Family physician elected Kentucky's governor

Local doctors backed him despite a previous spat over a federal patients' rights bill.

By Markian Hawryluk, AMNews staff. Nov. 24, 2003.

Washington -- Few physicians' resumes include fighter pilot, pastor, congressman and governor. Beginning Dec. 9, Rep. Ernie Fletcher, MD (R, Ky.), can list all these professions on his.

Running on a theme of cleaning up state government, Dr. Fletcher won 55% of the vote in Kentucky's gubernatorial election Nov. 4 to defeat state Attorney General Ben Chandler, a Democrat, who received 44%.

"When I became a family physician, I took an oath to always place my patients first," Dr. Fletcher said. "Throughout my service as a physician I kept that oath, and as the next governor of Kentucky I will maintain that commitment."

The three-term U.S. congressman was elected to the Kentucky Legislature in 1995. A victim of redistricting, he ran for Congress in 1996 but lost. He won in his second attempt in 1998.

However, on Capitol Hill he angered many physicians by opposing patients' bill of rights legislation supported by the American Medical Association. Instead, Dr. Fletcher introduced his own patients' rights measure that won the backing of President Bush and House conservatives. Congress never agreed on a final measure.

Local physicians, it seems, have not held a grudge. The Kentucky Medical Assn. supported Dr. Fletcher's run, as did most physicians in the state, said KMA President Andrew Pulito, MD, a pediatric surgeon from Lexington.

"Everybody realizes that nobody agrees with anybody 100% of the time, and certainly I think organized medicine has been very, very happy with his position on most things," Dr. Pulito said.