It's not every day that a sitting governor is indicted. If the stories I've seen so far are accurate it had never happened before in the history of Kentucky (which of course became a state back in the 1700's). That is, it had never happened until today.
Posted by armand at May 11, 2006 05:44 PM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsActually apparently he's not the first Kentucky governor to be indicted - only the first in 70+ years. From a Tom Loftus article in the Courier-Journal:
Fletcher is the third Kentucky governor to be indicted.
Gov. William Sylvester Taylor, a Republican elected in 1899, was charged in 1900 as an accessory to the murder of his Democratic rival, William Goebel, according to The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Goebel was challenging his loss in the gubernatorial election when he was shot and wounded at the Capitol on Jan. 30, 1900.
Supporters swore in Goebel the day after he was shot -- leaving the state with two governors -- but he died Feb. 3, 1900, the encyclopedia says. The courts later upheld Goebel's election. Taylor fled the state to Indiana and was later pardoned by Kentucky Gov. Augustus Willson.
Gov. Flem D. Sampson, a Republican who served from 1927 to 1931, was charged with accepting gifts from textbook companies after promoting legislation to provide free textbooks for schoolchildren. The indictment was dismissed.
Posted by: Armand at May 13, 2006 06:34 PM | PERMALINK