FRANKFORT, Ky. — This year seemed to open the floodgates on efforts to impeach Kentucky lawmakers. Three of those attempts were tossed late Tuesday night as some legislators say it is time to change the rules.
The efforts to impeach Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Attorney General Daniel Cameron and State Rep. Robert Goforth were put to bed just before 11 p.m. Tuesday.
A bill filed in the Kentucky House would keep impeachment petitions alive, but only if they could be filed by state representatives.
Rep. Adam Koenig's House Bill 378 would remove a citizen’s ability to deliver petitions by the wagon-load like Kentucky saw just a few weeks ago. Instead, the bill would let representatives file a petition if two lawmakers filed as a pair.
“We live in an extremely polarized universe, and it is being used as a hammer to punish people and to show how smart or effective or mad they are about something," the 69th District Republican said. "That's not what impeachment is for.”
Koenig said citizens would still have a voice by contacting their representatives.
“Citizens, on every level, have a voice through their elected representatives and through social media and email," Koenig said. "You can talk to all of the other representatives too, so they still have their voice.”
While he wasn't ready to weigh in on the Koenig plan, Impeachment Committee Chair Rep. Jason Nemes said some sort of rule change is needed, but said the committee's focus was on the petitions — not the rules.
"The question was whether or not an election ought to be overturned," Nemes said. "This committee said that the actions that [Beshear] has had, many of which we extremely disagree with, do not rise to that level.”
While Kentuckians will have to wait to see if the bill can gain steam to pass in the last dozen days of this session, no new impeachment petitions have been filed.
RELATED: Panel recommends no further action in impeachment petitions against Gov. Beshear, Daniel Cameron
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