Kentucky Attorney General Jack CONway Gets Huge Campaign Donation, Then Acts SHAMEFULY In Donor's Favor. This Is Kentucky, Folks!

Mongiardo criticizes Conway for acting on case involving donor
By John Cheves

FRANKFORT — Attorney General Jack Conway took nearly $10,000 in campaign contributions from people working for a natural gas company before intervening in the company's rate-increase request before the state Public Service Commission.

Conway's Democratic U.S. Senate campaign took the money since the start of 2009 from the political action committee, employees and lobbyists of Atmos Energy Corp., which serves more than 180,000 customers in 38 Western Kentucky counties.

Conway announced March 12 he reached an agreement with Atmos Energy that reduced by 38 percent the company's original request for a rate hike of $9.4 million, cutting it to $5.9 million. The PSC ultimately must approve such deals, but the attorney general is required by law to represent ratepayers' interests.
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Conway's office said Wednesday donations from Atmos Energy's people had no effect on the attorney general's dealings with the company, but Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, who is Conway's key opponent in the May 18 Senate primary, accused Conway of putting a "For Sale" sign on the attorney general's office.

Mongiardo's campaign suggested the Atmos Energy agreement would have been more favorable for ratepayers had Conway not received donations from the company's people.

"The message Conway is sending to big utility companies is obvious. 'Proposing a rate increase? Contribute to my Senate campaign, and I'll personally approve 65 percent of your requested rate hike,'" Mongiardo campaign spokesman Kim Geveden said in a news release. "Jack might as well just stick a 'For Sale' sign on the front door of the attorney general's office."

The Conway campaign swiftly demanded Mongiardo retract his "baseless attack."

"Daniel Mongiardo is just wrong," Conway said in his own news release. "On the Atmos case, I saved Kentucky families and businesses over $3.5 million.

"Daniel Mongiardo knows that I am an aggressive advocate for Kentucky utility customers, which is why he won't tell you about the $100 million that we've saved for working families during the past two years."

Conway campaign spokeswoman Allison Haley said Conway avoids conflicts of interest with individual campaign donors by refunding their contributions and removing them from solicitation lists if they personally have official business with the attorney general's office. But he does not recuse himself from cases involving companies whose employees contribute to his campaign, Haley said.

"Any utility company is going to eventually have business before the attorney general," Haley said. "At that point, it's like Jack has said over and over, that he's not for sale."

Most negotiating with utility companies is handled not by Conway but by his Office of Rate Intervention, which is largely staffed by experienced merit employees, said Allison Martin, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/04/01/1205990/mongiardo-criticizes-conway-for.html#ixzz0jr9W2pRX

Editor's comment: This is yet another proof that Jack CONway does NOT need to be serving the public in any capacity.