Written by Daniel Desrochers of the Herald-Leader
Gov. Andy Beshear is using his influence as Kentucky’s highest elected Democrat to discourage the use of a campaign consultant who was targeted by the FBI and served as the key witness in a campaign finance case against former Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Lundergan.
Beshear has told Democratic lawmakers that he will not raise campaign money for any candidates who use Jonathan Hurst as their campaign consultant. Hurst testified in a federal trial last year that Lundergan left $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 check with a memo line that said “boy scouts” in his couch, which contributed to Lundergan being found guilty of funneling illegal corporate campaign contributions into the 2014 U.S. Senate campaign of his daughter, Alison Lundergan Grimes.
“The administration has expressed its desire that members not use Jonathan Hurst as a campaign consultant because of the previous testimony he gave in the case involving Jerry Lundergan,” Chris Harris, D-Pikeville, told the Herald-Leader.
Hurst was the most used campaign consultant for House Democrats in the 2018 election and has long served as the campaign consultant for House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins, D-Louisville, who recently became the first woman ever elected to that post. Jenkins was still using Hurst as her consultant as recently as November 2019, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, when she gave his company $1,975 to send out an invitation to a breakfast.
Hurst and Jenkins did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.
(Cross-posted via the Kentucky Press News Service. Read the rest of the article at the Herald-Leader.)
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