In third debate, Kentucky governor candidates argue opioids, COVID response, diversity

With a little more than two weeks to go until Kentuckians elect their next governor, candidates Andy Beshear and Daniel Cameron used Saturday night’s televised debate to hone their lines of attack on one another.

Over the course of 60 minutes on WLKY in Louisville, Beshear, the Democratic incumbent, and Cameron, the Republican challenger, sparred over the familiar territory of abortion, education and the state of the commonwealth’s economy, which had all been addressed in previous meetings between the two this month.

But they also covered new ground — at least in this series of five debates, which continues Monday — on the issues of the COVID-19 pandemic, diversity and the opioid epidemic.

Here are highlights from Saturday’s debate.

Role of racial equity and diversity in policy

Televised exclusively by WLKY, Saturday’s debate focused on a number of Louisville-centric questions.

“Racial inequities continue to be an issue here in Louisville,” WLKY Reporter Mark Vanderhoff said. “How does racial equity and diversity factor into your policy decision making?”

Beshear, the first to respond, said he believes “our diversity makes us stronger.”

“People from different backgrounds coming together and finding a common way forward. And I have tried to be intentional — intentional about investments in areas that haven’t seen it and far too long,” Beshear continued.

Beshear touted a number of projects underway or completed in the predominantly Black West End of Louisville, including 350 jobs from Stellar Snacks, the final beam placed in the Norton West Louisville Hospital and the West Broadway YMCA location.

“It’s not enough, but it is a start,” he said. “In this red-hot economy, we’ve got to deliver jobs everywhere, in parts of Kentucky too often left out, and in the neighborhoods of this city too often left out, and we are delivering.”

Cameron rebutted by saying the economy is not red-hot and that Beshear was trying to “gaslight” the audience at home.

Cameron — who if elected would be the first Black governor of Kentucky — went on to say that “when it comes to addressing inequities,” the “major thing that we need to focus on is the violent crime spike” in the city, which requires leadership Beshear has not provided.

“And then on the topic of education,” Cameron said. “Again, education is key to success in the future, regardless of what your skin color’s like. This governor shuts you down for two years and we’ve got the learning loss because of it.”

COVID-19 response: Saving lives vs. making mistakes

On the campaign trail and in commercials, Cameron and his GOP allies have repeatedly prosecuted the case against Beshear’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which came to Kentucky just three months into the governor’s tenure.

While Republicans have slammed Beshear for closing churches, schools and businesses, Beshear has maintained his decisions were a matter of “life versus death” — all points made from the television studio Saturday.

WLKY Anchor Caray Grace, the debate’s moderator, asked the candidates “what successes and failures of the past response” would they take into the future, in the event of another pandemic.

“Well, look, I would not do what this governor did, and shut down your small businesses and shut down your churches and shut down our schools and we have significant learning loss because of it,” Cameron said in responding first. “He infringed upon your constitutional rights.

“Look, we have a responsibility to make sure that we look after our neighbors, but what you saw from Gov. Beshear was draconian. It was a decision — a top-down decision — to shut down parts of our commonwealth and each pick winners and losers.”

What exactly should be done to “look after our neighbors” in the event of another pandemic, Cameron did not say.

In responding, Beshear reiterated that the pandemic was real, killing more than 18,000 Kentuckians.

“I think about all the brave nurses and doctors that walked into COVID wings without PPE and, how this attorney general’s refusal to act like this pandemic was as deadly as it was, is a slap in the face that the heroism that they showed,” Beshear said. “The fact that he claims that he would never have even paused education would have sent thousands of teachers with many health issues into a classroom before vaccines were even available.

“I made decisions to save lives. It’s clear this attorney general would have played politics that would have caused more death, more destruction. I’d rather save lives than win re-election.”

In Cameron’s rebuttal, he likened Beshear to his California counterpart, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“You know, it’s one thing for Gavin Newsom to tell you that he regrets some of the decisions that he made, but you’ll never hear that from Andy Beshear, because he’s too proud and will never say that he made mistakes during the pandemic,” Cameron said.

Pressing issues fighting the opioid epidemic

Before Cameron’s tenure as attorney general, Beshear held the office for four years. Because of that, both men’s administrations played roles in lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Beshear played up his record of having personally filed and argued such lawsuits in court, while Cameron boasted that settlement dollars came in under his administration.

“I’ve been proud to be the attorney general that is in the process of bringing nearly $900 million to the state to fight this drug epidemic,” Cameron said. “And the reason that we’re able to bring this money to the state is because I said that we don’t need to just file lawsuits, we need to hold these companies accountable.”

Beshear shot back that Cameron “can’t settle a lawsuit that’s never been filed.”

“As Attorney General I sued more opioid manufacturers and distributors than any other in the country,” Beshear said. “I was so mad that if I could have found others I would have sued them, too. Unlike this attorney general, I went to work and personally argued, when they sent their big-city lawyers in and tried to blame it on us, tried to get out of court without paying a dime.”

Beshear said Cameron’s partisanship made him unable to acknowledge his predecessor’s work on the matter, noting “professionalism is supposed to be better than that.”