Kentucky's Shrewd Lady

When Gov 's away, she can play

If nothing else, Thelma Stovall has found a novel way to make the Governor of Kentucky stick to his old Kentucky home. If he wanders too far or tarries too long beyond the state's borders, he had better look back and ask, "What's Thelma up to now?"

Stovall, 59, a modest but tough Democratic politician, struck first in 1959. She was secretary of state then, the third-ranking office in Kentucky, and she found one day that both Governor Happy Chandler and his Lieutenant Governor were away. By law, that made her the boss. So she pardoned three prisoners, including a holdup man sentenced to up to life for stealing $28.

Still holding elective office 19 years later, Thelma pounced again last March, after she had moved up to Lieutenant Governor. When the current Governor, Democrat Julian Carroll, left the state briefly, Stovall exercised her temporary veto authority to kill the Kentucky legislature's attempt to rescind its earlier ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The veto stuck.

But last November, Thelma outdid herself. She had watched restlessly as Governor Carroll, a Presbyterian lay preacher and political gadfly, proved so prone to travel that he became known as "the Flying Deacon." She also felt he had failed to provide solid leadership on tax cuts over Kentucky's ineffective legislature, which meets only 60 days every two years. When the legislature left Frankfort without doing anything to soothe the state's increasingly irate taxpayers, Thelma started watching the Governor's schedule. Aha, she spotted a trip. She polished her plans.

Carroll was off blithely chairing a Georgia training session for new Governors when Stovall seized the executive reins to call a special session of the legislature. It would, she decreed, face up to the state's tax burden. Moreover, she had a program of her own: end the state taxes on water and heating fuel for residences; lower the state income tax; freeze almost all property taxes; reduce the escalating fines for traffic tickets.

Outraged, Governor Carroll returned after two days' absence to fight Stovall's use of his own powers. When the legislators assembled last month, the Governor ignored the special session and fought any tax reduction on the grounds that the state could not afford it. But after the legislators grilled Carroll's financial aides and decided that taxes were indeed too high and could be cut, he surrendered to Thelma's coup. Last week he addressed a joint session of the legislature and endorsed much of the tax-cutting program. Some form of tax relief is expected to win final approval this week.

A popular tax cut was not the only thing on Thelma's mind. As she well knew, her desire to shake things up while the boss is away had made her a political heroine. She is now one of the favorites in this year's race to succeed Carroll, who is ineligible to succeed himself. If she survives the May primary and wins in November, one thing is likely: Thelma Stovall will be a woman Governor who knows that her place is in the mansion.

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