income tax rate is the single most important thing we can do to create opportunity.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 6.
Whenever I am among my fellow Governors, I am struck by how many face the same education improvement issues.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 7.
A government of, for and by the people, requires much from the people.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 8.
I cannot allow state government to continue to be consumed by this game of political ‘gotcha.’
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 9.
This foundational principle – that human beings derive their rights from God, rather than from the State, or any other source – is what made America different.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)
- 10.
State government has too often been used to look out for the insiders and not the citizens. This has insulated poverty from progress, and need from remedy.
Ernie FletcherAmerican physician and politician (born 1952)