This upcoming Friday is the filing deadline for federal and state legislative seats, as well as a handful in the judicial branch. We’ll take a more in depth look at those when the complete field is set.

In the meantime, one of the biggest “off-season” stories has been the number of House Republican legislators who have announced their retirements. To date, that includes Larry Elkins, Rob Rothenburger, Jeff Hoover, Tommy Turner and Jim Stewart. This is on top of the abrupt resignations a few months ago by Diane St. Onge and Tim Moore. Our sources tell us that there were 5 or 6 others who leadership had to convince to run again as well.

So what is taking place? Is the majority not cracked up to be all the Republicans thought it would be?

For Hoover, it makes sense, although we expected his resignation last time. Our source said that didn’t happen because he wanted to remain a thorn in Matt Bevin’s side.

For the others, there doesn’t seem to be an overriding reason other than what our source said was a “building frustration with their own caucus.”

Are the ones frustrated exiting stage left? Or is there an undercurrent that will be on display this session.

Like most things in Frankfort, only time will tell.

It’s here! Day one of the Kentucky General Assembly. We at ITC will be working to not only cover the highlights of this year’s session, but also to delve deeper into the issues at play.

For example, we will be keeping an eye on:

• How the upcoming legislative elections affect the course of the session.

• The interaction among the three branches of government.

• The interplay of federal and state officials.

• And much, much more.

Over the past year, ITC has developed and widened our list of well-placed anonymous sources throughout the state. They are not only from both major political parties, but among the various factions of those parties.

We promise to get to the heart of the matter and cover what the Frankfort Press Corps cannot publish.

Let’s get going . . .

Ending what has been the most boring “will he or won’t he?” exploratory period ever, State Representative Charles Booker (D-Louisville) has officially declared he will be a candidate for the United States Senate this year.

Look, not even Booker’s mother would believe he has a chance of beating Mitch McConnell. There are underdog campaigns and then are foolish ones. This isn’t an underdog campaign.

Booker has one term in Frankfort under his belt. And the only way he set himself apart during that term was the fact he had a penchant of decrying lynchings, a practice that, despicable as it is, hasn’t happened in Kentucky in nearly a century.

So what got Booker to throw his hat in the ring? Well, like usual, you find there is more to the story when you start to dig.

A well-placed source familiar with Democratic Party politics tells us this is a proxy war for control of their party. Seems the “old guard” faction of the party led by the Beshears are fearful of a new wave of activists falling in line with Amy McGrath.

The Beshear camp, which is notably aligned with Rocky Adkins, Jim Gray and John Yarmuth, reportedly encouraged Booker to run as a way to weaken McGrath. They think she will still come out of the primary, but limp out much like Lois Combs Weinberg in 2002.

Make no mistake, the traditional Democrats would much rather have another term of Mitch McConnell than lose control of the power they currently have.

It should make for a fun campaign to see who lines up behind Booker.

With the 2020 candidate filing deadline rapidly approaching, rumors are flying high. Among those is that Will T. Scott is flirting with running for office again.

In the mountains, there are three things that you can almost be certain of: death, taxes and Will T. running for office. After all, the former Supreme Court Justice has also sought the offices of Circuit Judge, Attorney General, Congress and Governor.

One well-placed source familiar with Eastern Kentucky politics tells us that Will T. is “gettin’ the itch” again.

The thought is that he may have his sights set on the legislature this time. Whether he would take on Senator Phillip Wheeler in a primary or Representative Ashley Tackett Laferty in a general (Wheeler and Laferty are incidentally law partners) is unknown.

One thing we know, a race is always more fun with Will T. involved!

Welcome to 2020! This year promises to be a fun one for politics in Kentucky. In addition to the typical legislative affairs, which we will cover in depth, we will also see:

• The most expensive Senate race in the nation.

• The most controversial presidential race in our lifetimes.

• The beginning of a gubernatorial administration that is philosophically at odds with both chambers of the General Assembly.

Let the fun begin!

