London Mayor Weddle removed from ballot, putting an end date on his tenure
Embattled London Mayor Randall Weddle has been removed from the 2026 general election after a chaotic first term in office marked by scandal, corruption allegations and felony indictments.
A Laurel Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that Weddle was ineligible to run because he was not a resident of the city of London, a decision the mayor said he disagreed with but accepts.
“My focus now is exactly where it has always been: serving this city. I intend to finish my term strong, continue working every day on behalf of our community, and keep doing the job the people elected me to do,” Weddle said in a Facebook post after the decision was announced.
Weddle’s actual full-time residence, long a point of debate among his critics and supporters in the small Southeastern Kentucky city since he first ran for office in 2022, re-emerged a point of contention just days before the primary election this spring. A group of Laurel County voters sued the mayor in April claiming he lived in Keavy, an unincorporated community about 10 miles south of downtown London and well outside the city limits.
The Keavy address was where state prosecutors accused the mayor of felony excessive campaign contributions to Gov. Andy Beshear and the Kentucky Democratic Party in April. It’s where credit lenders filed suit against him for defaulting on hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit card debt.
Last month, the court reviewed testimony from residents living near a London home Weddle claimed was his residence and pored over law enforcement and utility records that suggested he and his family actually lived in Keavy. Judge Michael Caperton visited both residences himself and said the London property didn’t appear lived-in.
Neighbors, law enforcement and utility records pointed to the Keavy address as his family’s actual home.
“The evidence, including closets full of clothes, fully furnished rooms, functioning appliances, vehicles in the driveway, pets, and all manner of other activity, indicate that the Keavy property is Weddle’s actual residence - that is, the place that he and his family make their home. By contrast, few if any hallmarks of a family were present at the London address,” Caperton said.
Attorneys for the mayor alleged that Weddle routinely stayed away from the city limits because he feared for his safety as “tensions ran high” in the city over his alleged misdealing. Weddle testified that he believed he could be the target of an assassination attempt.
But Caperton said fear for one’s safety cannot “serve as a basis to stay elsewhere in perpetuity,” because it could open the door to candidates simply purchasing property in a district in which they wish to run for office.
Weddle’s attorney has said the mayor will not appeal the ruling, effectively putting an end to Weddle’s current bid for re-election and marking an end-point to a turbulent four years in office.
The mayor, who has overseen deep-rooted political division in the city of 8,000, narrowly led local business owner Matt Orr by less than 1% of ballots cast in a tight May primary that advanced the two to the general election. Weddle’s ineligibility ruling leaves Orr unopposed in November.
As mayor, Weddle oversaw a London police force that shot and killed a rural Laurel County man whose address they mistook for another. He was at the center of a federal criminal probe into misuse of criminal background checks and has sparred openly with citizens and member of the city council, a band of critics he’s branded pedophiles without evidence.
His ouster at the end of this year does not conclude the criminal indictment Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has brought against him for allegedly exceeding personal campaign contribution limits by making donations to Behsear and the KDP on behalf of his family members and business associates. Weddle’s attorney has said the prosecution, led by one of Beshear’s political opponents, is politically motivated.
