Ernie Fletcher
Ernie Fletcher was a conservative Republican politician in Kentucky. He was elected in 2003 on a campaign of "cleaning up Frankfort", just like every other governor elected in modern times. He had a squeaky-clean image, as he had been a physician before running for Congress. His running mate, Steve Pence, was one of the prosecutors in the "Abscam scandal." This was particularly appealing after the Patton administration, which, despite robust economic growth, had engaged in multiple cases of abuse of power. The most notorious of these involved a sex-scandal involving Governor Patton himself.
However, once Fletcher was in office, it began to seem like déjà vu all over again. By 2005, there was a full-blown investigation into the hiring practices of the Fletcher administration. Fletcher officials were caught explicitly pushing Democrats out of merit positions and hiring loyal Republicans for the same merit positions. Moreover, they had continuously talked about it via government emails. This was explicitly against the law. Fletcher rarely talked about the charges, but he did pardon all of those who might have been involved just as charges were being filed. He also compared the charges to the charges against someone who fished out of season.
In 2007, he faced a strong challenger in the Republican primary for re-election. Many former Republicans who had turned against the party (in part due to Fletcher, in part due to George W. Bush) voted for Fletcher in the primary, knowing that he would go down in flames in the general campaign. Fletcher won the primary, and promptly went down in flames to Steve Beshear.