Kentucky’s Republican statewide office holders have teamed up in the partisan struggle over who will choose the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, as both sides accuse the other of trying to “weaponize” ethics enforcement.
At issue is a 2022 law enacted by the legislature’s Republican supermajority that enlarges the commission from five to seven members and allows each of the constitutional officers (with the exception of the lieutenant governor) to appoint a member. The governor, who now appoints all five members, would have only two appointments under the contested law.
After the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the law, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear appealed to the state’s Supreme Court.
The Republican constitutional officers joined together to file a brief with the Supreme Court last week calling the law “a good-government measure to ensure that the Commission is beholden to no one.”
A spokesperson for Beshear on Monday said the Republicans are trying to “politicize and even weaponize” the commission that enforces the ethics code governing executive branch employees.
Meanwhile, former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican who is facing an ethics charge before the commission, commended the Republican office holders for filing their brief. In a post on X Friday evening, Cameron said: “This is a critical step toward ending the weaponization of government against political opponents.”
Last month, Cameron criticized the commission for charging him with an ethics violation stemming from donations collected by his 2023 campaign for governor. At the time, Cameron chalked it up to the work of a “Democrat-controlled Executive Branch Ethics Commission.”
Beshear, who challenged the GOP law and won at the circuit court level, and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman are the only Democratic state-level constitutional officers. The lieutenant governor would not appoint any ethics commissioners under the GOP law. The constitutional offices that would gain the power to appoint the majority of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission are currently all held by Republicans: Attorney General Russell Coleman, Auditor Allison Ball, Secretary of State Michael Adams, Commissioner of Agriculture Jonathan Shell and Treasurer Mark Metcalf.
Ball in a Friday statement said Beshear “continues to place politics above fairness” by pressing his appeal.
“Kentuckians deserve an Executive Branch Ethics Commission that upholds good governance and serves the public interest, not one beholden to partisan control,” she said. “I remain committed to standing up for the rule of law and serving the people of the Commonwealth.”
Adams voiced similar sentiments in a separate statement, adding that Beshear’s “unconstitutional power grabs and contempt for the rule of law have fared poorly in court time and time again, and they should now too.”
“While Governor Beshear claims he is ‘not involved in actions of the ethics commission, as it is fully independent under state law,’ he is telling the Supreme Court in his lawsuit against us that he must personally control the ethics commission,” Adams said. “Both cannot be true.”
According to the biographies of current commission members listed online, at least two members were appointed by Beshear on the recommendation of two former Republican constitutional officers, Cameron, when he was attorney general, and state Auditor Mike Harmon.
Jefferson Circuit Judge McKay Chauvin sided with Beshear. But the Court of Appeals’ three-judge court panel disagreed, ruling that the General Assembly has the power to distribute powers of the governor among constitutional officers.
Notably, in her concurrence with the appellate decision, Court of Appeals Judge Sara Walter Combs raised concerns about a chipping away of gubernatorial powers and called for the Supreme Court to reexamine the precedent on which the Court of Appeals based its decision. She pointed to a “proliferation of cases” regarding the General Assembly’s power to limit a governor’s authority, saying the questions raised involve “the very heart of the sacrosanct doctrine of separation of powers.”
Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for Beshear, said Monday afternoon that the governor has asked to “continue to ensure that all state government runs in an ethical and efficient manner.”
“Our constitution is clear: The Governor has the duty to ensure our laws are followed,” she said. “The other constitutional officers support the General Assembly having the ability to strip the Governor of this authority and give it to others based on partisan politics. Those other officers don’t have the same constitutional duty to uphold our laws.
“Gov. Beshear should have the same authority as every governor before him. This was an attempt by the General Assembly to politicize and even weaponize the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.”
This article was originally published by the Kentucky Lantern.
