Kentucky
Does The Kentucky Attorney General Go To Work? An Investigation.
There is no record of Kentucky’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, using his key fob or any other kind of security card to get into the state Capitol building for the last three years, and his office is repeatedly refusing to say why.
What? HuffPost is on the case.
The facts: A series of open records requests for Cameron’s key fob and security card logs at the Capitol building came back blank. The blank pages span all the way back to January 2020, which was the last time Cameron was registered using his key fob to enter the building.
The Kentucky state office that processes open records requests, the Finance and Administration Cabinet, specifies in a letter accompanying the records that nothing has been withheld or redacted. As in, the blank pages are blank because there are no records.
Here’s a screenshot of the letter saying nothing was left out of the records.
And here’s a screenshot of one batch of Cameron’s key fob records, from May 2022 to May 2023. HuffPost obtained copies of all of these records.
Cameron’s office is in the Capitol building. In fact, all three branches of Kentucky’s state government are in that one building in Frankfort. There is another satellite office in Frankfort for the attorney general that he’s not necessarily expected to go into.
An open records request for key fob records for that office, from September 2022 through March 2023, resulted in a 4,195-page report showing lots of staff members going in. But no Cameron.
The attorney general has definitely been in the state Capitol at least a handful of times since he was sworn in in December 2019. HuffPost searched Associated Press and Reuters photo databases for images of Cameron inside the building. A few turned up.
Here’s one of the attorney general in January 2020, delivering some paperwork to the secretary of state’s office in the Capitol building.
Here’s one from November 2022, when Cameron paid his respects to former Kentucky Gov. John Brown as he lay in state in the Capitol rotunda.
And here’s one of Cameron sitting in his Capitol office in August 2021, taking part in an interview.
There are several possible explanations for why there is no record of Cameron, who is currently running for governor, passing through security to go into his office.
One is that someone else has been swiping him in with their key fob every single time, like a staffer or a security officer. Another possibility is that Cameron has been entering the Capitol somewhere less secure, where his fob card isn’t needed. Still another possibility is that he’s working out of one of the five other attorney general field offices scattered around the state.
And of course, it’s possible the attorney general isn’t going in to work much at all.
HuffPost reached out to the Kentucky State Police, which provides security at the Capitol, to ask about security protocols for elected officials entering the building. HuffPost also reached out to the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, which provides Capitol media credentials, with questions about security and access. Neither responded.
It only adds to the mystery of Cameron’s whereabouts that he has a reputation for trying to keep public information private. Amye Bensenhaver, a retired state assistant attorney general who wrote open records and open meetings decisions in the Kentucky attorney general’s office for 25 years, wrote a recent op-ed laying out what she describes as Cameron’s “disdain for the principles of open government.”
The weirdest part of all of this, though — and the only reason we’re writing this story at all — is that Cameron’s office has repeatedly refused to explain what the deal is.
In a series of email exchanges over the last few weeks, Cameron’s aides insisted that the attorney general has been coming in to work and that there’s nothing weird about there being no record of him entering the building for years.
“This is not correct,” Atley Smedley, Cameron’s deputy communications director, said of the idea that the attorney general is not going into his office. “Attorney General Cameron has regularly come to his office since he assumed the position of Attorney General in December 2019.”
Smedley did not respond to a follow-up email asking why the attorney general’s key fob logs are all blank if he’s been coming into his office. When HuffPost followed up again, asking the same question, Cameron’s communications director Shellie May responded.
She dodged the question and said the attorney general works hard.
“Attorney General Cameron works tirelessly advocating for the men, women, and children of all 120 Kentucky counties,” May said. “The records do not accurately reflect the comings and goings of General Cameron or any elected official, nor can any conclusions be drawn from them.”
HuffPost followed up again, last week, and shared still more public records showing that Cameron had been using his fob key to enter the Capitol between May 2019 and January 2020 — eleven times in total.
Asked what changed with Cameron’s entry into the Capitol after January 2020, a Cameron aide requesting to be referred to only as “a spokesperson for the office” had this to say:
“What makes it clear that Daniel Cameron has been on the job working for Kentuckians, among other things, is the fact that he has sued the Biden Administration dozens of times to stop its misguided policies. And he has stopped the Beshear Administration from violating the rights of Kentuckians on multiple occasions. The key fob records do not accurately reflect the comings and goings of General Cameron or any elected official, nor can any conclusions be drawn from them.”
So, still no explanation.
HuffPost tried one last time on Tuesday to give Cameron’s office a chance to explain why there’s no record of him using his fob key to enter the Capitol for three years when there used to be a record of him doing so. No response.
There are no specific rules for how often a state attorney general has to go into the office. Cameron is certainly the public face of the office, and can lean on dozens of employees to carry out office business while he may be out in the community or working remotely.
During the legislative session, though, it makes much more sense that Cameron would be in the Capitol.
Bensenhaver, who served under six previous Kentucky state attorney generals, told HuffPost on Monday that her guess is that Cameron is simply being swiped into the Capitol by his security detail or by a state trooper on the scene. She was puzzled by the “self-incriminating” responses from the attorney general’s office.
“I’m surprised they would be so obtuse about this. All they have to do is explain to you that the attorney general, as a matter of practice, does not sign himself in. That’s a better explanation than there is no record,” said Bensenhaver, who is also the co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. “They’re really shooting themselves in the foot by obfuscating if he’s there. We have to assume he comes in and out of the Capitol.”
