Crit Luallen makes first public appearance after being sworn in as lieutenant governor

FRANKFORT — Kentucky Lt. Gov. Crit Luallen made her first appearance after being sworn in as lieutenant governor, speaking before the Frankfort Rotary on Wednesday.

The former state auditor was appointed by Gov. Steve Beshear after former Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson resigned to take a position with the Obama Administration.

Luallen praised the work of Beshear in balancing the state budget through some hard economic times as well as the efforts to implement health care reform in Kentucky.

Luallen said that she takes pride in the fact that the state is a role model for the nation in signing up people, many who weren’t previously covered.

“Now we have 520,000 Kentuckians enrolled in health care coverage through the states effort and three offour of those enrollees reported that they had no health insurance prior to signing up,” said Luallen.

Luallen also told the Rotary members that she does see the possibility of a statewide smoking ban becoming a reality in the future but it will still take time.

“It’s a very controversial issue in the General Assembly, some legislators are very much for it, others believe that it infringes on the rights of private business owners,” said Luallen. “I think as another generation joins that debate, I think that we’ll eventually reach a statewide smoking ban.”

Luallen was also asked about her future plans after her term as lieutenant governor is up in a little over a year.

While she said that she’s on record saying that she will not run for any office in 2015, she doesn’t want to totally close the door to that possibility after that.

“I don’t forsee a scenario where I would run for political officer after 2015, but I didn’t see this scenario either,” said Luallen. “I never want to close the door to what could be possible options in the future but at this point, my total focus is on being the best lieutenant governor that I can be.”