Senate President Robert Stivers speaks with Hickman County Judge Elect Kenny Wilson.

(Clinton, KY) - Senator Robert Stivers came into the Young Center at the Methodist Church on Wednesday evening apologizing profusely for making a small group of supporters wait over an hour past his scheduled time of arrival. Minds boggled trying to imagine his predecessor making that same apology. Sen. David Williams, now Circuit Judge David Williams, was not one to apologize during his tenure as Kentucky Senate President.

Senate President Robert Stivers is cut from a different bolt of cloth. While the two men are of a similar age and profession and of similar rural backgrounds, the resemblance ends there. Their personalities and management styles have led to different results in the Kentucky General Assembly. Williams, combative and assertive, presided over ongoing and vicious fights with Democrats in the House and Democrats in the Executive Branch. His weekly press conferences with then Speaker Jody Richards became known as the “Punchin’ Jody Show.”

Stivers comes across as low key and open. In his opening remarks in Clinton, he praised Democratic Governor Steve Beshear for bringing Democrats to the table to work on pension reform. He criticized both parties for their failure to deal with pension issues year after year. In his eighteen years in the General Assembly, he has served in Senates led by Democrats and Senates led by Republicans. As the Senate’s leader and third in line to the governorship should a disaster ever come to pass, Stivers felt it was his duty to get out and see parts of the state that are different from his native Eastern Kentucky.

He joked that back home, “if you have ten acres of river bottom on the Kentucky River, you have a nice sized farm. That’s what you folks mow as your lawn here.” He marveled at the thousands of acres under cultivation and spoke of the opportunities for biomass production and tourism.

One of the high points of his tour was a night spent at Lake Barkley State Park. A staff member traveling with him marveled at the beauty and quiet of the Lake.

Stivers was asked about the SOAR program. Stivers said that Rep. Rogers and Gov. Beshears worked together to begin the effort to help the eastern end of the state. Stivers spoke at length of connectivity of fast internet access. One of SOAR’s goals is to install trunk lines of “dark fiber” which is defined by webopedia.com as:

“Dark fiber refers to unused fiber-optic cable. Often times companies lay more lines than what's needed in order to curb costs of having to do it again and again. The dark strands can be leased to individuals or other companies who want to establish optical connections among their own locations.
In this case, the fiber is neither controlled by nor connected to the phone company. Instead, the company or individual provides the necessary components to make it functional.”

Senate President Stivers told his audience at the outset that he isn’t running for any other office than the one he has now.

That might put to rest rumors circulating about ambitions for offices in the executive branch.

Temporarily.