High-dollar KY judicial races lead state fundraising, and one is setting records
Funds raised among candidates for a Franklin Circuit judicial post already constitute a state record for a circuit court race, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s race against Joe Bilby collectively received around $632,000 as of earlier this month. Since only a little over 22,000 people voted in Franklin County’s midterm elections last cycle, and many of them did not vote in judicial races, that amounts to well over $28 raised per voter. For reference, that’s more than twice the amount per voter than Kentucky’s U.S. Senate race between Rand Paul and Charles Booker has raised.
Franklin Circuit, for which Shepherd is chief judge, is seen as extremely important in Kentucky because it oversees many cases dealing with challenges to legislation as well as other state government matters.
Shepherd has outpaced Bilby thus far, raising more than $460,000 in all, and more than $170,000 on around 560 contributions in the past two months. Bilby, meanwhile, has raised around $172,000 total, and about $50,000 in the past two months.
Serving as general counsel for GOP commissioner of agriculture and 2023 gubernatorial candidate Ryan Quarles, Bilby has the explicit backing of much of the state’s most powerful members of the GOP. That list includes Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, who has hosted a fundraiser for Bilby, and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose Bluegrass Committee PAC has given Bilby’s campaign max contributions.
Republicans in the legislature have expressed open distaste for Shepherd’s rulings in the past, even going so far as to pass a bill to bypass his court in state government matters.
Meanwhile, the Kentucky Democratic Party has gone out of its way to bash Bilby, a self-described “constitutional conservative.” The party has criticized Bilby in more than one press release for alleged mishandling of open records matters; it’s also criticized what it found on his time sheets, which they said show that Bilby was “essentially working one day a week while he campaigns.”
Bilby criticized Shepherd after the judge recused himself from overseeing a case between the state and a group of massive hedge funds following complaints from the hedge funds and related parties.
Supreme Court showdowns
Other judicial races have sucked up a significant amount of attention, and funds, including multiple six-figure Kentucky Supreme Court battles. Four of the state’s seven supreme court seats are up for election this year, though only three are contested and two are running close in terms of funds raised.
In the Bowling Green area, the race to replace Chief Justice John Minton has garnered partisan interest and an influx of fundraising.
Shawn Marie Alcott, an attorney whose brother-in-law is the mayor of Bowling Green, got the backing of McConnell’s Bluegrass Committee. Alcott has loaned herself $50,000, and including that total has raised more than $110,000.
Kelly Thompson, Jr., a longtime Court of Appeals judge vying to replace Minton, has raised slightly less than Alcott – more than $90,000 in all.
In Northern Kentucky, a race that’s already seen complaints from observers and Supreme Court Justice Michelle Keller herself about the level of partisanship that has seeped into it continues to be expensive.
Keller insinuated that Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, was “cheating” ethics rules placed on judicial candidates to maintain nonpartisan elections. Fischer is running openly as a “conservative Republican” in the area, which tends to vote for Republican candidates in partisan elections, and has insisted that he’s following the rules but would prefer to have such elections become partisan affairs.
While Fischer’s report had not posted publicly as of Wednesday afternoon, Keller reported an impressive haul of more than $118,000 from 330 individuals in the last few months. In all, Keller has raised nearly $200,000 for her re-election bid.
Fischer, perhaps the state’s most prominent anti-abortion legislator, was the sponsor behind the anti-abortion constitutional amendment on the ballot this November and the state’s trigger law, which is currently in effect but pending review by the Kentucky Supreme Court. If the amendment fails, then the Kentucky Supreme Court would still play a vital role in the abortion rights debate in the state.
In Louisville’s Kentucky Supreme Court District, Angela Bisig has raised around $219,000, while her competitor Jason Bowman hasn’t reported any fundraising in a bid to replace Lisabeth Hughes.
