Breaking News: Petition To ‘Impeach’ Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin Initiated
In Kentucky, newly-elected Governor Matt Bevin has been taking a sledgehammer to several cabinets and laws in this state to overhaul the budget, and some voters have decided to make a petition to start taking measures to have him impeached or removed from office.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, outrage against Governor Matt Bevin began in the state of Kentucky with the signing of his first law when he took action against Planned Parenthood, according to WLKY.
Now, in addition to deciding to sue Planned Parenthood for performing abortions illegally, according to the Lawyer Herald, voters in the state of Kentucky have decided that Matt Bevin needs to be removed from office for issues that have nothing to do with Planned Parenthood.
Unfortunately, unlike other states, The National Conference of State Legislatures notes that Kentucky cannot have a recall vote to get Matt Bevin out of office. As one of the 14 states that do not allow for a recall vote, Kentucky will instead need to make a petition to get Matt Bevin out of office through the state’s removal/impeachment process.
On Change, there was a petition created on February 18 that stated their reasons for asking the Kentucky State Senate to remove Matt Bevin from office. The petition may be based on a document from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission about impeachment that was published in 1991.
Among their complaints were ones that suggested that Governor Matt Bevin was attempting to change laws that would allow him to be unethical and corrupt. For example, the petition stated the following.
“Kentucky State Governor Matt Bevin has introduced a budget that would cut funds to the committees for ethics investigations and elections oversight. These budget cuts would disallow the committees to oversee the ethics of the Governor’s office.”
Supporting the idea that Matt Bevin is cutting government watch dog programs, WKYT reported the following.
“The executive director of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission said the proposed 4.5 percent budget cut this year [by Matt Bevin] and the 9 percent cut over the next two years will devastate the agency. She said it would force her to lay off the agency’s sole investigator and auditor, two employees who already work part time.”
It was also cited in the petition that Matt Bevin was accused of election fraud and the need for an investigation and/or a formal recount of votes needs to be pursued. If corruption is found, the petition asks that Matt Bevin be removed from office.
This part of the petition may be referencing an account from November 3, 2015 in Kentucky Magazine that states the following about Matt Bevin winning the election.
“By 7:30 p.m. [on Election Day], the Kentucky Attorney General’s vote fraud hotline had received 52 complaints from 27 counties. The Office of the Attorney General, by law, cannot provide details of specific complaints or possible pending investigations.”
In addition to affronting women’s health care, according to Louisville Insider, Matt Bevin has been ruthlessly closing down other programs that could be viewed as ones that improve the state of Kentucky (well-known for being one of the hardest places to live in the United States, according to the New York Times).
Adding to the list of woes, Matt Bevin has also taken an ax to several key Kentucky offices in the past few weeks. About changes Matt Bevin wants to make to the education budget, WDRB quotes Kentucky Democratic Representative Kelly Flood stating the following on February 17.
“The amount of cuts that have been proposed are not sustainable and definitely will impact the classroom experience — and that’s something that the House will ensure doesn’t happen.”
About cutting $18 million from a fund that affects public universities, Matt Bevin’s rebuttal was paraphrased in the following on February 4 by the Courier-Journal.
“Bevin administration officials told lawmakers they share their concerns but emphasized that the state is facing a financial crisis in dealing with more than $30 billion in unfunded liabilities in its public pension systems that must be addressed in a major way in the 2016-18 state budget.”
However, Kentucky voters may find that they have an unlikely ally in their moves to get Matt Bevin out of office. As it appears, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell is fired up about Matt Bevin, and Senate Conservatives Fund executive director Matt Hoskins told Business Insider the following on February 18.
“Mitch McConnell is trying to smear Matt Bevin because he’s terrified of losing the Republican primary. Mitch McConnell voted for the Wall Street bailout and has requested stimulus funds from President Obama at least a dozen times.”
[Picture by Win McNamee/Getty Images]
