A second Democratic state lawmaker now says Kentucky’s Republican governor asked him to switch parties.
Representative Russ Meyer says when he refused, he was threatened with political retaliation by Governor Bevin’s chief of staff.
Meyer, a Democratic House member from Nicholasville, says Bevin and his chief of staff, Blake Brickman, asked him to become a Republican shortly after Bevin was sworn into office. The alleged request came at a time when the GOP was hoping to win control of the Kentucky House.
Meyer told the CNHI news service that he informed Bevin he wouldn’t switch parties, and that the Governor responded politely. But Meyer says Brickman threatened to pull state-funding from projects in Meyer’s district, and called the Democrat an “Obama-loving baby killer.”
Following the alleged incident, the Bevin administration put a hold on funding for a road project in Meyer’s district that had been approved by Governor Steve Beshear’s administration.
The Bevin administration has denied the allegations by Meyer.
House Democrat Kevin Sinnette of Ashland has also said that he was asked to switch parties by Bevin, and faced threats of political retaliation when he refused.
Bevin called that accusation “an absolute lie.”