“He’d better be there,” she added.
If you have photographic evidence of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron using a fob key or any other kind of security card to get into the state Capitol, please contact the local authorities us. Anonymity guaranteed.
Kentucky
Government power structure changes may be coming to Covington
COVINGTON, Ky. — A group of business leaders is pushing for a change in the city of Covington’s power structure. It could be on the November ballot if a petition is successful.
Covington’s current form of government is rare among other Kentucky cities. It consists of four elected city commissioners, an elected mayor and a city manager appointed by the commission.
Richard Dickmann, owner of Covington restaurant Smoke Justis, said the current system is not conducive to business.
“One of the concerns I’ve had since I’ve been here is the amount of time it takes to get anything done,” he said. “It takes four meetings a month to run the city because everything has to be done in a public forum. If a company wanted to relocate their business, and they were looking at three different cities, it may take a longer time for the city of Covington to give them the nod.”
Dickmann is the chair of a committee of local business and political leaders, Covington Forward. It’s trying to get enough signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot that would change Covington’s government to the more common mayor-council form.
City councils can have up to 12 members. In contrast to the current form in which the mayor has equal voting power to commissioners, the mayor acts as more of the city’s CEO in the mayor-council format. That includes the power to veto and hiring city workers.
Dickmann said under this format, council members would have less on their plate than the current commissioners.
“You can be more focused on the needs of the community and not the everyday running of the government,” he said. “It’s obvious to a lot of cities that the mayor-council is a better form of government.”
Joe Meyer, Covington’s current mayor who will be leaving office by the time this would go into effect, supports the new model. Before it can go into effect, the group needs to get enough signatures on its petition. At that point, it would be up to the voters.
Covington is the only city in Kenton County with a city manager form of municipal government.
Kentucky
Voter registration up in June in Kentucky
FRANKFORT, Ky. (WYMT) – Voter registration numbers went up in June in the Commonwealth, officials with the Secretary of State’s Office announced Tuesday.
According to Secretary of State Michael Adams’ Office, Kentucky saw 9,693 new voter registrations last month.
4,362 voter registrations were removed from the rolls.
Of the 4,362 registrations removed, 3,030 were of voters who have already died, while 603 were from those convicted of felonies. 554 had moved out of state.
Officials with the Secretary of State’s Office said Adams promised to defend from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth’s lawsuit Kentucky’s bipartisan election integrity statute.
The statute, signed into law by Gov. Andy Beshear, is designed to prevent registered voters in other states from voting in Kentucky.
“Kentucky’s elections are a national success story,” Adams said. “Three years ago, Kentucky enacted a bipartisan law to prevent voting in more than one state in a presidential election. Now that a presidential election is underway, a fringe left-wing activist group is trying to undo that law and sow chaos and doubt in our elections. We believe voters should vote in only one state, and we expect to prevail in court.”
Republican registration increased by 4,947 voters, which is a 0.31% increase.
Democratic registration decreased by 1,717 voters, which is a 0.11% decrease.
Registration for those voting for a third party or “other” political affiliation went up by 1,502 voters, which is a 0.41% increase.
Copyright 2024 WYMT. All rights reserved.
Kentucky
Eastern Light Distilling breaks ground in Kentucky – The Spirits Business
Located in Morehead, Kentucky, the new distillery is expected to open in late 2025.
The Kentucky Bourbon scene grows ever larger with the addition of Eastern Light Distilling, which began construction of its new distillery on 2 July with a groundbreaking ceremony.
Eastern Light comes from master distiller Caleb Kilburn and and CEO Cordell Lawrence, who previously worked together at Kentucky Peerless Distilling.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this important moment as we bring Eastern Light Distilling to life,” Kilburn said. “Being from Eastern Kentucky, I’m grateful for the opportunity to grow the industry I’m so passionate about in the region I call home.”
Eastern Light will contract distill, working with craft producers from product inception to branding.
The 230-acre campus will feature a 50,000-square-foot distillery, nine rickhouses with an average capacity of 33,000 barrels each, a full bottling facility, and a visitor experience. Once up and running, the distillery will employ more than 50 full-time staff and produce upwards of 97,000 barrels per year.
“Eastern Light will fill a tremendous need in the Bourbon industry, operating with a fully customisable solutions-based model that will help craft distillers and Bourbon brands to not only reach their goals and bring their products to market, but to flourish,” Lawrence said.
“We believe in removing barriers to entry in the spirits space so that we can share our passion with like-minded creators while prioritising quality, inspiring creativity, and investing in the state’s signature Bourbon industry and the health of the region.”
Eastern Light joins a crop of new distillery projects that are either focused on contract distilling or plan on making it a core business component. The past decade saw a rise in non-distillery producers as entrepreneurs and upstart craft brands sought a piece of the Bourbon market without the high costs of building a distillery or the long wait times for whiskey to mature.
In October 2023, the team behind Bardstown Bourbon Company pledged more than US$350 million over the next 10 years to build a new distillery for contract whiskey production in the US. Located in Kentucky, Whiskey House will be the ‘first’ distillery designed from scratch to focus entirely on large-scale, flexible, contract whiskey production.
In January 2024, Garrard County began production as the largest independently owned distillery in Kentucky, with contract distilling as a part of its model.
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