ASHLAND —
At a time when leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties in Kentucky and on the national level often sound and act like mortal enemies, Ellen Williams and Terry McBrayer are marching to the beat of a different drummer.
While we’re confident Williams, the former state Republican Party chairwoman, and McBrayer, the former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, disagree on many issues, their differences did not prevent them from teaming up as lobbyists in Frankfort.
MML&K Government Solutions Director Sean Cutter announced Monday Williams has joined the firm headed by McBrayer, the former legislator from Greenup County who served as speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor.
While it has been many years since McBrayer served in the House, he has remained a powerbroker in Frankfort and chaired the state Democratic Party when Paul Patton was elected governor. Although McBrayer lives in Lexington, his law firm has offices in both Lexington and Greenup County.
Williams served as commissioner of the Governor’s Office for Local Development when Gov. Ernie Fletcher was governor, and she has also worked under Republicans as a congressional aide and a White House aide.
While having a well-known and influential Democrat and Republican in the same firm may sound a bit odd, it also makes sense. Lobbyists must work with legislators from both parties as they advocate for the causes for which they are paid to use their legislative skills and influence to help enact laws, or in some cases, to prevent bills they oppose from being approved.
Also, not every issue is divided along strict political lines. While there are always a few bills in which there is much disagreement, many bills are enacted with little or no opposition. Without surrendering their support for their parties, we can see McBrayer and Williams working together as effective lobbyists on many issues. Just having them in the same firm is a positive sign it is possible for people who don’t always agree to work together for the common good.
Opinion
Unusual team
Former heads of 2 parties now are united as lobbyists
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The next step
The people — or at least those who took the time to vote in Tuesday’s special election — have spoken. The issue of alcohol sales in Grayson has ben settled for at least the next three years.
In an outcome that surprised many, Grayson voters rather convincingly for the legal sale of alcohol in the city for the first time since 1937. With 511 voters answering in the affirmative to the question, “Are you in favor of alcoholic beverages in Grayson, Ky.?” as opposed to 393 voting “no,” the results were not even close. The measure passed in all seven of the city’s precincts. -
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Top Father
In the Spade family, the vote was unanimous. Both 12-year-old Emma Spade, who will be a seventh-grader at Verity Middle School this fall, and Emma’s 11-year-old brother Will, who attends Hagar Elementary, both thought so highly of their dad — Ponderosa Elementary School principal Matt Spade — that they both wrote essays nominating him for the Ashland Breakfast Kiwanis Club’s annual Father of the Year award, presented annually on the Tuesday before Father’s Day.
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An unselfish act
Even before the start of the recent Boyd County Health Department’s Bicycle Rodeo, Gavin Eckard said that if he won one of the two bicycle given away at the event, he would give his new bike to someone who needed it more than he did.
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Crop still banned
When their colleagues in the U.S. Senate rejected their efforts to legalize industrial hemp production as part of the Senate farm bill, Kentucky’s two Republican senators — Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and freshman Rand Paul — reacted to the Senate refusal to include their hemp proposal in the bill by saying they would oppose the comprehensive farm bill.
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It's not the breed
Lorie Akers wants the Ashland City Commissioner to adopt an ordinance banning pit bulls in the city. Since she claimed her Chihuahua Paco was attacked and killed by a neighbor’s pit bull while the little dog was chained in the back yard, it is understandable that Akers is worried that her children and other pets could be endangered by pit bulls.
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A necessary evil
The shifting of the tax burden that began when the Ashland Board of City Commissioners first adopted the payroll tax in the 1990s continues as the mayor and four elected commissioners prepare to increase the payroll tax from 1.5 to 2 percent while at the same time decreasing property taxes.
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