The RP: KY Governor’s Race Poses Eternal Question – Can a Father-in-Law Love Too Much?

In this week’s column for The Huffington Post, the RP comments on a fascinating personal story within an otherwise boring Kentucky Governor’s race:  the relationship between GOP nominee and State Senate President David Williams and his father-in-law, Terry Stephens, who has pumped in nearly $2.5 million of his own fortune — some through dubious means — to help his son-in-law.  Here’s an excerpt:

As the proud papa of two extraordinary teenage girls, I know that there is nothing more unshakable, pure, and enduring than a father’s love for his daughter.  Where that unqualified adoration extends to her husband as well, I imagine that such a family is truly blessed.

But as the Kentucky governor’s race approaches its inexorable denouement this November, it seems apparent that a father-in-law can love a bit too much.

The father-in-law at issue is Terry Stephens, a highly successful businessman in rural southern Kentucky.  And his son-in-law, Kentucky Senate President and GOP gubernatorial nominee David Williams, is having a very, very bad year.

Indeed, during the first decade of the new millennium, David Williams was the most powerful and influential figure in the Kentucky Capitol.  While never offering a discernible policy agenda of his own, Williams was a master of statehouse politics, successfully thwarting the grand legislative ambitions of three consecutive governors, of both parties.

Williams, however, failed to comprehend that his insider influence would not necessarily translate into statewide electoral success. And after eking out a GOP primary victory against two dramatically underfunded opponents, his general election bid — marred by a Keystone-Cops, revolving-door campaign team and the seemingly weekly release of new allegations about the misuse of taxpayer funds by Williams and his running-mate — has been nothing short of a disaster.  The most recent polls show Williams running around 30 points behind the incumbent Governor, Steve Beshear. Even Trey Grayson, the former GOP Secretary of State and current Director of Harvard’s Institute of Politics — and, like Williams, a protegée of U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell — has publicly declared the race over, predicting an electoral “blowout.”

Perhaps Williams’ overwhelming popular rebuke can be attributed to the recent media exposure of the many hypocrisies of his candidacy and career:  The steadfast opponent of expanded gaming who incurred tens of thousands of dollars in losses at riverboat casinos in neighboring states.  The leading advocate of cutting public pensions who has voted to double his own legislative pension while in office. The self-defined fiscal conservative (proclaiming, a la JFK in Berlin, “I am a Tea Partier“) who has emerged as the very symbol of government waste by spending more than $50,000 to renovate his Senate office with items such as a big-screen, plasma TV.

But the most popular theory blames Williams’ precipitous decline on the Senate President’s dislikable personality.  While for years in Frankfort circles and on editorial pages, Williams has been widely and consistently portrayed as a “bully,” it was only through the spotlight of a statewide campaign that many of Williams’ critics have felt empowered to come forward and give public testimony.  (In one powerful example, state Senator Tim Shaughnessy, who described himself as once close to Williams, declared: “He is just not a very nice person.”)  Even Williams himself admits that his disesteemed personal image has damaged  his candidacy.

Still, to Williams’ credit, those closest around seem to really love him. His wife, Robyn, has forcefully defended her husband against political attacks, and her beautiful visage graces much of Williams’ campaign propaganda.

And Robyn’s father, Terry Stephens has been — by leaps and bounds — Williams’ largest financial supporter.  Stephens gave the Williams campaign the maximum financial contribution provided under state law, and then held a fundraiser at his home that generated around $50,000 in contributions.  In June, Stephens contributed $1 million to the Republican Governors’ Association, which in July ran about $1 million of television ads supporting Williams’ candidacy.

Click here to read the rest of the article in The Huffington Post.