Tagged: Kentucky republicans

The State Senate Republican Caucus has officially nominated Senator Robert Stivers for Senate president. Stivers’ new role won’t be official until it’s voted on by the full chamber in early January. But the GOP holds a 24-14 advantage, meaning Stivers is all but certain to succeed former Senate President David Williams. Williams left the Senate to take a position as a circuit judge.

Independent Senator Bob Leeper also ran for the presidency in the GOP caucus. And even though he challenged Stivers, the soon-to-be president says he won’t strip Leeper of his budget committee chairmanship.

Kentucky’s Republican state senators will choose that chamber’s next president today in Frankfort. GOP Floor Leader Robert Stivers and independent Senator Bob Leeper are candidates for the position. The chamber’s former president David Williams resigned to accept a judicial appointment in southern Kentucky.

Kentucky Senate Republicans have appointed President Pro Temp Katie Stine as the new legislative co-chair for their chamber as David Williams prepares to depart as Senate president.  Williams will resign Friday to take a circuit court judgeship, which leads to a vacancy in the Legislative Research Commission. No decision was made on a permanent leader for state Senate.

The campaign for control of the state House has taken a nasty turn, with radio and TV ads being pulled because of inaccuracies. Republicans have successfully knocked radio ads attacking their candidates off the air in the Bardstown and Mayfield areas. And they are working on getting TV ads in Lexington pulled down as well. The areas where the ads were pulled are considered hot spots for state legislative races, where either the GOP or Democrats are hoping to win seats.

After years of lawmakers attempting to find solutions to the state’s underfunded pension problems, a group of Republican legislative candidates are hoping to institute a plan of their own.

At a news conference today at the Capitol, the majority of Republican challengers in House and Senate races endorsed a plan to put new lawmakers into a 401k style pension system.

The challengers say if elected their plan would be the first bill they jointly introduce. And they would include themselves in the new 401k plan.