The passing of former Kentucky Governor and U.S. Senator Wendell Ford signals the end of a political era. So says, Al Smith, who reported on Ford for decades. Smith, the former long-time host of KET's Comment on Kentucky, says Ford was partisan, but he was fair. "A favor for the powerful was followed by a vote for those who were not powerful,” Smith said. “He was really and truly a balanced representative of all of the interests in Kentucky."
Veteran journalist Al Cross says the legendary politician went to bat for the state's burley growers, when tobacco was the major crop in Kentucky. "I think tobacco farmers were always number one on his list and they had a great advocate and I think that's generally what people in Congress are supposed to do,” said Cross. “They are supposed to advocate for the interest for the people who elected them."
Cross, now Director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, says national politics today is all about the next election.
Cross says Wendell Ford was looking toward the next election, but he didn't let it completely control his actions. Still, Cross says Ford enjoyed being on the political stump. "I know some politicians today who don't enjoy campaigning all that much, but he relished it and he got elected governor in 1971. He beat Bert Combs in the primary partly because he just outworked his old boss," added Cross.
Cross says Ford's legacy in Frankfort is still found in the re-organized state government he orchestrated and a sales tax structure void of levies on medicine and food.
Al Smith says Ford was in touch with the people and never let campaign consultants have too much of a say. "Nobody ever put any words in Senator Ford's mouth,” Smith said. “He knew how to speak to the common man about as good or better than anybody in my time in Kentucky, some fifty years."
Smith says Wendell Ford was all about personal involvement during a time when voters were participants and not spectators
