Ernie Fletcher - Legislative Career

Legislative Career

Through his church ministry, Fletcher became acquainted with a group of social conservatives that gained control of the Fayette County Republican Party in 1990. (Fayette County and the city of Lexington operate under the merged Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government). Fletcher accepted an invitation to become a member of the county Republican committee. In 1994, he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, defeating incumbent Democrat Leslie Trapp. He represented Kentucky’s 78th District and served on the Kentucky Commission on Poverty and the Task Force on Higher Education. He was also chosen by Governor Paul E. Patton to assist with reforming the state's health-care system.

As a result of legislative redistricting in 1996, Fletcher's district was consolidated with the one represented by fellow Republican Stan Cave. Rather than challenge a member of his own party, Fletcher decided to run for a seat representing Kentucky's 6th District in the U.S. House of Representatives later that year. After winning a three-way Republican primary by 4 votes over his closest opponent, he was defeated by incumbent Democrat Scotty Baesler by just over 25,000 votes. In 1998, Baesler resigned his seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated due to the retirement of Senator Wendell H. Ford. Fletcher won the Republican primary for Baesler's seat by a wide margin. In the general election, Fletcher faced Democrat Ernesto Scorsone. The Lexington Herald-Leader billed the race as "a classic joust between the left and the right". Fletcher was strongly opposed to abortion, advocated a "flatter, fairer, simpler" tax system, and called for returning most federal education funding to local communities. Scorsone supported abortion rights, called a flat tax "too regressive", and favored national educational testing and standards. Fletcher defeated Scorsone by a vote of 104,046 to 90,033, with third-party candidate W. S. Krogdahl garnering 1,839 votes.

Within months of arriving in Washington, D.C., Fletcher was selected as the leadership liaison for the 17-member freshman class of Republican legislators. He was appointed to the Committee on Education and Workforce, and John Boehner, chair of the committee's employer/employee relations subcommittee, chose Fletcher as his vice-chair. The committee's purpose is to oversee the rules for employer-paid health plans, among other issues, and although it is rare for a freshman legislator to attain a committee leadership post, Boehner cited Fletcher's experience in the medical field and work on reforming the Kentucky health care system as reasons for the appointment. Fletcher also served as a member of the House Committees on the Budget and Agriculture. In June 1999, he sponsored an amendment to a youth violence bill that allowed school districts to use federal funds to develop curricula which included elements designed to promote and enhance students' moral character; the amendment passed 422—1. Later, Fletcher was assigned to the Committee on Energy and Commerce and was selected as chairman of the Policy Subcommittee on Health.

During the debate over the proposed Patients' Bill of Rights legislation, Fletcher opposed a Democratic proposal that would have allowed individuals to sue their health maintenance organizations (HMOs), favoring instead a more limited bill drafted by Republican leadership that expanded the patient's ability to appeal HMO decisions. Many doctors in the Republican legislative caucus felt their party's bill did not go far enough; Fletcher and Tennessee Senator Bill Frist were notable exceptions. Fletcher's position cost him the support of the Kentucky Medical Association (KMA). After contributing to his campaign against Scorsone in 1998, KMA backed Scotty Baesler's bid to regain his old seat from Fletcher in 2000. However, Baesler only captured 35 percent of the vote to Fletcher's 53 percent. The remaining 12 percent went to third-party candidate Gatewood Galbraith.

After the 2000 election, Fletcher crafted a compromise bill that allowed patients to sue their HMOs in federal court, capped pain and suffering awards at $500,000, and eliminated punitive damage awards. Despite an eventual compromise allowing patient lawsuits to go to state courts under certain circumstances and heavy lobbying in favor of Fletcher's bill by President George W. Bush, the House refused to pass it, favoring an alternative proposal by Georgia's Charlie Norwood that was less restrictive on patient lawsuits.

Fletcher faced no major-party opposition in his re-election bid in 2002 after the only Democrat in the race, 24-year-old Roy Miller Cornett Jr., withdrew his candidacy. Independent Gatewood Galbraith again made the race; Libertarian Party Mark Gailey also mounted a challenge. In the final vote tally, Fletcher received 115,522 votes to Galbraith's 41,853 and Gailey's 3,313.