Former Kentucky secretary of state denies ethics violations
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Alison Lundergan Grimes has denied ethics commission allegations that she improperly used her former position as Kentucky’s secretary of state for personal and political reasons, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
Documents obtained by the newspaper through Kentucky’s open records law show the prominent Democrat and her former assistant, Erica Galyon, filed their responses last week to charges from the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.
The commission accused Grimes in an order last month of using her position to benefit Democratic candidates ahead of the 2016 election and using the state voter registration system for a “personal, private purpose.” Galyon rejected a claim she improperly withheld records from the news media.
Grimes denies all serious allegations and only admits to a few findings from the commission’s order. Her response says lists of newly registered voters were created before the election at her office’s request and provided at no extra cost to candidates who requested them. It denies that the lists were distributed illegally.
The order alleges the information was intended to benefit members of Grimes’ party, but the response does not reference the partisan leanings of the candidates.
Her response refers to a 2020 opinion from Franklin Circuit Court that states voting rolls are public records, and it says she only used information from the registration system in her capacities as secretary of state and the Kentucky’s chief election official.
Signees on the response included prominent Kentucky attorney J. Guthrie True, who told the Herald-Leader the ethics commission’s allegations were “frivolous.”
True also represented Grimes’ father, businessman and former state Democratic Party chair Jerry Lundergan, who was ordered to prison earlier this year. A jury convicted him and political consultant Dale Emmons in 2019 of conspiring to illegally contribute more than $200,000 from one of Lundergan’s companies to Grimes’ unsuccessful 2014 U.S. Senate campaign.
Grimes was twice elected secretary of state, in 2011 and 2015. She left office in 2019 due to term limits.
Katie Gabhart, the commission’s executive director, said it could be several months before an administrative hearing on the ethics charges is held. Grimes faces a maximum of $10,000 in fines and Galyon could be fined up to $5,000.