IN THE GAZETTE

Filing Deadline Nears
House races shaping up early

By Laura Cullen Glasscock
The Kentucky Gazette

   The filing deadline is near. In just a few weeks anyone interested in running for the Kentucky General Assembly – and Congress and some judgeships – will need to file his or her intentions with the Secretary of State’s office by 4 p.m. on Jan. 31.
    As of the Gazette’s press time, 61 candidates (43 of them incumbents) had filed to run for the House of Representatives’ 100 seats. A handful of people are, or appear, interested in the three open seats we know about at this point.
    One of those open seats is in the 53rd District, from where James Comer resigned earlier this month to take the oath of office as the state’s new commissioner of agriculture. A special election to fill the remainder of that term is slated for Feb. 7.

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COLUMN

 

Gatewood's ideas deserve hearing

By Laura Cullen Glasscock
The Kentucky Gazette

Editor's Note: This editorial was published Dec. 16, 2011, several weeks before Gatewood's death.

   Discussing the returns on election night, KET commentators Al Cross and John David Dyche tossed around a few adjectives, trying to find a good one to describe Gatewood Galbraith. “‘Beloved’ maybe too strong.” “Cherished.” Better. He’s the only politician around today who people familiarly call by his first name. Everyone knows Gatewood.

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CURRENT ISSUE

disAdvantage?

    Campaign finance laws in Kentucky prohibit lobbyists from making campaign contributions to sitting state representatives and senators and to those running for the state legislature. This rule applied to Senate President David Williams, who ran unsuccessfully for governor last year, because he still was a senator during his gubernatorial campaign. However, Gov. Steve Beshear and independent candidate Gatewood Galbraith were allowed to accept campaign contributions from those who lobby. A cursory glance through the post-election reports filed by Beshear and Galbraith found no lobbyist contributions to Galbraith and a handful to Beshear. Those included donations from Jason Baird, Georgetown, executive director of the Kentucky Malt Beverage Council; David Beck, Louisville, exec vice president of the Kentucky Farm Bureau; Tim Corrigan, Louisville, a lawyer with the firm Lewis and Corrigan; and Pam Helton, Louisville, of Kentuckians for Better Transportation.

 

EDITORIAL

Making the case
for economic greed

By Walter Williams
National Columnist

     What human motivation gets the most wonderful things done? It’s really a silly question, because the answer is so simple. It turns out that it’s human greed that gets the most wonderful things done. When I say greed, I am not talking about fraud, theft, dishonesty, lobbying for special privileges from government or other forms of despicable behavior. I’m talking about people trying to get as much as they can for themselves. Let’s look at it.

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KENTUCKY HISTORY

Scandals ...
Nothing New

By Ron Bryant
For The Kentucky Gazette

     Scandals have been the ruin of many American politicians. What some people think is a modern phenomenon, in reality is as old as American politics. When an individual decides to stand for office, the most secret portions of their life eventually become public knowledge. Some scandals are kept on a local basis, with only the residents of a town or county knowing what happened to one of their indiscreet elected officials. At the state level, the negative publicity takes on a more ominous nature. When a governor or legislator falls from grace, there generally is a media frenzy to tear the offender’s reputation to shreds.

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