Gov. Andy Beshear’s super PAC raised almost $2.6 million in first year, won some, lost some
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern FRANKFORT – Tapping his broad base of Kentucky donors and landing three hefty contributions from…
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KY state workers group blasts pension settlement with hedge funds, presses its own lawsuit
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern FRANKFORT — The recent proposed settlement of a long-running lawsuit against big hedge funds over…
Spending to lobby Kentucky lawmakers hits a new record of more than $24 million in 2024
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern FRANKFORT – Health industry groups, business organizations and electric utilities helped drive spending on lobbying…
Not total déjà vu, but Kentuckians can expect another income tax cut with incoming GOP supermajorities
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern Republican supermajorities in the Kentucky General Assembly are expected to begin the 2025 legislative session…
Presidential ambitions? Andy Beshear creates New Hampshire political action committee to support candidate
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear created a political committee in New Hampshire this fall funded with…
Follow the money: McConnell’s fundraising lowest in years, Beshear’s PAC?, Hal Rogers PAC spending
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s reelection committee raised just $76,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30…
KY Republican Headquarters building fund tops $3.2 million, most from corporations with lobbying interests
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern The Republican Party of Kentucky Building Fund raised another $314,750 in the past three months…
Two out-of-state billionaires bankrolled super PACs that spent $10m trying to defeat Beshear
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern Two billionaire mega-donors bankrolled a quartet of super PACs that spent nearly $10 million over…
Op-Ed – Al Cross: The tradition continues — fanciful, pointed Christmas presents for Kentucky politicians
The notion of giving fanciful but pointed presents to public figures at Christmastime is an old one, established in Kentucky…
Kentucky Democratic Party far outraised its Republican rival in month before Beshear’s reelection
The aggressive fundraising drive by the Kentucky Democratic Party in support of Gov. Andy Beshear’s reelection did not take its…
Who’s paying for all those ads in the Kentucky governor’s race? — what the records show
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern About $65 million will be spent in Kentucky’s 2023 general election for governor by the…
Last financial disclosure reports before the election show Beshear far outraises Cameron
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern The final campaign finance reports filed before Election Day show Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s general…
Beshear far outraises Cameron in governor’s race, but that’s only part of the money story
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign outraised Republican challenger Daniel Cameron by more than double the…
Democrats have big fundraising lead in gubernatorial election year; Republicans say it won’t last
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern Just as Democrat Andy Beshear has built a big fundraising lead over his Republican rivals…
Record $24-plus million spent on lobbying the Kentucky General Assembly in 2022
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern A record amount of nearly $24.2 million was spent lobbying the Kentucky General Assembly in…
New Republican headquarters gets big donations; Democrats’ building fund donations smaller
By Tom Loftus The Kentucky Lantern Charter Communications, the St. Louis-based telecommunications company, contributed $50,000 in late 2022 to the…
Republicans poised to cut Kentucky income tax again based on revenue boom that could be fleeting
By Tom Loftus Kentucky Lantern Kentucky House Majority Leader Steven Rudy recently told a receptive audience at a Kentucky Chamber…
Bill Straub: Where oh where have all the statesmen gone, and look what’s left? Then there’s Tom Loftus
Some years back, Kentucky had a gentleman serving in the Senate named John Sherman Cooper, from Pulaski County, who regularly…
Bill Straub: Opining on greatest of journalism as it once was (or wasn’t), why it’s better than alternative
The late Jimmy Breslin, the greatest columnist in the history of the world (and my personal journalistic hero), was renowned…
Bill Straub: Bevin’s attempts to circumvent state’s media scutiny just another way of saying ‘trust me’
WASHINGTON – Oh, such a clever boy is Mad Matt Bevin. Cicadas, Peeping Tom, a strange and meandering 15-minute word…
Bill Straub: Bevin stiff-arming state’s media does disservice to public and pursuit of accountability
WASHINGTON – Ben Bradlee, who would go on to become the legendary editor of The Washington Post, once wrote a…
Bill Straub: If Bevin truly is a man of integrity, then it’s well past time that he shows some
WASHINGTON – There is some evidence that the glorious leader, Gov. Mad Matt Bevin, may have stepped in it this…
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