Remembering Wendell Ford: Old-school politician, elder statesman, public institution


By Bill Straub
NKy Tribune columnist
 

WASHINGTON – Wendell Hampton Ford, who died early today at age 90 after a short battle with lung cancer, was much more than just a giant in the history of Kentucky politics and government. After a half-century striding atop the commonwealth’s affairs, Ford long ago made the transition to public institution, someone everyone in the state knew, or thought they knew, the man they turned to in good times and bad.
 

The loss of Ford, who passed away at home in his beloved Owensboro, leaves Kentucky an emptier place today even though he escaped the spotlight when he retired from the U.S. Senate 16 years ago and assumed the status of elder statesman. Gone to the ages are the horse laugh that could be heard across a crowded room, the gravelly voice that cut through dissonance and the cloud of cigarette smoke that for years seemed to follow him like a faithful, old dog.
 

Wendell Ford
Wendell Ford

Wendell, who was, it seems, on a first-name basis with all of the commonwealth’s 4 million residents, was the last of a breed that saw Kentucky through the upheaval of the second half of the 20th Century. He was what is now fondly remembered as an old school politician, back-slapping, often strident in his rhetoric but always ready to cut a deal to move the ball just a few yards ahead.
 

For that, Kentuckians made him in succession their lieutenant governor, governor and U.S. Senator, serving in the latter post for 24 years, a record since broken by his one-time colleague, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville. He served while the commonwealth’s tobacco culture was still in its prime and the coal industry was booming. Both of those mainstays are essentially gone and Ford has now followed them. The Bluegrass will not see his likes again.
 

Ford’s life was a very Kentucky story. He was born along the Yellow Creek in rural Daviess County, a country boy who came by his interest in politics naturally. His father, Earnest Ford, was a state senator, a Democrat, of course, aligned with Earl C. Clements, himself a powerful political figure in state history from another era.
 

The young Ford went through the public schools, attended the University of Kentucky for a time, married the love of his life, the former Jean Neel, of Owensboro, in 1943 and ultimately left college to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1944 during WWII.
 

After his honorable discharge Ford returned to Owensboro to join the family insurance business, ultimately entering politics in 1959, serving as youth chairman during the successful gubernatorial campaign of Bert Combs. Ford served in the administration as the governor’s executive assistant and, finally, at the urging of Combs’ successor, Ned Breathitt, ran for the state senate in 1965, pulling out a 305-vote victory.
 

His legislative tenure didn’t last long. In 1967 he successfully ran for lieutenant governor even though the state turned to a Republican, Louie Nunn, to serve as governor. He used that time to rebuild the faction-plagued Democratic Party and four years later he faced off against his one-time mentor, Bert Combs, in a campaign for governor that proved to be bitter even by Kentucky’s traditionally low standards. Ford prevailed. Despite close calls, he never lost an election.
 

As governor, Ford reorganized state government, destroying the old fiefdoms that ran the state in favor of a cabinet system that is credited with improving efficiency. He instituted a severance tax on coal and raised the gasoline tax, providing his administration with the funds necessary to take on several construction projects.
 
And he began dabbling in national politics, endorsing Sen. Edmund Muskie, of Maine, for president in 1972. Sen. George McGovern, of South Dakota, an anti-Vietnam War candidate, grabbed the nomination and Ford was on hand to greet the party’s choice during a campaign stop at what was then the Greater Cincinnati Airport in Northern Kentucky, although he refused to publicly offer his endorsement.
 
In 1974, saddled with a lame duck administration because governors at the time were limited to a single four-year term, Ford decided to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Marlow Cook. He won and spent the next 24 years promoting Kentucky’s desires on Capitol Hill, rising to the position of Senate Democratic Whip during the final years of his tenure.
 
Ford was rarely noted for his legislative accomplishments, although he did succeed in getting the so-called Motor Voter bill passed, which allowed individuals to register to vote when they got their driver’s license renewed. His focus was always on issues important to Kentucky. As chairman of the Senate Aviation Subcommittee he was able to secure funds to improve facilities across the state. The Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century, adopted in 1990, was aimed at improving airline safety and reducing aircraft noise.
 
He was naturally a great supporter of the tobacco industry, endeavoring to protect it at every turn. Ford was a great proponent of the old tobacco price support program, which provided the state’s burley farmers with a decent price for their crop, and domestic content legislation that required cigarette manufacturers to include a certain proportion of U.S. tobacco in their product. Both programs eventually collapsed, creating a rift between Ford and McConnell.
 
Ford chose not to seek re-election in 1998 and was succeeded by former Sen. Jim Bunning, a Republican from Ft. Thomas. In retirement he founded the Wendell H. Ford Government Education Center, dedicated to engaging the public in the governmental process. Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to attend a fundraising dinner and reception for the facility in March.
 
Ford left the Senate but he never really left politics, supporting various Democratic candidates around the state, including Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, who challenged and lost to McConnell in 2014. He could almost always be seen at the annual political picnic in Fancy Farm during the always hot first Saturday in August but was forced to skip the event last year because of his lung cancer diagnosis.

Throughout his long career, Ford never lost the common touch, delighting in telling Kentucky voters that he was country born and bred with dirt between his toes. Politics in America, in its 1986 edition, noted that “watching him puff on a cigarette, bantering with colleagues in his raspy twang, one is watching politics as Ford learned it in the state that may practice it more intensely than any other in the country.”

It’s a style he takes with him.

You might also be interested in reading Bill Straub: Ailing Wendell Ford was last of his kind in political style and substance that appeared on KyForward.com.


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