Rep. Rick Nelson (D) is regarded as an outstanding legislator and that respect paid off in 2008 as no opponents lined up to challenge him for the 87th House District seat. But as we all know this year's legislative session was a complete bust. And everyone gets some blame and everyone will get blistered.
What did Rep. Rick Nelson (D) accomplish? Not much, but he was a co-sponsor on HB579 that was signed by the Governor.
But he did manage to piss off most everyone in Bell and Harlan Counties, especially the elected officials. HB136 was drafted and quickly passed through the House and Senate with no opponents. When the bill made it back to the House it was defeated on the last night of the session by a 54-36 vote and who voted against it, Rep. Rick Nelson (D). Now why would anyone care about HB136 in Bell and Harlan Counties? How about 8 frigging million dollars worth of local project money. I wrote a thread on Rep. Rick Nelson's plea for then Governor Ernie Fletcher (R) to release much needed monies for the infamous Bridge to Nowhere project in Bell Counties last year, this bill would provided that money.
This region is destitute and we needed that money desperately. So why did Rep. Rick Nelson vote against HB136? He said he didn't know about local project money included in this bill. Nelson left this message on a local forum.
Middlesboro Daily News
Representative Nelson’s defense is that he simply made a mistake.
Initially, Nelson took the blame for his error in a message posted on www.bellcounty.forumcircle.com. He wrote, “I made a mistake by voting ‘no’ on that bill even though it was voted down by a margin of 54-36. I was told we did not have any projects in it by someone who was supposed to know and we only had a few minutes to scan the bill before we voted to double check it. I scanned the bill and did not see any projects for us and voted no. That’s not much of an excuse, but is the truth.”
When questioned by the Daily News, Nelson claimed that he asked Senator Smith before voting if the bill contained any legislation that would effect his constituents and was told ‘no’.
“If I had known it was in there, I definitely would have voted for it. I regret it. I talked to Senator Smith and asked him if there were any projects in [the bill] for Bell or Harlan. He said there weren’t. It was after midnight, so it was actually an illegal vote anyway.”
Nelson went on to say that a lack of communication is ultimately to blame.
“We need to have better communication,” he said. “If I would have known that it was coming up, I could have gotten them five or six more votes.”
I like Rick but I will say he has been dodging me lately. I hate quoting newly elected State Senator Brandon Smith (R) but he blew up when he heard Nelson's excuse for his NO vote.
”Much earlier in the day, he asked me about HB 608, a water bond bill, but never inquired about HB 136,” Senator Smith responded.
“It’s regrettable that Rick Nelson failed to do his job, but it is calculated that he would try to blame someone else. I did my job. He chose to vote against it and now he is trying to blame someone else,” Smith said. “It takes a strong character to say that I made a mistake but to blame someone else is just wrong.”
Smith went on to call Nelson’s excuse “about as blatant of a lie as I’ve ever seen told in politics.”
The five page document containing House Bill 136 for Representatives’ review contained a total of five ‘state high priority projects’. The Bell County project was third on that list.
I have to say that while Sen. Smith and Bell County Judge Executive Albey Brock (R) will certainly grab every grain of political capital possible with this situation, Nelson did this to himself. Do I think he lied on the forum? No I don't, but this could sink his ship in two years. People here tend to have long memories.
Grade F
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