House Democrats remain quiet over use of campaign consultant targeted by FBI
House Democrats are staying quiet over whether they will cut ties with a campaign consultant who was targeted in an FBI probe and later served as a key witness in the campaign finance case against former Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Lundergan.
Gov. Andy Beshear has said he is drawing an ethical line regarding Jonathan Hurst, who testified in a trial last summer that Lundergan had left $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 check with a memo line that said “boy scouts” in his couch, and will not raise money for any candidate who uses Hurst as a consultant in 2020.
“As Kentucky’s former attorney general and top prosecutor and now governor, I draw strong ethical lines and I believe they are the right lines,” Beshear said Wednesday. He refused to say whether members have committed to stop using Hurst.
House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins, D-Shively, has said she will not tell members of her caucus to cut ties with Hurst, the consultant.
“I have delivered the governor’s message on this matter to the caucus, and as I have said before, I do not believe it is my role to tell candidates whom they hire for their campaigns,” Jenkins said in a statement. “Right now, our caucus is focused on moving Governor Beshear’s and our agenda forward during this legislative session.”
Jenkins, who has long used Hurst as her consultant and paid his consulting company $1,975 as recently as Nov. 30, said since she is running unopposed in 2020 she has “no need for a political consultant in that capacity.”
She did not respond when asked if that meant she had severed her ties with Hurst.
In the 2016 election, when Jenkins also ran unopposed, she paid Hurst Consulting $8,292 over the course of the election cycle, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. Both were itemized as disbursements for a “breakfast invite.” Jenkins hosts a “Breakfast of Champions” in Louisville annually and has spent around $105,000 on Hurst Consulting since 2010, according to KREF.
Three members who face potentially tight races in 2020 — Rep. Jim Glenn, D-Owensboro; Rep. Maria Sorolis, D-Louisville; and Rep. Terri Branham Clark, D-Cattlesburg — said Wednesday they haven’t had time to consider whether they should stop using Hurst.
Democrats discussed the issue in a caucus meeting Wednesday, and the Lundergan trial where Hurst testified occurred in August.
Phone calls to five other members who either used Hurst in 2018 or 2016 went unanswered Thursday. The members are Representatives Charles Miller, Tom Burch, Mary Lou Marzian, Nima Kulkarni and Derrick Graham.
Representatives will not have to file their first campaign finance report for the May primary until April.
Other Democrats in the House who do not use the consultant have said the situation appears clear-cut.
“Knowing what I know, I’d definitely not use Hurst right now,” said Rep. Russ Meyer, D-Nicholasville. “I’d back out. It’s the smart thing to do.”
Beshear appears to be making a political calculation by avoiding raising money for candidates tied to Hurst. Aside from Hurst being the consultant of choice of the Lundergan faction of the Democratic Party — which had an intense rivalry with the Beshears — in July, under Beshear’s leadership, the Attorney General’s office appointed a special prosecutor to investigate whether Hurst, Lundergan and consultant Dale Emmons violated state campaign finance laws.
While on the stand in the federal trial against Lundergan, Hurst indicated that Lundergan had made improper payments in his daughter, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes’ 2011 and 2015 campaigns by giving money to Hurst that was not reported on Grimes’ campaign finance filings.
While Hurst was given federal immunity to testify in the case, he could still be charged with violating state campaign finance law.
That means any Democrat who uses Hurst would not only have the political risk of using a consultant who admitted to participating in a violation of campaign finance laws, but could is also at risk of being indicted at the state level during the campaign.
Some of the members who used Hurst in 2018 face tight reelection races. Glenn won his election in 2018 by just one vote while Sorolis faces a tough general election race against former Rep. Ken Fleming and Clark is running for reelection in a district that voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump.
“Andy Beshear is doing the right thing,” said Tres Watson, a Republican campaign consultant. “It’s disheartening to see House Democrats continue to use someone implicated in federal crimes to run their campaigns. Every Kentuckian needs to ask themselves are these people capable of leading.”
