State "Whistle-blower" Suggests Someone In The Justice Cabinet Is "Shaking Down" Kentucky State Employees On Behalf Of Steve Beshear/Jerry Abrahmson Campaign For Governor, In Possible Violation Of State Law. Tsk, Tsk!

Kentucky state employee says colleagues reported pressure to give to Gov. Beshear
Written by Tom Loftus

Whistleblower document: Letter to Jack Conway and Steve Robertson

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The re-election campaign of Gov. Steve Beshear has raised more than $465,000 from state workers, and an employee in the Department of Juvenile Justice alleged Monday that some of his colleagues said they were pressured to give.

In a letter to the chairman of the state Republican Party, Rodney Young alleged that during the Christmas holiday season he heard co-workers complaining that Deputy Justice Cabinet Secretary Charles Geveden was calling non-merit employees and demanding “significant” contributions to the Beshear campaign.

Young, a 27-year state employee, also said in the letter, a copy of which he sent to Attorney General Jack Conway, that two high-ranking officials in the department said Geveden asked them during the phone calls, “How much do you value your job?”

Matt Erwin, spokesman for the Beshear campaign, released a statement Monday noting that Young does not claim he was pressured to make a contribution “nor does he present evidence that anyone was pressured to make a donation.”

“This complaint is based on gossip and should be treated as the desperate and baseless political stunt that it is,” Erwin said.

State law forbids a campaign, or anyone acting on a campaign's behalf, from targeting state employees for contributions. Violations are a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.

However, the law says state workers can be asked for a contribution “as part of an overall plan to contact voters not identified as state employees.”

Young mentions 13 department employees in his letter whom he said were solicited by Geveden.

The Courier-Journal was able to contact six of them Monday, two of whom said Geveden did ask them last December for contributions. Three said Geveden did not ask, and one could not remember.

Dr. Patrick Sheridan confirmed getting a phone call from Geveden soliciting a $1,000 contribution.

“I was surprised because I've been with the state for 20 years and I have never been called like that before,” he said.

Asked if he felt pressured to make the conation, Sheridan said, “If somebody called you and asked you for $1,000, how would you feel?”

Erwin said the call to Sheridan was part of a broader fundraising effort by Geveden that sought contributions — first by a mailing followed up by a phone call — from non-state workers as well and is thus permitted under Kentucky law.

A Courier-Journal analysis of contributions to the Beshear campaign shows that state employees or their spouses made 863 contributions totaling $465,289 to the primary election committee of Beshear and his running mate, former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.

That's nearly 10 percent of $4.88 million the campaign received in contributions it reported to the state election registry for its primary election campaign. The campaign hasn't released a finance report for its general-election fund-raising.

State employees — including several high-ranking officials — also have hosted fundraising events for the campaign. Its reports list 162 fundraising events between Sept. 22, 2009, and June 23, 2011.

State Republican Chairman Steve Robertson released the letter Monday, along with copies of complaints he filed asking the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance and the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to investigate the matter.

Robertson said in a news release that Beshear “said the buck stops with him and asked us all to hold him accountable. That is exactly what we intend to do.” He asked the Beshear campaign to refund all the contributions it has received from state employees.

Allison Martin, spokeswoman for Conway, confirmed that the letter was received and will be handled “according to the investigative protocol of this office.”

Geveden did not respond to phone messages left at his office and home.

Young, a psychologist, moved this year from the Department of Juvenile Justice to a job at the Hazelwood Center in Louisville.

Reached by phone Monday, he confirmed that he wrote the letters and said he stood by the statements in them.

Young, who described himself as a Democrat who has never been politically active, also said he was not pressured to contribute to Beshear.

“I was just repeating comments other people made about phone calls,” he said.

Sheridan said in an interview Monday that he got a call from Geveden in November or December last year and that Geveden asked him to contribute $1,000 to the Beshear campaign.

He said he considered the request and later sent a check for $500.

“It's hard to say that I felt pressure,” Sheridan said. “Other people had been asked and had given and I didn't want to stand out.”

But when he made his contribution Sheridan wrote a note on a card he received by mail from the campaign saying he did not want to disclose any personal information. Because the campaign must retain certain information about contributors, it returned the contribution to Sheridan.

Stacy Floden, spokeswoman for the Juvenile Justice Department, said she also got a call from Geveden at the time seeking a contribution. Floden said she did not feel pressured to give, and records do not indicate any contribution from her.

Department Commissioner John Ronald Haws is also mentioned in Young's letter. But Haws said Monday that Geveden did not call him.

Campaign finance reports list a state employee, John Ronald Haws, as making a $500 contribution to Beshear on Christmas Day.

Young's letter identifies division director Gary Sewell as one of two employees who told him that Geveden solicited contributions and asked, “How much do you value your job?”

Sewell, reached by phone Monday, recalled getting a phone call from Geveden last December. But he said he was not pressured to make a contribution and could not recall if Geveden asked him to give.

Sewell is not listed in Beshear's reports as a contributor.

“I still have my job,” he said Monday.

Two other employees mentioned in Young's letter said they were not asked by Geveden to make contributions, and finance reports list no contributions from either.

The Courier-Journal's review of Beshear contributors shows that, in addition to Haws, three other individuals named in the Young letter contributed to the campaign.