Adam Edelen is obviously the best thing to happen to the Governor’s office since Steve Beshear won the election against Ernie Fletcher. Sure, he has his flaws, but his background obviously fits the role of Chief of Staff.
So along those lines, take a look at this great interview by Trey Pollard at Politicker.
In an interview with PolitickerKY.com conducted last Friday, Edelen says he is bringing the lessons of his experience in the private sector with him into Beshear’s office, noting he wants the administration to become more “customer service oriented” in its dealings.
“It’s important to note I am not a political professional. I would bristle at the term,” Edelen said. “I am a businessman who has been involved in politics and not the other way around.”
Edelen joins Beshear’s staff after a stint heading Kentucky’s Office of Homeland Security. With Beshear already having faced a fair share of struggles in his first 6 months in office – including stalls in the legislature on his proposed expanded casino gaming and tobacco tax initiatives – Edelen has his work cut out for him in the high-pressure chief of staff role.
Click here to read the rest…
7 responses so far ↓
1 now now // Jun 30, 2008 at 7:17 pm
No negative remarks but let’s face it…he’s not a businessman involved in politics. he’s a politician. he worked for patton when he was lt. governor (let’s say a year). he worked for patton for the entirety of his first term (that’s four years). He ran for office in lexington and lost (essentially one year running for office). He has or someone else has through him contributed thousands to candidates and parties. He’s now chief of staff for a governor. All of that political activity at age 33—yep, he’s a politician.
Now with that said, politicians themselves aren’t all bad. There are some bad people in politics for sure.
2 anon // Jun 30, 2008 at 8:47 pm
He didn’t work for Patton the whole first term, maybe two years?
3 anon // Jun 30, 2008 at 8:49 pm
that being said, his life has been about politics with the goal of getting elected. That started in college and I’ve seen no evidence of it slowing down.
Not a bad thing necessarily, but is true.
4 Forks of Elkhorn // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:56 am
Mr. Edelen is a very welcome addition to our Democratic political bench, which all too often is loaded with people my age or older, who’ve already been one thing or another, and sooner or later we need to send in some new starters. We need Adam and a few more young women and men just like him – intelligent, politically savvy, and most importantly under the age of 50 (and ideally uner the age of 40) – waiting in the wings for the oldtimers to stop running over and over and over. When I was young, 50 was old. Now 50 is about average. That isn’t good. There needs to be a new generation of Democratic leaders for my children and their children. Adam is one of those.
5 avenue // Jul 1, 2008 at 10:27 am
what both parties are full of but need to shove aside are those that are climbers…they simply move from one position to the other for the purpose of power, priviledge and money. Not going to say he is but don’t know if Edelen is one of these or not…God knows Frankfort is full of people who aren’t really interested in serving but which job they can get next.
6 jake // Jul 1, 2008 at 10:35 am
First off, who ever said Adam wasn’t a politician? He is. Just not a politician like, oh, Mitch McConnell. He wants to hold higher office but not to the detriment of society.
It’s politics. People need to get over the fact that some people want better jobs with more responsibility. It’s no different than any other line of work.
7 avenue // Jul 1, 2008 at 10:45 am
Actually it was Edelen who said he wasn’t a politician in your post above:
“It’s important to note I am not a political professional. I would bristle at the term,” Edelen said. “I am a businessman who has been involved in politics and not the other way around.”
A political professional is a politician. A politician by any other name is still a politician. Again, not saying that’s bad necessarily.
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