{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Governor Steve Beshear is only the third Kentucky governor to serve consecutive four-year terms. Beshear has a broad political resume, having served as a state legislator, attorney general and lieutenant governor before political setbacks pushed him into private law practice through his middle-aged years. He returned to the political scene in 2007 when he defeated Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher. Beshear was officially sworn in for a second term during a private midnight ceremony but repeated the oath of office again in a public ceremony outside the Capitol. During the midnight ceremony, some 300 people watched Beshear recite the traditional and archaic constitutional oath that included language requiring him to swear that he has never fought a duel with deadly weapons, a holdover from Kentucky's frontier days. Beshear arrived at the Capitol on Tuesday in a horse-drawn carriage. Accompanied by his wife, Jane, Beshear was trailed by a parade of other newly elected state officials and scores of high school marching bands. Beshear kicked off daylong inaugural festivities with a worship service in the Frankfort Convention Center. In an inaugural speech Tuesday afternoon on the front steps of the Capitol, Beshear briefly mentioned he's open to tax reforms as Kentucky comes out of the economic recession. Beshear says the state's political leaders must find the political courage to lay a foundation for a better tomorrow. He said that foundation "requires" restructuring the state's tax system "to make it more fair and efficient."Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Governor Steve Beshear Officially Sworn In
{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Governor Steve Beshear is only the third Kentucky governor to serve consecutive four-year terms. Beshear has a broad political resume, having served as a state legislator, attorney general and lieutenant governor before political setbacks pushed him into private law practice through his middle-aged years. He returned to the political scene in 2007 when he defeated Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher. Beshear was officially sworn in for a second term during a private midnight ceremony but repeated the oath of office again in a public ceremony outside the Capitol. During the midnight ceremony, some 300 people watched Beshear recite the traditional and archaic constitutional oath that included language requiring him to swear that he has never fought a duel with deadly weapons, a holdover from Kentucky's frontier days. Beshear arrived at the Capitol on Tuesday in a horse-drawn carriage. Accompanied by his wife, Jane, Beshear was trailed by a parade of other newly elected state officials and scores of high school marching bands. Beshear kicked off daylong inaugural festivities with a worship service in the Frankfort Convention Center. In an inaugural speech Tuesday afternoon on the front steps of the Capitol, Beshear briefly mentioned he's open to tax reforms as Kentucky comes out of the economic recession. Beshear says the state's political leaders must find the political courage to lay a foundation for a better tomorrow. He said that foundation "requires" restructuring the state's tax system "to make it more fair and efficient."