Ethics commission

Well, I believe that, and Senator Hogue may know the exact number better than I do, but the initiated measure for constitutional measures since statehood has been used hundreds of times by both the legislature and the people.

In recent years, you've had the term limits, you've had the congressional age limits, you've had Ethics Commission, you've had Marcy's Law, you've had, you know, Numerous other issues.

Were they all right, though? The Farm Bureau did a modern farming practices protection act.

That was an initiated measure of the people.

I want to go here, Senator Hogue.

You know, some people asked me, you know, having been in the legislature, they said, okay, what has them so mad that they want to basically make it harder to put something into the Constitution? And Instantly, I thought of this, and I want to allow you to respond to it.

I thought, I know they don't like term limits, and I know they don't like the Ethics Commission.

They had voted both of those things down as a whole.

Coleman wants that question resolved so the surviving families can get justice.

State Auditor Alison Ball has three choices for the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

She sent a letter to Governor Andy Beshear with the three names.

Christine Van Tatenhove is special counsel to House Speaker David Osborne.

Lawrence Van Meter is a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice, and David Beck, former President and CEO of Kentucky Venues.

Beck was removed from that position over the summer after the Supreme Court ruled a 2021 law unconstitutional, a law that removed the board from the governor's control.

In June, the court also ruled against the 2022 law, giving Ball the ability to appoint members to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

In her letter to Beshear, Ball cited a 2020 executive order from Beshear saying the auditor and the attorney general could provide a list of three names and he would appoint one of them.

And the other stuff I can't comment that much on because I can say we have an open investigation.

Ethics Commission has primarily responsibility on that kind of stuff, but we have secondary responsibility and often work together because my folks are, you know, I've got a criminal division in the auditor's office.

We've got extra resources that the Ethics Commission doesn't have where we have concurrent jurisdiction.

They often kick things to us.

And candidly, all I can tell you is we're aware of the situation and on it.

But I think this is a broader thing than just this gubernatorial race.

And should we be able to have, should the Ethics Commission be able to dig into people's personal finances, obviously in a confidential way to ensure that they are really loaning themselves money? Obviously, it's their right to do that if it's their money, but giving voters confidence that It is, in fact, their money that they are loaning themselves.

And then, you know, I mean, it does beg the question of how do they pay it back? And who do they, you know, a new governor coming in, assuming that Mazie wins, how will he go about fundraising to pay back this $11 million? And will he or won't he? Those are questions that I think deserve answers.

You know, I had a campaign consultant tell me that standard practice is that they would ask candidates to prepare to loan themselves 15 percent of their net worth.

It's not just Republicans.

I mean, the Democrats are spending a ton and other races.

um across the country too and so i i think you know money and politics is you know a perennial issue that we we talk a lot about and i think we're going to continue to have these conversations but obviously any scrutiny and giving the ethics commission the tools to better understand where this money is coming from i think does nothing but benefit everybody

Oklahoma's race for governor is getting some national attention.

And the legislature, like you like to point out, Leon, is given a lot of things that they must do, that they're directed to pay attention to.

But in almost every case, with maybe the exception of prioritizing funding the Ethics Commission, We are given very little things to say this is the highest priority.

This measure, too, would say free school meals are ahead of everything else, ahead of all welfare, all schools, all military, all roads, all everything.

Yeah, it's dangerous.