KENTUCKY’S
KING
replaced trees uprooted by a tornado. “He was always willing to
support green things if you made
a good case for it,” says Runyon,
noting that he also started an office dedicated to environmental
issues and had a well-respected
liberal run it.
McConnell became known for
his insistence on quality personnel. There were no more jailbreaks with toothbrushes. “He
believed in things like historic
preservation and the environment
and functional social services,”
Runyon adds.
During his second term, McConnell worked closely with the
progressive Sloane. If he took a
position that might appear hostile
to the Louisville mayor, McConnell would give him a warning.
“He would call me and explain
where he’s coming from,” Sloane
remembers. “There wasn’t personal acrimony there. I did the
same thing with him.” J. Bruce
Miller, the Democratic county attorney, says McConnell had the
same deal with him.
McConnell joined forces with
Sloane to attempt a county-city
merger as a way of cutting duplicative services and infusing suburban wealth into the city. It was
HUFFINGTON
08.11.13
a fairly liberal idea that proved
ahead of its time. The referendum
failed twice during their terms,
but finally passed in 2000 and
went into effect a few years later.
On the merger project, Sloane
said the two didn’t disagree a lot.
“I think he was shrewd, and he
did attract some good people,”
he said. “He wasn’t intimidated
by progressive people and thinking. [The merger attempt] didn’t
help either of us. I give him some
respect for that. … He was very
pragmatic. We were not there to
be ideologues.”
‘BAD DOGGY’
On the stump, McConnell likes
to tell a story about an encounter with a tobacco farmer during one of his early Senate campaigns. “I’m for you,” McConnell
recalls the farmer telling him.
“And what’s more, you’re going to
win.” The tale has multiple iterations — sometimes it takes place
in Western Kentucky in Graves
County; at other times, McConnell
leaves the location vague. But the
story always has the same punch
line: McConnell, a Louisville politician, asks the farmer why he’s so
sure McConnell will be victorious.
“That feller,” the farmer explains,
“he’s from Louie-ville.”
“I believe you’re right,” McConnell tells the farmer, and walks on.