Kentucky Democrat Who Lost Bid to Unseat McConnell Fined $10K … – Heritage.org

The Executive Branch Ethics Commission of Kentucky has finally completed its investigation of Democrat Alison Grimes, a former secretary of state who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Senate against Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014.

The commission, in a unanimous vote, hasfinedher $10,000 for abusing her position and influence to provide 18 Democratic candidates with official, confidential voter lists in violation of state law in an obvious attempt to aid their political campaigns.

The commissionopenedits investigation in 2021, after her father, Gerald Jerry Lundergan, a former state representative and former chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, was convicted of violating federal campaign finance laws.

Along with a political consultant, who was also convicted, Lundergan illegally funneled more than $200,000 from one of his companies to his daughters Senate campaign. He sought to appeal his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, whichrejectedthe appeal in May 2022.

At the time that she was running against the Republican McConnell, Grimes was Kentuckys secretary of state, and she remained in that office until 2020.

She was never charged in the federal prosecution involving her father andclaimedshe had no knowledge of the day-to-day operations of her own Senate campaign or the illegal corporate financing by her father.

But she was charged with violating Kentuckys state ethics laws for her misbehavior while she was secretary of state.The commissions Final Order, which was issued on May 19, details its findings that were based on clear and convincing evidence, including Grimes own admissions, documents such as email communications, and facts that the parties do not dispute.

Grimes ordered her staff to download information from the Voter Registration System onto flash drives, including lists of newly registered voters. The purpose of downloading the information was to distribute voter lists to selected Democratic Party candidates.That, said the commission, is undisputed.

None of the forms that the law requires be completed by anyone requesting voter information were completed, and none of the fees that state law imposes were charged to those Democratic candidates.

Moreover, the candidates were provided with personal information of voters that state law prohibits being released.

Grimes tried to claim as a defense that she was responding to an open records request under state law. But as the commission pointed out, the information she distributed electronically to the Democratic Party candidates is protected from disclosure under the Open Records Act of Kentucky.

Moreover, Grimes couldnt produce any evidence that her office ever actually received an open records request.There were no Open Records request forms in the file and no evidence documenting receipt of an Open Records request.

The commission did not directly call Grimes a liar, but it said that her defense that she was responding to an open records request was incredible and implausible. Even if she had been, it was processed contrary to law because personal information was released and none of the required forms or fees were completed or charged.

Grimes could not plead ignorance of the law according to the commission. She conferred that benefit knowinglyproviding Democratic candidates with voter lists to which they were not entitled, in violation of state law. She was not laboring under a good faith misunderstanding of the law, since the Kentucky statutes governing this are unambiguous, and the secretary of state would know the requirements of the law she administered.

In fact, it would be disingenuous and incredible to suggest that she did not.

She also knew the rules governing voter information from personal experience because she, as a candidate, when she was running for office, requested voter lists from the Secretary of States Office and paid the required fees.

She would know that Open Records requests require redaction of personal information.

Grimes, said the commission, had to know she was providing information to which the recipients were not entitled. In its dry, legal, straightforward exposition of the facts, the commission makes it very clear that Grimes knowingly violated Kentucky law as a government official in partisan actions intended to help candidates of her own political party.

Kentucky is lucky that Grimes is no longer its secretary of state, a position that, because it administers elections, requires honest, ethical officials. And the states residents are fortunate that someone willing to engage in such unprincipled behavior is not their U.S. senator.

Grimes joins her father in the annals of Kentuckys political history as another unethical politician who was willing to abuse her position of public trust, as the commission concluded, to confer a benefit and advantage to her political friends and allies.

This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal

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Kentucky Democrat Who Lost Bid to Unseat McConnell Fined $10K ... - Heritage.org