By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
The five Republican Kentucky constitutional officers were ceremonially sworn into office in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday.
State Treasurer Mark Metcalf, Auditor of Public Accounts Allison Ball, Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell, Secretary of State Michael Adams and Attorney General Russell Coleman were officially sworn in at midnight on Jan. 1. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear took his oath of office in December.
U.S Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, was one of the guest speakers. He made note of the Republican super-majority in the Kentucky House, telling House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, “I wish I had 80 members. I’m at 49, and I’m not sure what I would do with 80 members.”
He also referred to new Attorney General Russell Coleman, who was once a McConnell staffer, as Dick Tracy, the police detective of comic book fame. “I thought he did a spectacular job for me, as well as when he was U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.”
McConnell also singled out Secretary of State Michael Adams, who had to combat questions regarding the security of the nation’s voting system following the 2020 election.
He noted that Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell is a real farmer, lauded Auditor Allison Ball, whom he met when she was at the University of Kentucky and called Treasurer Mark Metcalf a “real law and order type guy.”
Coleman, who became Kentucky’s top law enforcement official, told the gathering, “When you take that oath as a law enforcement officer, you are forever committing to go to the threat, to mitigate the threat.”
Coleman said every person on his staff has the same mindset. “Each of us on our team have a similar responsibility now to go to the problem, to go to the threat, because that’s what we ask of our law enforcement officers. And that’s the essence of the promise that I am making today, to make your families safer, and to enforce the rule of law.”