State Rep. Russ Meyer, D-Nicholasville, released Tuesday a recording of a voicemail message he received in December from Matt Bevin in which Meyer says the Republican governor warned him of the “impacts” of not switching political parties.
Meyer said in an interview Tuesday morning that he received the call from Bevin on his cellphone at 8:40 a.m. Dec. 17 after he had informed Bevin’s chief of staff, Blake Brickman, that he wasn’t going to switch parties.
Meyer said he had met with the governor and Brickman on Dec. 15 and talked to Brickman again Dec. 16.
In the tape Meyer released Tuesday, Bevin said he was “a little disappointed by some of what I’m hearing. Would love to speak to you.”
“I want to make sure you understand, uh, where, where things are in my mind and the decisions I’m going to make, uh, in the days ahead, the weeks ahead, the months ahead. I want you to be very aware of what the impacts of those decisions will be as it relates to you, your seat, your district, etc. — just so we have all the cards on the table,” Bevin said.
Meyer said Tuesday that he thinks a major road project in his district was postponed recently because he decided to remain a Democrat. The Bevin administration has denied that.
The $11 million project was an extension of East Brannon Road in Jessamine County to Tates Creek Road near the Fayette County line. It had been approved by Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, just before he left office in December.
The Bevin administration delayed the project, saying the Beshear administration didn’t secure a necessary portion of land before the deadline to begin work. The state was contractually obligated to pay The Allen Co. $625,000 in damages because of the delay.
Asa Swan, chief of staff of the state Transportation Cabinet, said Monday that the state got all of the right-of-ways for the project about a month ago but can’t begin construction because it first needs to remove all the utility lines and pipes in the project’s path.
“This unfortunately was a rushed job,” Swan said.
He said it would be premature to say when construction will begin.
Swan was adamant that the postponement of the project had nothing to do with Meyer. “We just inherited a mess,” he said.
House Majority Caucus chairwoman Sannie Overly, D-Paris, said it’s not uncommon for a construction project to begin before all utility right-of-ways are acquired. Overly formerly oversaw the House’s road budget and is chairwoman of the state Democratic Party.
Bevin’s director of communications, Jessica Ditto, said in a response that “the governor believes a Republican majority in the state House will lead to more jobs and opportunities for Kentucky families in Representative Meyer’s district and across Kentucky.”
“Representative Meyer was worried about the governor supporting a Republican opponent against him this year and expressed an interest in changing parties because Jessamine County is now a Republican county and trending moreso,” Ditto said. “The fact that Representative Meyer would release a nine-month-old polite and personal voice mail two months before an election is proof of his continued insecurity about keeping his seat.”
She called Meyer’s decision to release the tape a “desperate and partisan effort to misconstrue the conversations that he initiated” and said it’s “a discredit to the office he holds.”
Democrats control the House by a 53-47 majority. Republicans are trying to wrest control of the House this year for the first time since 1921.
Meyer is the second House Democrat to say he was pressured by Bevin to switch parties. Rep. Kevin Sinnette of Ashland said that on the day after he told Bevin he wouldn’t switch parties, recorded phone calls went out to voters in his district implying that Sinnette supports abortion and asking voters to call him and urge him to switch parties. Sinnette is opposed to abortion.
Bevin later called that story “an absolute lie.”
Sinnette told CNHI News that Bevin has tried to intimidate at least five Democratic lawmakers to switch parties.
Meyer said his major concerns lie with the people of the 39th House District. He said a project to build a long-term care center in his district that would create 90 jobs has been canceled because of the delay in the East Brannon Road project.
“I feel like the people have been left out of this,” he said.
Listen to the recorded phone call.
Jack Brammer: 502-227-1198, @BGPolitics