This Changes EVERYTHING: Former Kentucky Chief Justice Joe Lambert Won't Seek Attorney General Post!

Joe Lambert won’t run for attorney general

FRANKFORT — Former Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Joseph Lambert said Thursday he was dropping his plans to run for attorney general this year because the current chief justice, John Minton, declined to grant him a leave of absence from the senior judge program.

The program allows retired judges to hear a limited number of cases.

Lambert said in a statement that he had planned to file his papers Thursday to seek this year’s Republican nomination for attorney general.

“Essential to my planning was a leave of absence from the senior judge program,” he said. “The statute and the administrative rules of the program expressly provide for a ‘deferment’ of senior judge duties for up to 60 months, and a few years ago another senior judge was granted such a deferment to pursue an educational opportunity.

“However, the Chief Justice declined to grant me any deferment.”

Minton was not immediately available for comment.

Lambert said his service as a senior judge is about two-thirds complete.

“If I resigned from the program without completion, I would sustain a permanent major loss of earned retirement benefits. I was prepared to accept this loss if I were elected Attorney General. I had planned to serve one or two terms and then fully retire,” he said.

Only one person has filed so far for the attorney general’s race — Hopkins County Attorney Todd P’Pool as a Republican. P’Pool announced this week that former U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell aide Larry Cox will be assisting his campaign.

Democrat Jack Conway, the state’s current attorney general, has said he plans to file for re-election.

The filing deadline is Jan. 25.