Boone County Commissioner Charlie Kenner is being challenged for the District 2 seat in the 2022 Primary by the leader of his local party.
Chet Hand is the chairman of the Boone County Republican Party, and he said he threw his hat in the ring for the seat “because I couldn’t get anybody else to do it.”
Hand became the chairman last year. Fellow Republicans say it was once included in the bylaws of the party that the chair must step down if they choose to run for an elected office, but it’s now an unwritten rule, and Hand insists that he keeps both roles separate.
A subcommittee led by Justin Andrews and party vice-chair Doug Bramer was appointed to provide accountability for Hand’s role as chairman and as a candidate.
“Originally, I didn’t even want to run for chairman of the party,” Hand said. “I helped organize with some others in a movement to take over the Republican parties, if you will, and at least bring them back to a conservative route, and we were very, very successful in that endeavor in Boone County, but I couldn’t get anybody else to run for chairman … I also couldn’t get anybody else to run against Charlie Kenner, so because I couldn’t get anybody else to run I knew I needed to do it.”
Kenner said it offers an unfair advantage that his party chair, “who should just be supporting the candidates,” is himself running. He also claimed he and other candidates have been denied access to resources for their campaigns.
“I’ve had problems with the chairman being a candidate. I’ve never seen that before … It’s a conflict of interest,” Kenner said. “As the chairman, you’re supposed to help all the candidates, you know? The two PVA candidates are both Republicans. They’re not getting any help from the party. In the past, I was here when we had a husband and wife do it back in 2000. They helped every candidate and stayed out. Nobody would have ever thought of running for anything.”
Kenner said past chairs of the party resigned to avoid “even the appearance” of a conflict of interest.
Hand denied the allegation and said Kenner and every candidate have access to the same resources he does, like voter lists a candidate might access for a door-to-door campaign. He added that Kenner has not reported any problems to him, either.
“If he was to contact me and ask me for those records that I can get through the GOP data center, I would provide them to him without question, just like we were provided to any other candidate running in any of the primaries. And he can get that information at any time from me. So he hasn’t asked the question,” Hand said, adding that he is not the only one in the party with access to voter data.
Despite their disagreements on Hand’s alleged conflict of interest, the candidates agree on a few topics. They both believe in good communication with the community about zoning changes and developments, for example.
Kenner said he is running for reelection to see work on the broadband expansion and sewer expansion projects completed. He also said he wants to see continued improvements in road infrastructure around the county.
As a commissioner, Hand said he would work to improve transparency regarding planning and zoning developments and closely follow the comprehensive plans designed by the county.
The candidates also share a similar view of each other.
“(The campaigning) it’s been pretty negative,” Kenner said. “He says that we’re all doing a bad job (on the commission). He’s going door to door, and he’s talking to my relatives and my friends, so I know what he says and it’s pretty bad. It’s pretty vicious.”
“Honestly, this is more about issues than anything else, but the more and more I’ve gotten on this campaign trail I’ve realized that my opponent, Charlie Kenner, goes out there and tells disgusting, just disgusting, absolute lies about me. It’s not indicative of a moral character,” Hand said.
The 2022 Kentucky Primary Election is Tuesday, May 17. Voters can preview a county-by-county breakdown of their local ballot at web.sos.ky.gov/electionballots.