DGA: Daniel Cameron’s Week To Forget

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who had a worse week than Daniel Cameron. 
Just this week, Cameron came under fire for privately pledging to “actively support” a disastrous health care agenda that would completely dismantle Medicaid expansion in Kentucky, putting health care at risk for 600,000 Kentuckians; a new report revealed shocking new details about the conduct in the Office of the Attorney General under Cameron’s absent and failed leadership that led to the loss of several staff members; the main line of attack against Gov. Beshear from Cameron’s allies was exposed for being misleading and hypocritical; and, to wrap his awful week, Cameron’s campaign said that a raise for Kentucky’s hard-working teachers wasn’t “feasible.”

To top it all off, Cameron’s campaign was dominated by Governor Andy Beshear in fundraising. Gov. Beshear reported bringing in almost $15 million to Cameron’s $2.8 million, while also having “roughly three times” the cash on hand as Cameron. 

Read more below about Daniel Cameron’s disastrous week:

• Daily Beast:  He Wants to Be Kentucky Guv. He Was a ‘Ghost’ in His Toxic Office.
  “In the three-plus years since Cameron was elected, the criminal appeals division has lost more than half of its career attorneys—also known as ‘merit’ attorneys, or, formerly, assistant attorneys general. Most of them either quit or retired early due to the work environment, the sources said.”
   

• NBC News: Kentucky governor hopeful Daniel Cameron faces heat on health care positions from GOP primary
  “However, while campaigning for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in April, Cameron indicated that he wanted to see the Affordable Care Act undone… Cameron's answer to the questionnaire has not been previously reported, and it's at odds with what he's said about Medicaid on the campaign trail, which has focused on adding work requirements for able-bodied people.”
   

• Associated Press: Democratic governor seizes commanding fundraising lead over GOP challenger in Kentucky campaign
  “Beshear — who is seeking a second term in a state that otherwise has become a GOP stronghold — accumulated about $15 million for the November election, while Cameron has taken in $2.8 million. Heading into the campaign’s stretch, Beshear had about three times more money in the bank.”
   

• Lexington Herald Leader: Beshear campaign demands TV stations pull ‘materially false’ commutation attack ad 
  “The video — paid for by the School Freedom Fund political action committee, which has endorsed GOP challenger Daniel Cameron — originally claimed Beshear commuted the sentence of James Hamlin, a Covington man who was facing criminal charges in early 2020 for sodomy and incest…  In actually, Hamlin was never freed from behind bars.”
   

• Associated Press: GOP candidate’s wife portrays rival’s proposed pay raise for school personnel as unfeasible
  “Makenze Cameron, the wife of Republican gubernatorial nominee Daniel Cameron, dismissed the Democratic governor’s proposal for an 11% pay raise for public school personnel as unfeasible as she promoted her husband’s education plan during a campaign appearance Thursday.”
   

• Heartland Signal: RGA criticizes Andy Beshear for releasing non-violent offenders early, but rewards GOP governors who did the same 
  “Republican governors across the nation — including Iowa Gov. Reynolds, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan — oversaw the release of hundreds of inmates during their terms in office for the same reasons as Beshear. The RGA invested millions of dollars to keep Stitt, DeWine and Hogan in office, and they elected Reynolds as the chair of the organization last November.”