What is executive branch lobbying? How people get paid to influence KY’s top leaders
Though it largely flies under the radar, lobbying efforts to sway executive branch decisions are an important, lucrative and growing aspect of Frankfort.
Lobbyists collected around $9.5 million over the last fiscal year, from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, for their work to influence and inform the offices of Gov. Andy Beshear, Attorney General Russell Coleman, Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell and more.
According to data obtained via open records request to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, 27 Kentuckians were paid more than $100,000 to lobby cabinet members, elected officials and their staffs during that time.
Relatively speaking, more is known about legislative lobbying.
Reports documenting company spending and lobbyist compensation to influence the state legislature are posted openly on the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission website. It’s more lucrative, too. With groups spending more than $27 million — and that figure is growing — companies all over the country have found it to be a worthwhile investment.
Executive branch lobbying investment is also growing. In the four fiscal years before the most recent one — all but the first of which took place entirely during Beshear’s administration — groups spent $7 million in 2019-2020, $6.6 million in 2020-2021, $9.4 million in 2021-2022, then $8.2 million in 2022-2023. Like legislative lobbying, the trend is growth.
So what makes executive branch lobbying different from legislative lobbying?
To point out the obvious, the target is different. Instead of aiming to convince 138 lawmakers in the House and Senate, or a handful of influential legislators, executive branch lobbyists advocate for their clients directly to the governor’s office, various cabinets or other statewide elected officials’ offices.
Given that executive branch largely controls state contracts, the subject matter of executive branch lobbying often revolves around those contracts.
John Y. Brown III served two terms as Secretary of State before entering the lobbying field with his own JYB3 Group. He said one primary distinguishing feature of executive branch lobbying is that it more closely resembles sales.
“I think of it as more like sales, almost being an arm of the sales team for companies that do business with governments. There are technology systems, for example, that are built or managed and the company may be unknown to Kentucky decision makers. Part of the job is to make decision-makers aware of them, aware of their capabilities,” Brown said.
The client list for some of the biggest executive branch lobbyists reflect this reality. Many of them are technology companies with state contracts.
The biggest single client of Patrick Jennings, who made $852,000 in lobbying the executive branch last fiscal year, is AT&T, a company that has several state contracts, according to the state’s transparency website.
The biggest contract for Kate Wood Hall, Jennings’ coworker at Commonwealth Alliances and the second-highest-paid executive branch lobbyist at $615,000, is Aviat Networks, a radio company that has a contract with the state.
The biggest contract for Bob Babbage, the third-highest-paid executive branch lobbyist at $483,000 who served as state auditor and secretary of state in the 1980s and 1990s, is Iron Mountain, an information technology company with two state contracts.
The seven other lobbyists rounding out the top ten highest-paid all have clients with active state contracts as well.
Aside from contracts, a regular topic for executive branch lobbyist is how executive branch officials interpret laws and promulgate regulations.
When combining the calendar year 2024 in legislative lobbying spending with the fiscal year 2024 executive branch spending records, four lobbyists made well over $1 million. Lobbying records are reported at separate times for the different branches of government.
Jennings’ earnings combined total more than $1.8 million; Hall, Babbage and John McCarthy of McCarthy Strategic Solutions all brought in more than $1.2 million.
Brown, who is the fourth-highest paid executive branch lobbyist and like Babbage held statewide office, told the Herald-Leader that he knows what it’s like on the other side.
“I was in office for eight years, and we would have to make decisions on vendors,” Brown said. “I know that process well, the agonizing back and forth over that decision.”
Babbage first successfully lobbied the executive branch in the 1970s during the administration of late governor Julian Carroll; working for the city of Lexington, he spearheaded an effort to get state funding for two vocational schools. It worked.
Today, after spending a term each as a Democratic auditor and secretary of state, Babbage is regularly one of the highest-paid executive branch and legislative lobbyists with his firm Babbage Cofounder.
He said that one key distinction between executive and legislative lobbying is that the people you’re lobbying have different perspectives. Cabinet members always look at the statewide picture, but legislators’ first loyalties lie with their constituents
“I think the agencies are charged with a statewide, even more national, view. The legislature certainly gets that perspective, but remembering who sent you and listening to the voices back home is very fundamental. It’s how you focus on the right things and it’s how you get reelected,” Babbage said.
But there are also through-lines between the two types of lobbying, particularly when it comes to the execution of a legislative initiative. One can lead to the other. Take, for instance, Babbage and his team’s work on 2023’s House Bill 9.
That bill created the Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation Program, which allocates state funding for federal matching grants in 41 rural counties. Babbage said that thus far about $120 million in state funds have been deployed for a return of more than $900 million in federal funds.
Babbage Cofounder’s work on the bill didn’t stop when they got it passed. They continued to communicate with officials where the program was housed, first the Department for Local Government and later the Cabinet for Economic Development.
Political alignment also plays a role. Generally speaking, Republicans find greater success in lobbying the legislature, which is controlled by four-fifths GOP majorities. Meanwhile, people more associated with Democrats like Brown and Babbage, who were statewide elected Democrats themselves, tend to do better lobbying the executive branch, which is led by Beshear, a Democrat.
“I guess it’s just the nature of where our country and our state is right now, but I don’t think it has to be that way,” Sara Osborne, a lobbyist with MML&K Government Solutions who worked under previous Democratic governor Steve Beshear, told the Herald-Leader last year.
“I have plenty of Republican friends and colleagues and legislators I have great relationships with — and I had folks in the Bevin administration like that, too.”
