John Roach: A Full Circle Journey of Politics and Faith

I am writing this while spending spring break with my family driving through North Carolina and Virginia visiting colleges with my sixteen year-old daughter, Catherine.  As we were driving from Lexington, Kentucky, to Charlotte, North Carolina, to begin our college search at Davidson, we began to discuss previous family spring break trips – Hilton Head, California, and skiing in Utah.  I then asked my family what trip was before Utah and my family responded that I was still in politics before Utah and then reminded me that we seldom, if ever, went on spring break trips while I was a part of the political world.

That response is a perfect example of how my family discusses our family experiences:  during politics and after politics.  My children favor the after-politics period.  A few months after my forced exit from public life, my son and I were heading home from the golf course and my son out-of-the-blue told me to not take it the wrong way, but he was glad I had lost my Supreme Court race.  Although I wish that I had won the election, I, like my family, have loved my life after politics.  I am probably still a recovering politician, but I think I may be in the final steps of recovery.  In fact, I have traveled full circle.

I have known the founder of Recovering Politician since high school.  When Jonathan Miller returned to Kentucky in the 1990s to run for State Treasurer, we had lunch together.  I still remember our conversation.  I had lost faith in the political system and I believed that it was generally a waste of time.  I wrote Jonathan a small contribution and got my law partners to also write small contributions in support of Jonathan’s campaign.  Jonathan had only Democratic opposition and this fact made it very easy to support my friend.

A few years later, I had become disenchanted with my law practice and in early 2000 I agreed to run Scott Crosbie’s 2002 Lexington, Kentucky, mayoral campaign.  Although I had grown up around politics, I had never worked in a campaign full-time.  Scott and I discussed that I may need to find some sort of campaign school or seminar to attend.  It turned out that there was no need to find training because in April 2000, then-Congressman Ernie Fletcher asked me to run his 2000 congressional campaign.  Former Congressman Scotty Baesler had decided to try to take his seat back and I was thrust into one of the top-five targeted races by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the AFL-CIO.  I was convinced that the Lord had opened this door to provide me the skills necessary to get Scott Crosbie elected Mayor in 2002.  Congressman Fletcher went on to crush Baesler in the fall of 2000.  I then returned to the law firm for a brief period and began to get ready for the Lexington mayoral campaign.

The 2002 mayoral election began in 2001 and for over eighteen months Scott and I experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows.  We suffered at the hands of a biased newspaper, with its seemingly daily negative coverage of our campaign.  We survived a three-way primary and then ultimately lost the general election by 1300 votes.  The loss was one of the most difficult periods of my life.  I was convinced that the Lord had brought Scott and me together to help change Lexington and I was extremely disappointed.  After election night I had no idea what was next.  I spent the next three weeks watching Season 1 episodes of “24” and watching multiple seasons of the Sopranos at all hours of the night.

By late 2002 Congressman Fletcher was running for Governor of Kentucky and I did not believe that I could participate in another campaign.  I was extremely tired, and I spent much too much time away from my family.  Instead, I became the district director of his congressional office.  After Ernie’s victory in the fall of 2003, Governor Fletcher asked me to be General Counsel to the Governor.  I was thrilled.  I had grown up in the Democratic bastion of Frankfort, Kentucky, and was excited to be a part of changing the culture of Frankfort and our state.  Ernie Fletcher is the most impressive and genuine person I ever had the privilege to meet in politics.  He was smart and driven to make Kentucky more economically competitive.  It was an honor to be his lawyer and the head lawyer for his administration.

The first year of the administration required a tremendous commitment of time.  My family still reminds me of the 7 1/2 hour conference call while we were on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard in June of 2004.  Our administration not only had to deal with the normal challenges of a first-year administration but also had to plan and defend running the government without a legislatively enacted budget.  Ultimately, after my work schedule caused me to cancel a one-day family trip, I decided in early 2005 that I was ready to leave public service behind.  I told Governor Fletcher that I would stay until the end of 2005.

A few months after that decision, Justice James Keller announced his retirement from the Kentucky Supreme Court.  I gave the vacancy an initial passing thought but did not give it serious thought.  However, that would soon change.  Before oral argument at the Kentucky Supreme Court concerning the power of the Governor to run the executive branch without a budget, one of my law classmates who was representing State Treasurer Jonathan Miller in the litigation came up to me and said that I should pursue the appointment.  He was a Democrat and indicated he would publicly support me.  After prayer and discussions with my wife, I decided to inform Governor Fletcher of my interest.  Governor Fletcher asked what had changed my mind about leaving public service.  I responded that the Supreme Court position was a dream position and I decided it would be worth the sacrifices of public service.

Ultimately, I was appointed to the Kentucky Supreme Court.  I loved my job.  I loved the research and the writing and I believed that everything that had happened in my professional life had prepared me for the position.  However, the dream would end in over seventeen months when I was defeated in an election to keep my position.  What was most surprising about the defeat was that I did not enter into the same post-election mood that I suffered through when I was Scott Crosbie’s campaign manager.  In fact, I got up the day after the election and I went to my chambers and worked on judicial opinions.

What was the difference between 2002 and 2006?  Although I have miles to go, I believe that my faith had matured.  By 2006, I understood that if God is sovereign on the day you were appointed to the Supreme Court he is also sovereign on the day you lost.

I returned to my old law firm in late 2006 and I am still with Ransdell & Roach PLLC.  For the first time since I became a lawyer, I truly enjoy private practice.  Since my forced early retirement from politics I have had little to do with politics and feel much like I did at my lunch meeting with Jonathan Miller in 1999.  However, I must confess I stayed up most of the night during the election night coverage in November, 2010.  I guess you are never fully recovered.