It was a rough weekend for State Representative Reggie Meeks. The Louisville Democrat met the long arm of the law while traveling through Hardin County.

It seems Reggie had an outstanding warrant based on a series of traffic violations and his failure to appear in court regarding them.

That failure led to his overnight visit at the Hardin County Detention Center last Saturday night.

To add insult to injury, poor Reggie now has to suffer the ignominy of his mugshot being public, complete with height chart.

They can ban dogs and cats all they want. But little birdies abound.

Courier-Journal reporter Joe Sonka has been leading the charge on a story regarding Governor Bevin’s use of the state plane.  Sonka has repeatedly been inquiring about the purpose of some out-of-state trips the plane made.  At first Bevin scoffed and refused to answer Sonka, because of his past experience as a liberal blogger.  But now he has taken the stance that, if reimbursed, it’s not the public’s business where the plane went and why.  (See story here.)

We at ITC would argue that the public definitely has a right to know where our governor is during working hours.  We definitely do not want a repeat of the Mark Sanford “Appalachian Trail” debacle.

Governor Bevin has a history of being out-of-state frequently.  For a while, he was shopping himself in DC circles and spent quite a bit of time there.  Easy to claim that he was in the capital working on furthering Kentucky, but we know for a fact that he was inquiring about certain Trump administration positions for himself, as well as Lt. Governor Jenean Hampton.  (He REALLY wanted rid of her.)

A couple of summers ago, he also spent the better part of two months in New England vacationing with his family.  While that is an common tradition of the Northeast elite, it’s not typical among Kentuckians.  But, as Governor and Mrs. Bevin were living separately at the time, we understand he thought the time away from the prying eyes of the Kentucky press would be good for their relationship.

Bevin also became the darling of the Koch Brothers, Republican Governors Association and some other conservative organizations who put him on the conference circuit.  So there were multiple trips to Palm Springs, Scottsdale and other resort communities where he would stir up the financially faithful to keep the checks coming.

Kentucky governors, of both major political parties, have a history of making secretive trips.  We are glad that they now feel the pressure to at least reimburse the state for the usage of the plane.  However, it’s time they own up to the public about when and where they go.  We deserve to know.

We at ITC typically keep our posts about Frankfort.  However, sometimes there are happenings in Washington that affect Kentucky as well.  And, like everywhere else, we have a few well-placed sources in that den of iniquity.

As you may have seen, President Trump dismissed John Bolton from his administration yesterday.  The move didn’t come as a surprise, as rumors had been circulating for weeks.  And, as expected, the question immediately turned to who his successor as National Security Adviser might be.

All the major media outlets have been making their speculations, including The New York Times, CNN and Fox News.  They have listed out quite a few possibilities, all being quite  conventional choices.  But, let’s be honest, has Donald Trump ever done anything the conventional way?

This is where it gets interesting for Kentuckians.  Our sources tell us that some closely placed confidants of Rand Paul are making a suggestion.  They are putting forth to the Trump team that Mike Pompeo should shift to Bolton’s former position, and Paul should be nominated for Secretary of State.

The argument is being made that Pompeo has experience within the intelligence community and that Trump trusts him.  It is also being argued that Paul has become a close ally of the president and one of few elected officials that Trump actually likes.

While this is all speculation at this point, what if it were to actually happen?  What would the fallout be in Kentucky?  Well, as our readers likely know, in the event of a vacancy, the governor would appoint someone to fill the Senate seat until the next general election.  However, we are so close to this year’s general election, the appointment would last until November of 2020.

Common thought would be that Governor Bevin would like the appointment himself.  After all, he did seek a Senate seat in 2014 and, even as governor, likes to delve into federal issues. Some legal authorities we spoke to though suggest that he cannot appoint himself.  What we are told is that he would have to resign and let the Lt. Governor be named Governor and then appoint him.

Which brings us back to the feud between Bevin and Jenean Hampton.  At this point, could he really trust her to appoint him?  If he can’t take that risk, who would he appoint?  And, if he did take the risk, who would Jenean appoint?

