In final Kentucky governor debate, Beshear and Cameron take the gloves off

In their fifth and final debate, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican challenger Attorney General Daniel Cameron tangled over taxes, public education, abortion and other familiar topics on WKYT in Lexington Tuesday evening.

But it was often accusations of question-dodging and talking over one another that stole the show during the hour-long war of words hosted by WKYT Anchor Bill Bryant.

Cameron and Beshear have already debated four previous times this month — and appeared at the same gubernatorial forum in September — and repeatedly argued about abortion, presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump, COVID-19 response, teacher shortages, school vouchers, gun violence, death penalty, opioids and more.

Kentuckians elect their next governor on Tuesday, Nov. 7, and no-excuse early voting is Thursday, Nov. 2 through Saturday, Nov. 4.

And while the two candidates at the top of the ticket are done facing off, their running mates — Lt. Gov. Jacquelyn Coleman and State Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson — will debate at 8 a.m. Oct. 30 on KET.

Here are key exchanges from Tuesday night:

Voting rights and felony convictions

The last few changes of gubernatorial administrations in Kentucky have seen the voting rights of people previously convicted of felonies restored, stripped away and restored again.

Shortly before leaving office in 2015, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear — the current governor’s father — issued an executive order restoring the right to vote and hold public office to more than 100,000 people convicted of felonies who had completed their sentences and paid all of their court-ordered restitution.

But about a month later, newly inaugurated Gov. Matt Bevin, a Republican, reversed the elder Beshear’s executive order.

After defeating Bevin in 2019, Andy Beshear issued an executive order restoring those rights just days into his term. At the debate Tuesday, Beshear said the order applied to 190,000 people who committed non-violent, non-sexual offenses.

“I do believe that we ought to have a constitutional amendment that puts that into the Constitution, that ensures that it lasts longer than me,” Beshear said.

Cameron said it seemed he and the governor agreed on this issue.

“Look, I don’t have any problem with restoring a person’s voting rights under the same rubric that they, you know, it’s not a sex offense or a violent offense,” he said.

Lowering Kentucky’s income tax

One of Cameron’s key promises on the campaign trail and debate stage is that he will eliminate the state’s personal income tax. He has previously said he wants to get to zero as quickly as possible, but has not shared how he’d close any resulting revenue gap.

Additionally, Cameron has not given a clear answer as to if he’d push the legislature to change the triggers it currently has in place for lowering the tax.

In August, the Office of the State Budget Director said the state failed to meet one of the two requirements enacted by House Bill 8 of the 2022 General Assembly for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

When pressed by Bryant about if he’d “speed up the time frame” for eliminating the tax, Cameron said he’d “do it in a thoughtful manner along with the members of our legislature.”

Beshear jumped in to note Cameron has shown “over and over” that he “refuses to answer the questions” posed to him.

Cameron retorted he said it would be in a “responsible and thoughtful manner. ... The governor, again, has no answers to the inflation and has no answers to the fact that he endorsed Joe Biden.”

“The question was: ‘Will you speed something up?’” Beshear snapped back.. “And his answer was: ‘Joe Biden.’”

“And I said ‘responsible and thoughtful manner,’” Cameron responded. “The folks at home know I said ‘responsible and thoughtful manner.’”

Beshear said Cameron’s plan would set Kentucky on a path to become Kansas, which famously cut its taxes in 2012, only to reverse course in 2017 following significant budgetary issues.

“What he’s going to do is increase sales tax on everything, and then apply it to groceries and medicine,” Beshear said.

“Otherwise, he’s going to gut public safety. He’s going to gut health care. And, he’s going to gut public education. You simply can’t afford the investment in those with his plan.”