Janis Winbigler, the Campbell County School board chair, has filed a lawsuit against her opponent in the District 1 race, alleging that Kailyn Campbell is not a bona fide candidate because she doesn’t currently live in the district.
Campbell filed a petition to be a candidate for Campbell County School Board District 1 on June 7. The lawsuit states that Campbell’s address in Highland Heights was not in District 1 at the time she filed her petition, nor is her residence in District 1 now, after the redistricting that occurred on July 20.
The redistricting decision followed the requirements of a July 15 United States District Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky order because two of the five districts had too many people in them.
“Since respondent Campbell is neither a resident nor legal registered voter within the bounds of District 1 the Campbell County School District, she is ineligible to serve as a Board of Education member for Campbell County for District 1 and should be disqualified from running for this office,” the lawsuit reads.
But there were no valid districts at the time of Campbell’s candidacy filing, Campbell’s attorney Brandon Voelker said, and that if she does win, Campbell will move.
“Our position is, you look at the date of filing,” Voelker said. “They (Campbell County School Board) didn’t have valid districts. So, our position is she will run, and when she wins, she will move into the district.”
Voelker cited Dusing v. Halloran, a recent case involving former Northern Kentucky attorney Ben Dusing, as precedent: Dusing was running for Kenton County family court judge, but his license was suspended in Kentucky in February. Local attorney Brian Halloran filed suit, saying Dusing couldn’t run because he wasn’t licensed as an attorney in the state. But the appeals court ruled that Dusing could still run as long as he was licensed by the time he took office. Dusing lost the May primary to Terri King Schoborg and Carl Knochelman, who face off in November.
But Campbell’s answer to the lawsuit claims Winbigler is trying to get out of having a challenger in the race.
“The plaintiff herein has unclean hands, in that Plaintiff purposely redistricted to seek to avoid an election challenger,” the response said.
Winbigler’s lawsuit cites KRS 160.180(2) in its reasoning, which states that a candidate for a local board of education must reside in and be registered to vote within the school district for which she is seeking election.
“We filed litigation,” Winbigler’s attorney Suzanne Cassidy said. “We want the court to decide whether or not Ms. Campbell is eligible to run for the school board from District 1, where she filed to run against my client Janice Winbigler.”
Should the court rule that Campbell is not a bona fide candidate, votes for her in the General Election will not be tabulated or recorded. But her name would still be on the ballot because any changes to the ballot had to be made by Sept. 16 to ensure they are printed correctly.
If Campbell is ruled not to be a bona fide candidate, County Clerk Jim Luersen will notify precinct election officers to display the information at polling places, advising voters of the change and that votes for Campbell would not count.
A status conference will be held on Oct. 7 to discuss scheduling for the court hearing.