Julian Carroll

Julian Morton Carroll (born April 16, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Kentucky. A Democrat, he is a member of the Kentucky Senate, representing Anderson, Franklin, Woodford, Gallatin and Owen counties. From 1974 to 1979, he served as the 54th Governor of Kentucky, succeeding Wendell H. Ford, who resigned to accept a seat in the U.S. Senate. He was the first Kentucky governor from the state's far-western Jackson Purchase region. The lieutenant governor he served with Thelma Stovall was the first woman to be elected Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky. After graduating from the University of Kentucky and spending three years as an Air Force lawyer, Carroll returned to McCracken County, Kentucky where he gained acclaim for leading a campaign to allow the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide low-cost electricity to the county. He was elected to the first of five terms in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1962 and served as Speaker of that body from 1968 to 1970. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1971 on an informal ticket with former Governor Bert T. Combs. Combs lost in the Democratic primary to Wendell Ford, but Carroll defeated his primary opponents and went on to win the general election. He was elevated to the governorship in December 1974, after Ford unseated Moderate Republican U.S. Sen. Marlow Cook. Carroll won a term as governor in his own right in 1975. As governor, Carroll increased funding for public education and promoted the use of coal as a means of alleviating the 1973 energy crisis. He also oversaw a major reorganization of the state's judicial system following voters' approval of a constitutional amendment in 1975. Many natural and man-made disasters occurred during his term in office, including the Great Blizzard of 1978 and the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, leading to better safety practices and stricter law enforcement in the state. When Carroll left office, both he and his predecessor were under the cloud of an investigation for an alleged insurance kickback scheme, but Carroll was not convicted of any wrongdoing. In 2004, he was elected to the Kentucky Senate. Re-elected in 2008 and 2012, he won a fourth term without opposition in 2016. He announced shortly after his 88th birthday that he would not run for re-election in 2020.