Election 2023
Gambling interests put big money on Kentucky governor’s race via party governors associations
FRANKFORT? – Gambling interests ponied up big to outside groups that spent more than $30 million on last year’s race for Kentucky governor. Kentucky’s horse race tracks that have expanded into new forms of legalized gambling gave big to the Democratic Governors Association in 2023 which spent $19.2 million backing Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection. […]
Pair of billionaires bankrolled super PACs that spent $10 million trying to defeat Beshear
FRANKFORT – Two billionaire mega-donors bankrolled a quartet of super PACs that spent nearly $10 million over five months last year in an effort to elect a Republican governor in Kentucky. Reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission show that Jeff Yass, a billionaire options trader and “school choice” crusader from the Philadelphia […]
Here’s who gave to Beshear-Coleman inauguration committee
FRANKFORT — Special interest political action committees and wealthy political donors provided the vast majority of $684,000 raised in the closing weeks of 2023 by the inauguration committee of Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jaqueline Coleman, according to a report filed Wednesday by the committee with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. The report […]
Cameron never came close to matching Beshear campaign’s fundraising
FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection campaign raised and spent more than four times the dollars raised and spent by his Republican challenger Attorney General Daniel Cameron in this fall’s general election — a difference that figured in Beshear’s victory. Reports filed this week by the two campaigns covering fundraising and spending through the […]
How wealthy donors legally gave even more to Democratic Party during Beshear’s campaign
FRANKFORT — Ahead of? last month’s governor’s race, London Mayor Randall Weddle and other Kentuckians gave big to a type of political committee that allows wealthy donors to make massive legal contributions.? Weddle, whose earlier excess contributions to Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection effort had drawn regulatory scrutiny, contributed $550,000 on Oct. 3 to a national […]
Kentucky Democratic Party far outraised its Republican rival in month before Beshear’s reelection
FRANKFORT — The aggressive fundraising drive by the Kentucky Democratic Party in support of Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection did not take its foot off the gas in October, raising more than triple what the Republican Party of Kentucky collected in the same period. The KDP brought in? $491,474 in contributions during the final full month […]
12 counties selected for routine audit of general election results
The Kentucky attorney general’s office will begin its post-election audits after selecting 12 counties from a drawing Tuesday.? As it has regularly done after elections, the office will review audits from the selected counties to ensure the most recent general election was conducted properly and without issues. Deputy Attorney General Vic Maddox drew the names […]
AG-elect Coleman plans to target public corruption, drugs, violent crime, child exploitation
FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s next attorney general, Republican Russell Coleman, said Tuesday that combating public corruption will be one of his priorities but declined to speak specifically about London Mayor Randall Weddle’s use of “straw donors” to make excessive contributions to Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party. Flanked by his transition team and […]
Rural voters shift toward Democrat in Kentucky governor’s race
Rural voters were part of a statewide shift toward incumbent Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear this week, helping give the Democrat a 5-point election victory in a state that Donald Trump won by over 25 points three years ago. Beshear won the statewide vote 52.5% to 47.5%, a comfortable margin compared to his 2019 election victory […]
State, local elections offer good news for democracy
The big news out of Tuesday’s elections was wins for Democrats and for reproductive rights in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. But small “d” democracy also had a good night: Virginians elected pro-voting majorities in both chambers, stymieing efforts to pass restrictive new voting laws. Ohioans turned out in large numbers to pass two popular […]
Kentucky’s 2023 voter turnout was 6 points lower than four years ago
More than 1.3 million ballots were cast in Kentucky’s general election — a turnout of 38.07% of registered voters, according to unofficial results from the Kentucky State Board of Elections. This year’s turnout was down from four years ago by about 6 percentage points. In 2019, the general election turnout was 44.2%. Democratic Gov. Andy […]
Weddle’s excess giving to Beshear, Kentucky Democratic Party under investigation
FRANKFORT —? State campaign finance regulators have launched a civil investigation into the excess campaign contributions given by London Mayor Randall Weddle to the reelection campaign of Gov. Andy Beshear and the Kentucky Democratic Party. The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance (KREF) on Monday mailed notice of the investigation to Weddle and other interested parties. […]