While this is all probably a moot exercise, it does make current affairs a bit interesting.  Could be fun to sit back and watch!

It’s no secret that Matt Bevin and Jenean Hampton do not have a warm and fuzzy relationship.  They never really have.

Even at this point in 2015, Bevin was (barely) privately complaining about his running mate and not letting her make campaign appearances of any significance.  Former staff have told us that Bevin’s language would not have qualified for PG-13 when he was watching Hampton debate Sannie Overly.

Much of this may stem from that Jenean, unbeknownst to her at the time, was not the first girl Bevin asked to the prom.  Through the years, sources have told us that there were at least six other women that Bevin approached about being his running mate first, including Katie Stine, Cathy Bailey, Addia Wuchner, Sara Beth Gregory, Alice Kerr and Cathy Flaig.  There may have been more.

With the filing deadline that day, Bevin relinquished and went with his safety school, which led to Lt. Governor Jenean Hampton.

Almost immediately, they had a disagreement.  According to Jenean, Bevin had promised she would lead a cabinet.  She was interested in the Cabinet for Economic Development, but that idea was nixed quickly, especially when Vivek Sarin expressed interest.  At that point, she became interested in Veterans Affairs, but Robert Stivers helped Norman Arflack (now U.S. Marshal) attain that position.  Jenean made inquiries about a couple of other positions, but it became increasingly apparent that Bevin and his inner circle were quite content if her only responsibility was to continue breathing.

Jenean surrounded herself with Steve Knipper and Adrienne Southworth, two veterans of the Tea Party movement.  That three person operation began to distance itself from the rest of the executive branch and do it’s own thing.  For the most part, they were merely an annoyance to the administration, but never a threat.  That was until 2018.

In 2018, Bevin began putting together a wish list for a slate to run with him.  ITC has it on good authority that he personally contacted three people, including one legislator, about running for Secretary of State.  Ultimately, none of the three filed to run, but the one that had the most interest did not want to run in a primary.  Knipper, the 2015 Republican nominee for Secretary of State, had always intended to run again in 2019.  However, Bevin believed that if he forced Knipper to choose between his job with Hampton and being a candidate, he would choose his job, thus clearing the field for his own choice.  It didn’t work.  What happened instead was Knipper chose to be a candidate and Hampton became incensed that she had lost 33% of her team for what she saw as no reason.

It also became even clearer to Hampton at that point that she was being forced off the ticket.  Other than the occasional pleasantries, she had not had a conversation with Bevin in over a year when she was informed by someone else the night before Bevin’s re-election announcement that she was being dumped and replaced with Ralph Alvarado.

Now essentially a two person team, Jenean and Adrienne embodied the adage of hell hath no fury like a woman, or in this case women, scorned.  Well entrenched with the Tea Party movement, they began sharing criticisms of Bevin and his circle to activists around the state.  They also began asking legal questions within Frankfort, primarily whether Bevin had the authority to give that ultimatum to Knipper, as he worked for the Lt. Governor.  Now more than an annoyance, Blake Brickman, Bevin’s chief of staff, sought to eliminate the problem and double down by firing Southworth.

Jenean went public with her now infamous “dark forces” tweet.  Quickly, many of the Tea Party activists who had been the base for Bevin’s 2015 primary began to distance themselves in support of Hampton, Southworth and Knipper, three people they had known much longer and trusted more than Bevin.

As more unfolded, Jenean decided to let a judge, and none other than Judge Phillip Shepherd who Bevin has repeatedly publicly criticized, decide the matter.  She went to Franklin Circuit Court to have the question of who has the authority to fire the Lt. Governor’s staff.

As the Herald-Leader has reported today, no settlement can be reached by the two parties and the case will now go to Shepherd.

While the legal arguments of this case are interesting, we at ITC believe the real story is all that led up to today.  Kentucky may have a history of governors not getting along with their running mates, but this one takes the cake.  We have a feeling the citizens of Kentucky will be hearing more from Jenean Hampton in the next six weeks.