This book explains Kentucky’s Traditionalistic Culture and division and how this culture and division keeps us from moving forward. Kentucky first off has a personalistic culture where the politics are more political than ideological and it matters more about who the person is than what ideas and issues they stand for. One example of this is Representative Rudy who claims that because his father and his family are respected in the community he gets elected. Another instance I have come upon this is when I first became an intern and the representatives would drag me out from behind the computer and tell me that I need to be more social because I will learn more and get more accomplished. This has been true as I have made many connections by just having a conversation about what the particular legislator or lobbyist is interested in. The second political culture view is individualistic where the political system is seen as a market place of ideas where self-interests are pursued through political action. One reference on this is when the gambling legislation failed in the elections committee because Greg Stumbo created an alliance against it because he wanted his gambling legislation to go through not Speaker Richards. Another instance in which Stumbo showed individualistic culture is when he voted one way on a bill went outside and talked to the Sponsor came back to the floor and changed his vote, therefore proving his power in comparison with the Speaker. Moralistic culture is the third type of political culture in Kentucky which is largely rooted in KY evangelical churches. An example of this during the session would be when Rep. Rudy and Turner voted against a bill that dealt with the storage of alcohol claiming that their constituents require them to vote no on anything dealing with alcohol. Another instance of the moralistic culture is Rep Stan Lee’s Stance with the Family Foundation supporting there legislation and opposing bills they are against.

Not only do these political cultures not allow Kentucky to be progressive we have other things that further divide us as well. Geography can be one of the dividing factors. Kentucky is the Northernmost of the Southern States and the Southern most of the Northern States as well as an extension of the Midwest. Kentucky also has many diverse regions but they all tend to compare themselves to the Bluegrass Area, especially Eastern Kentucky. This division is shown in the general assembly by the Eastern KY Mafia and the Western KY Representatives. The Eastern KY Mafia supports big coal even though there ideologies of their party do not. For instance, Rep Webb was strongly against the Stream-Saver bill even though she is a Democrat. Western KY representatives tend to be more concerned with virtues and rural life. Therefore, they tend to oppose legislation that supports the urban areas especially Louisville which is usually looked down upon by many of the rural representatives because of its progressive ideas and policies. Northern KY tends to be isolated as well. As I had a representative say to me the other day all the other areas of the state know ppl from everywhere except us.

Tuesday was exciting because Representative DeWeese presented his tort reform bill HB 440 before the Senate Banking and Insurance committee.  To my surprise their was actually some serious concerns. One concern that was brought up was who was defined as the dependent. The other concern was physicians were the only one stated in the bill and one Senator addressed that the bill needs to extend to other medical professionals. The bill ended up passing through the committee but was sent back to the rules committee to be revised. On the House floor on Tuesday there were a couple bills relating to identification and it was really funny because on every bill Rep Stan Lee stood up and added an amendment relating to immigration reform. Rep Kathy Stein stood up on one bill and stated that it was germane the funniest thing was she fussed at the Speaker saying that he should have named it germane from the very beginning but Speaker Richards said he was waiting for her to call it un germane. This day showed the personalistic culture of Kentucky when the Senator brought up the concern that the other medical professionals be added therefore looking out for his constituents. It also showed the traditionalistic culture where Rep Stan Lee persistently added the immigration bill on again and again.

This past Tuesday was exciting in the House because the gaming bill HB 550 was voted on in the Elections, Constitutional Adm and Intergovernmental affairs committee and was not passed with Dottie Sims being the final swing vote to overrule the bill. The Democrats had split and a faction between them was arising as seen in the Divide and Descent book between Clements and Happy Chandler. This time the faction was Representative Stumbo against speaker of the House Jody Richards. Their fight is part of Kentucky’s Political Culture focusing on the Individualistic of pursuing their own political goals and self-interests. The fight is over power, since Speaker Richards ran for governor his power and popularity has gone down and Rep Stumbo is supposedly gaining power in order to contend him for the Speaker of the House position. Even though Rep Stumbo supports gaming he opposed the bill in committee because he wants to propose his bill and get it passed so it looks like he has the power and could easily replace Speaker Richards.

The next exciting thing was during the Session the floor majority leader suspended the Rules and the Committee on Committees met and replaced Dottie Sims because she had promised Speaker Richards she would vote for the bill but during committee opposed the bill. Representative Sims went straight to the reporters after being removed from the committee by two Democratic Representatives. The Republican Caucus was very upset in this replacement adding two Democratic members and not one Republican so Rep Ford spoke up and expressed this to the General Assembly and to Speaker Richards.

Thursday was also very exciting during the General Assembly when Rep Stein accused Rep lee of his amendment not being germane and saying it oinked like a pig. Another bill sponsored by Rep Marzian was debated on because of a mandate of using a certain edition of the AMA pertaining to Impairment Provisions and Workers Comp.