Kentucky Democrats say they’re not in debt after GOP jumps on finance report
Despite what its most recent financial report says, the Kentucky Democratic Party says it is not in the red.
Republicans in the state and in Washington criticized the party for a negative cash on hand balance shown in the party’s Dec. 5 post-general election report to the Federal Elections Commission. That report showed that, with receipts and expenditures tallied for the month, the party had $41,000 in debt at the end of the latest reporting period.
“An interesting choice for the (Democratic Governors Association) to elect as chair,” the Republican Party of Kentucky wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “How do they expect (Gov. Andy Beshear) to help them when he can’t — or perhaps won’t — even help his own state party?”
A popular conservative media figure who also ran for Congress in 2022 used the report to “contrast” Beshear with current Republican Governors Association Chair Brian Kemp of Georgia.
But Kentucky Democratic Party spokesperson Jonathan Levin told the Herald-Leader that the negative balance was the result of an error.
“As a result of an inadvertent filing omission, the recent FEC report includes a negative balance. We are in the process of filing an amended report,” Levin wrote.
State Democratic parties are particularly heavy on transfers of large amounts of cash; in the lead-up to the 2022 election, the Kentucky Democratic Party sent nearly $1.9 million to other states in just one month. During the 2023 cycle, which featured the governor’s race, the party received a number of transfers from other state parties.
In the month-long reporting period for the latest post-general finance report, the party had reported transferring $240,000 to the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
The Republican Party of Kentucky’s latest report filed around the same time showed it had about $1.4 million on hand as of late last month.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 12:35 PM.
