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Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Steve Beshear/Jerry Abrahmson Gubernatorial Campaign Draws Ethics Complaint Similar To David Williams/Richie Farmer Slate.

Beshear's campaign accused of violation
By Tom Loftus

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A complaint filed Friday charges that Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear's re-election campaign illegally spent money before it was registered with campaign finance officials.

The Beshear campaign denied the charges.

The complaint was filed with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance by Jonathan Strom, a Republican of Lexington.

And most of it echoes a complaint filed by a Democrat on Thursday, which charged Republican David Williams' 2011 gubernatorial campaign committee illegally spent funds before he registered it early this month.

However, Strom's complaint also charged that certain early expenses of Beshear’s re-election campaign — including any cost to rent a state building where he announced the opening of his re-election campaign — do not appear to be disclosed by the Beshear campaign in subsequent reports filed with the election registry.

In a news release, Strom used the same words to complain about the Beshear campaign as were used Thursday in a news release from Steve Neal, the Democrat who filed the complaint against the Williams campaign.

“Breaking campaign finance laws before your campaign even gets out of the gate is not a good way to earn the trust of Kentucky voters,” Strom said in the release. “This is a very serious matter not only because we have a man who wants to lead the commonwealth breaking the law, but also because, as governor, Steve Beshear has already taken an oath to uphold the law and can't plead ignorance.”

Matt Osborne, spokesman for the Beshear campaign released a statement later Friday that said, “This allegation has no merit, and all of the expenditures were legally made, reported, and have also been audited by the Registry of Election Finance.”

Strom's complaint charges that Beshear's new re-election slate with Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson running for lieutenant governor, appeared to have spent money two ways prior to registering its committee on July 20, 2009. First, Strom said, the Beshear-Abramson slate had to have paid to produce a video announcing the slate that was posted to YouTube on July 19, 2009.

Second, Beshear-Abramson must have spent money to plan its July 20 press conferences including one at the state-owned Berry Hill Mansion in Frankfort, Strom said.

He also charged in his complaint that subsequent expense reports filed by Beshear-Abramson with the registry do not appear to include any expenditure to date for these costs, including a rental fee of $75 for the Berry Hill Mansion

The registry interprets state law to require a campaign to register before it raises or spends any money, registry general counsel Emily Dennis said in an interview early this week before either complaint was filed. She said the registration informs the public of details about the committee receiving and spending money, and gives registry auditors the starting point for a campaign's activities.

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