It’s clear why Cameron wants Mills as LG. But why does Mills want the job to nowhere? | Opinion

It’s clear why Attorney General Daniel Cameron wants state Sen. Robby Mills as his running mate: staunch Western Kentucky conservative representation with experience and relationships in both the state House and Senate, along with a congenial presence without so much charisma that he’ll upstage his boss. It’s a safe pick but not an exactly exciting one.

It’s not as clear why Mills wants the job, given that it hasn’t exactly been much of a stepping stone since the 1992 constitutional amendment that put the two spots on the same slate and ended the lieutenant governor’s role as President of the Senate.

Look at it this way. Before 1995, the four lieutenant governors — Martha Layne Collins, Steve Beshear, Brereton Jones and Paul Patton — all moved into the governor’s mansion. Since that time, Steven Henry, Steve Pence, Daniel Mongiardo, Jerry Abramson, Crit Luallen, and Jenean Hampton, decidedly did not move on to greater things in politics. In some cases, quite the opposite.

There’s lots of check presentations, picnics and speeches, but like the role of Vice-President, the Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky does not have a lot of scope for independent work. Back when they were elected separately, it used to be more fun, recalls Al Cross, veteran political reporter and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism.

“There’s a rich history of lieutenant governors going rogue,” Cross said. “The most famous was Happy Chandler, who called a special session when Gov. Ruby Laffoon was out the state in 1935.”

Chandler wanted to pass new primary rules; Laffoon came back in time to amend the call to have a primary and runoff, which Chandler actually won. Or in 1979, Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall called a special session while Gov. Julian Carroll was out of town. The legislature passed the House Bill 44, which is still in effect today.

Still, lieutenant governor gets a bigger spotlight than the state Senate.

“While it has not been a stepping stone in the current iteration, there’s always the potential for that, from Robbie Mills’s point of view,” Cross said. “Being lieutenant governor is better than being one of 38 state senators.”

Ryan Quarles, who finished second in the Republican primary, obviously did not think the job was better than being Agriculture Commissioner or a possible next step in higher education. He would have brought a lot of statewide rural gravitas to the Cameron’s Louisville bona fides.

Still, Mills has a lot of local government experience as a Henderson City Council member for 16 years, and was a member of the state House before being elected to the Senate in 2018. In 2022, he won re-election to a second term by 33 percentage points.

As sponsor of one of the first bills on transgender athletes in 2022, Mills can be the culture warrior heavy, which could allow Cameron to look more statesmanlike and less mean. On the other hand, Mills supported the “sewer bill” to upend teacher pensions, which teachers have not forgotten. That’s a point that current Lieutenant Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, a former teacher, is sure to make loudly and often. Incidentally, if the Beshear-Coleman ticket wins a second term, she might be the person to break the LG political curse.

Folks don’t tend to vote on the running mate pick. “But they can provide functionality to the campaign and to the office,” said Republican political consultant Tres Watson. “He’s a Western Kentuckian, he comes from a coal-producing area, he has previous local government experience and he can shore up Daniel Cameron’s relationships in the legislature.

“The leadership path in the State Senate is fairly clogged,” Watson said. “This gives him a bigger platform to push issues near and dear to his heart.”

Politicians need platforms, the bigger the better, so presumably there will always be another one willing to take the job of lieutenant governor, no matter how thankless it is.