Missed it by that much

In the stack of 80+ pardons handed down by out-going Governor Ernie Fletcher was one from former Superintendent of Public Instruction Alice McDonald.

According to a report yesterday from Mart Hebert at WHAS, McDonald's plea was plucked from the stack just minutes before the action was to have become official.

This from Mark Hebert:

Alice McDonald Gets Pardon......Almost

... McDonald's pardon request was included in a stack of pardons that the Governor's Office of General Counsel took to the Secretary of State's office in the closing hours of the Fletcher administration. But before the pardons were officially filed, someone from Fletcher's office rushed down to pluck McDonald's and one or two others out of the pile.

McDonald was convicted of two felonies in 1998 for destroying documents being sought by investigators and getting paid for state work she didn't do. In her pardon request, McDonald told the governor she's caring for her sick mother but would like to get back into the education field. She's having a tough time doing that with felonies hanging over her head...

...Fletcher's general counsel, David Fleenor, would only say that the folks who got pardons were supposed to get them and those who weren't, didn't....

Alice McDonald served as Kentucky’s Superintendent of Public instruction from 1984 until January 1988. She was a fierce opponent of the Council for Better Education and attempted on several occasions to intimidate the Superintendents and quash the efforts that lead to the landmark decision in Rose v Council for Better Education.

As state superintendent, McDonald touted the virtues of Kentucky’s public school system but did little to move beyond the status quo while maintaining her political relationships with the General Assembly. In fact, the troubles of McDonald’s administration contributed greatly to the elimination of the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, which legislators ultimately came to see as part of the problem with Kentucky’s schools.

During her tenure, the Kentucky Personnel Board received numerous complaints about McDonald’s conduct in office. Her critics charged that she had hired unqualified political associates for key positions in her department and had granted contracts or fees to political supporters, and that personal items were printed for her within the department at state expense.

McDonald’s approach to her duties as State Superintendent and her extensive use of Department of Education personnel in support of her own political aspirations stand in sharp contrast to the approaches employed by the Education Commissioners who would come later.

In an interview conducted in May 1990, former Lexington Herald-Leader Editor, John Carroll recalled McDonald’s administration.

I thought Alice McDonald came in with a very clear understanding of what had to be done and what was important. And she was pathologically political. She could not refrain from shaking down employees, and coercing people, and playing political games. She had a perfect opportunity to ride a white horse. And, every now and then you see somebody who just is constitutionally incapable of doing things properly and she was one of them. I regard her recent arrest for shop lifting as just more of the same. I think she’s got something in her, in her psychological make up that doesn’t allow her to do things properly on a consistent basis. And so, she lost an opportunity that she had to be effective. I liked her when she started out.