The most important trait for any lobbyist, Brown said, is to be known as a credible and trustworthy source of information, even if you are at someone’s office to advocate for a certain outcome.
Brown told a story of, early in his career, watching another lobbyist get denied a meeting with a lawmaker because the lobbyist had misled them.
“Once you lose your credibility, you lose your ability to be effective with decision makers and with any clients,” Brown said.
Here’s a list of the 27 lobbyists in the state who made more than $100,000 lobbying the state’s executive branch and their top three contracts, according to Executive Branch Ethics Commission records.
Patrick Jennings (Commonwealth Alliances) – $852,297
Top 3 contracts: AT&T Services Inc. & its affiliated entities, United Parcel Service, Avaya
Katherine Wood Hall (Commonwealth Alliances) – $615,435
Top 3 contracts: Aviat Networks, Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities-KCAL, Axon Enterprise Inc.
Robert “Bob” Babbage (Babbage Cofounder) – $482,500
Top 3 contracts: Iron Mountain, Maximus, HealthSherpa
John Y. Brown, III (JYB3 Group) – $472,550
Top 3 contracts: Fortinet, HEOPS, Inc., Kyndryl
John McCarthy, III (McCarthy Strategic Solutions) – $447,720
Top 3 contracts: Ohio Valley Education Cooperative, Churchill Downs, Inc., Altria Client Services LLC & its Affiliates
Sherman Brown (McCarthy Strategic Solutions) – $382,346
Top 3 contracts: Churchill Downs, Inc., AshBritt, Secure Democracy USA
David Whitehouse (Whitehouse Group) – $238,120
Top 3 contracts: Bluegrass New Directions, Inc., Sunrise Children’s Services, ArcaSearch
Mike Biagi (The Rotunda Group) – $212,021
Top 3 contracts: LIBERTY Dental Plan Corporation, Oracle America, Inc., Braeburn Pharmaceuticals
Scott Jones (McCarthy Strategic Solutions) – $204,968
Top 3 contracts: Churchill Downs, Inc., AshBritt, Soccer Holdings, LLC
Douglas Baldwin (Bart Baldwin Consulting) – $202,290
Top 3 contracts: Community Based Coordination Solutions LLC, EverDriven, Kentucky Health Resource Alliance
Collin Johnson (Commonwealth Alliances) – $184,086
Top 3 contracts: Veterans Guardian VA Claim Consulting LLC, Kentucky Association of Counties, AT&T Services Inc. & its affiliated entities
Julia Crigler (Commonwealth Alliances) – $182,352
Top 3 contracts: Necco, Harmony Fields 2017, LLC, Louisville Orchestra
Amy Wickliffe (McCarthy Strategic Solutions) – $178,246
Top 3 contracts: Kentucky Financial Services Association, Pfizer Inc., Kentucky Employers’ Mutual Insurance
Kevin Payton (Top Shelf Lobby) – $172,721
Top 3 contracts: St. Elizabeth Healthcare, United Way of Greater Cincinnati, Cincinnati Bell, Inc. and its subsidiaries
Leigh Ann Thacker (Top Shelf Lobby) – $158,154
Top 3 contracts: Cincinnati Bell, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Kentucky Broadcasters Association, Inc., Kentucky Beer Wholesalers Association
Marc Wilson (Top Shelf Lobby) – $153,133
Top 3 contracts: St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Cincinnati Bell, Inc. and its subsidiaries, Kentucky Beer Wholesalers Association
Chuck Truesdell (Jefferson County Public Schools) – $147,991
Top contract: Jefferson County Public Schools
Kelley Abell (The Rotunda Group) – $137,450
Top 3 contracts: Kentucky Association of Adult Daycare, Oracle America, Inc., Braeburn Pharmaceuticals
Sean Cutter (MML&K Government Solutions) – $135,943
Top 3 contracts: RAI Services Co, Graduation Alliance, Kentucky Association of Hospice & Palliative Care
Sara Osborne (MML&K Government Solutions) – $134,063
Top 3 contracts: National Grid Renewals, Graduation Alliance, Schneider Electric USA, Inc.
Karen Lentz (Commonwealth Alliances) – $124,969
Top 3 contracts: MAREC Action, Avaya, Fresenius Medical Care North America
Jason R. Bentley (MML&K Government Solutions) – $124,328
Top 3 contracts: LG&E & KU, RAI Services Co, Kentucky Association of Hospice & Palliative Care
Jeff M. Busick (McCarthy Strategic Solutions) – $109,008
Top 3 contracts: Charter Communications, Kentucky Optometric Association, Kentucky Affordable Housing Coalition
Emma Cleveland (Amalgamated Transit Union) – $109,000
Top contract: Amalgamated Transit Union
Gilbert J. Comley (Texas Public Policy Foundation/Right on Crime) – $105,000
Top contract: Texas Public Policy Foundation/Right on Crime
John Cooper (Capital Link Consultants) – $103,806
Top 3 contracts: Kentucky Bankers Association, Toyota Motor North America, Amazon.com Services LLC
Chad Grant (Grant Consulting Group) – $102,000
Top 3 contracts: Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Versaterm Public Safety
Editor’s note: Due to an error in a filing with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, this story previously misstated the amount spent on executive lobbying and the top-paid lobbyists. The correct amount is around $9.5 million spent in the last fiscal year, and 27 lobbyists exceeded $100,000 in compensation.
This story was also updated Feb. 18, 2025 to reflect that a state contract with Aviat Networks does not include the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the company contracted with the department.
This story was originally published February 10, 2025 at 12:58 PM.
