Gubernatorial Politics Blocking Industrial Hemp in Kentucky

UPDATE: More machinations.

Yeah, it's looking pretty obvious that House Speaker Greg Stumbo is throwing caltrops on the hemp highway just to prevent Republican Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer from notching a major victory on his way to the governor's race in 2015.

From the press release:

House Democrat amendments filed to Senate Bill 50, the industrial hemp bill sponsored by Sen. Paul Hornback and supported by Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, would make both the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky State Police responsible for testing registered hemp fields.

“House Speaker Greg Stumbo continues to play games at the expense of the people,” Comer said. “Why in the world would anyone put two government agencies in charge of the same exact responsibility, especially when the Department of Agriculture has shown that it can perform testing at $20 per test, and State Police have stated that it would cost them in excess of $750 per test?”

The floor amendments were filed late yesterday by Democrat Rep. Richard Henderson. Comer said he had not been informed of or consulted about the amendments. In hearings in both the House and Senate agriculture committees, Department of Agriculture representatives stated that they could perform testing at $20 per test. State Police stated that testing would cost the KSP in excess of $750 per test and that tasking the KSP with hemp testing would place too much financial burden on the agency’s testing laboratory.

“We told the General Assembly that we would not need any additional funding or personnel to perform the responsibilities in SB 50,” Comer added. “I sure hope that House Democrats will hold any other government agency saddled with the exact same responsibility to the same standard.”

The problem is that while ordinarily Democrats hold a huge advantage over repugs in the governor's race - repugs have won only twice in the last 66 years - 2015 is looking increasingly dicey for Democrats, especially in the face of Comer's popularity.

The Democratic field of probable candidates for governor - with the sole exception of Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes - is looking pretty pathetic.

Jerry Abramson may be Lt. Gov. now, but he's spent the last 20 years as the liberal "mayor for life" of liberal Louisville, whose mayors have a long history of failing in statewide races.

Attorney General Jack Conway supports industrial hemp, but he'll need several more lifetimes to live down the shame of losing the 2010 U.S. Senate race to Rand Paul.

DINO Ben "Cowardly Worm" Chandler lost the governor's race in 2003 and last year lost a Democratic congressional district he'd held for three terms.

Auditor Adam Edelen is busting his ass to make a name for himself, but he's got a closet full of skeletons that will doom him in the primary, never mind the general.

Former Auditor Crit Luallen is everybody's favorite savior, but I still say she passed up her best chance for governor in 2007, when Steve Beshear got into the race only because she didn't.

So poor Greg Stumbo is left having to try to sabotage Comer, who is the state repugs' fair-haired boy after being the only repug to win a state office in 2011.

It's old-fashioned, bare-knuckle politics and more power to him, but it's so ham-handed that his own hometown paper is calling him out on it.