We recently got a tip that some Republican candidates — Hunt Rounsavall, Killian Timoney, Robert Goforth, and Chris Fugate — had not filed their campaign finance reports as required by law.
Because we stand by the “objective news” part of our tagline, and because good research is part of that work, we didn’t just run with that tip. I decided, instead, to look in the KREF database for every candidate for Kentucky House and Senate.
I downloaded the current list of candidates from the Secretary of State’s web site, then began working through all 203 of them.
Interestingly, word must have gotten out, because a few of them filed after our first pass through the list. I just went through the list again and removed anyone who had filed in the past few days.
The filing rules
The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance provides a packet of information on what candidates have to do when it comes to reporting their campaign finances. It seems complicated the first time you do it, but it basically involves keeping good records.
And, getting your reports in on time.
There are required reports at certain intervals before an election (typically 30 days and 15 days prior) and after an election (30 days and 60 days after). So, a campaign that goes through both a primary and a general should have at least two reports before the election, and two after.
This year, KREF went to an electronic filing system for everyone, which means that as soon as a candidate files, their report is available to the rest of us.
And yet, even with online filing instead of those paper forms, there are still candidates who haven’t filed their general election reports. And some haven’t filed any reports at all!
The list
Here, then, is the list of people who either haven’t filed their general election reports, or haven’t filed any reports at all. Note that some of these candidates don’t have a challenger in the general election, so perhaps they haven’t raised or spent any money for it. Since there’s no way to know that without a report (!), we have listed them anyway.
Candidate names in bold have not submitted any reports at all. Note that this only lists major party candidates.
Senate candidates
[one_half]Republicans
Jason Howell – no general
Rick Girdler – no general[/one_half][one_half_last]Democrats
Brian Pedigo – none
Reggie Thomas – no general
Walter Trebelo – none
Gerald Neal – no general[/one_half_last]
House Candidates
[one_half]Democrats
Alonzo Pennington – none
Art McLaughlin – none
Daniel Wayne Johnson – none
John Pennington – none
Terry Mills – none
Attica Scott – no general
Reginald Meeks – no general
Pamela Stevenson – no general
Kory Miller – none
Dustin Burley – none
David Mayo – none
Ashley Williams– none
Larry Varney – none
Ryan Neaves – none
Kenneth Hall – none
Ancel Smith – none
[/one_half][one_half_last]Republicans
Suzanne Miles – no general
Scott Lewis – none
Brandon Reed – none
Bob Devore – none
William Lawrence – no general
Josh Bray – no general
Regina Huff – no general
Shane Baker – no general
Tom Smith – no general
William Reynolds – none[/one_half_last]
Caveats
It is entirely possible that the new KREF system has bugs in it, and that someone might have filed a report that hasn’t show up. So, if you are a candidate whose name is on this list incorrectly, let us know and we’ll correct the list.
And, as for those four Republicans whose names I listed at the top? The tip was correct – none of them had filed their general election reports the first time I checked. They have all turned in multiple reports over the past few days.
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