The Kentucky Democratic party filed an ethics complaint against Attorney General Daniel Cameron after he announced his run for governor yesterday. The complaint alleges that Cameron violated ethics rules by investigating Gov. Andy Beshear, who is now a political opponent.
“While Andy Beshear utilized the attorney general’s office to protect Kentuckians, to fight the opioid epidemic, arrest record numbers of child predators, protect seniors from scams and create a sexual assault cold case unit — Daniel Cameron is using public office and public resources to target political opponents,” said KDP Chair Colmon Elridge in a release. “Those resources should be used to protect the people of Kentucky – not to prepare for an election. Cameron spent more time and resources going after a Democratic governor than he did investigating Matt Bevin for pardoning hundreds of criminals including those whose family contributed to Bevin’s campaign.”
The complaint further alleges that Cameron knowingly violated Executive Branch Ethics Commission rulings because Kentucky officials can’t use their office to go after current or political opponents.
“For more than 20 years, the Executive Branch of the Ethics Commission has been crystal clear: If you are the sitting attorney general, you cannot investigate the sitting governor and then run against him,” Beshear said in his weekly Team Kentucky update Thursday.
The initial ruling from Executive Branch Ethics dates back to Attorney General Greg Stumbo. Stumbo investigated then Gov. Ernie Fletcher. The commission determined that Stumbo couldn’t run for governor, so he then decided to run for lieutenant governor.
In 2017, when Beshear was attorney general, he attempted to investigate then Gov.Matt Bevin but was told it would create a conflict of interest/ethics violation should he run for governor in 2019.
“If you intend to run for the office of governor in the 2019 election cycle, in line with its advice given in Advisory Opinion 03-05 and 06-16, then the Commission will advise you to refer any potential investigations of the current Governor to other law enforcement agencies over which you do not exercise control as the Attorney General…,” the commission opinion stated at the time.
Josh Douglas, an election law and voting rights professor at the University of Kentucky Law School, said in a Twitter post that while Cameron might have committed an ethics violation, a judge is unlikely to say he can’t run for office because of it.
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