Wilkey won't seek seek re-election for leadership post

State House Democratic Whip Rob Wilkey of Scottsville announced he is retiring from the state legislature, which opens up a spot in the House Democratic leadership team.

Herald-Leader columnist Larry Dale Keeling is reporting that Wilkey notified colleagues this week of his decision in a letter saying he was "embarrassed" by the way the 2008 General Assembly session ended.

Wilkey wrote that the House Democratic leadership team's working relationship fell apart and "there was a conscious effort to embarrass this governor during the session."

"It worked. He could have done a better job of building a relationship with the House, but I also feel he was mislead into believing that we would work with him," Wilkey wrote. "We didn't."

Wilkey didn't identify whom he considered the culprits for trying to "embarrass" new Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear but hinted that Democrats should make changes in the leadership team.

"I hope our members think long and hard about re-election some members of this leadership group," Wilkey wrote. "I will not be running. My decision not to seek re-election has been made for some time, although I haven't announced it ... I will not be back in Frankfort at all next year."

UPDATED AT 7:39 P.M.:  House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, issued a statement about Wilkey's decision.

He said, "Rob Wilkey is one of the best friends I have ever had in my life, and not just in the legislature since we began serving together in 1997.  He is a true gentleman, very smart, hard-working and was an outstanding legislator.

"I am going to miss his personal friendship and counsel, but the people of Kentucky and the Kentucky General Assembly is losing one of its best ... bar none."

- Ryan Alessi

Comments

[KYJurisDoctor]

Can anyone blame him?

[Mansfield]

I'm glad someone has the guts to say it like it is. The House Democrats sabotaged Gov Beshears police and blind sided him on more than one occasion. Our General Assembly will continue to be ineffective as long as Moberly, Adkins, and Richards are gone.

[Mansfield]

Ooops..in my post I obviously meant policies not police...Freudian slip :)

[Dave]

Wow... this is very sad.

Rob Wilkey is one of the best damn Representatives we have.

[wuh]

while Wilkey's general attitude is understandable, he's wrong about Beshear. Beshear made his own bed. He failed to even talk about casino gambling in his state of the commonwealth and didn't even file his proposal until mid February. He championed and ethics bill and it was a month before we saw anything related to it. He then became distracted with his administration's mishandling of the state senate race, using a state plane for politics when he said it was wrong while campaigning adding that he wouldn't do it, firing psc employees and then hiring them back, a number of high level appointments that were/are questionabl, etc. These are all Beshear's actions not the General Assembly's. Did the legislature provide much leadership? Of cours, the answer is no. But that doesn't excuse Beshear and the idiots that he has surrounded himself with and relies on in agencies. They are so interested in their brand of partisan politics that they, quite frankly, ruined their first 6 months in office leaving nothing more than a 38% approval rating for a governor who's only been in office the same amount of time. Pathetic! When are we going to wake up in Kentucky and get some folks in office with real leadership ability, folks who haven't held other statewide offices playing musical chairs until their song played?

[Concerned Kentuckian]

Rob Wilkey's retirement is a tremendous loss for the General Assembly. Rob is known as the "go to" guy when the issues were tough and he has the respect from both sides of the aisle to pass legislation. His decision on putting family first and also his growing responsibilities with his full-time job is certainly understood and admirable but again a big loss for public service. I agree that leadership changes need to be made. Speaker Richards needs to understand that his broken promises to his caucus, his penchant for retaining power at all costs and his personal ego have put the Kentucky House of Representatives in jeopardy. Hopefully, he will recognize this and retire and that new members of the democratic House will step up and restore the sanity of the House. Rob, we will miss you.

[Truth]

"Our General Assembly will continue to be ineffective as long as Moberly, Adkins, and Richards are gone"

You left out Greg Stumbo. We should all remember the turmoil Stumbo put our state in with his prosecution of Fletcher. Regardless of your party; millions of dollars were wasted with no result.

What is worse were the opportunities to move Kentucky forward. Instead, nothing was done for four years in state government.

Beshear will be the "do nothing" governor as long as Stumbo is behind the scenes sabotaging the current administration in his pursuit to obtain the governors office. It's this type of internal backstabbing which allows David Williams to rule the senate.

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