Money pours into ballot referendum on abortion rights
Kansas voters shocked many across the country last month when they resoundingly defeated a ballot referendum to declare there was no right to an abortion in the red state, following $22 million of spending by opposing groups on the issue.
Could that happen in Kentucky? A similar constitutional amendment is on the ballot this fall, while two groups for and against the amendment have already raised millions of dollars for the fight ahead — with one side taking a significant early fundraising lead.
Also in this week's newsletter, a look at the political effects of Kentucky's natural disasters, a face off between the chief justice and attorney general, and federal raid at the local Hardee's.
Abortion rights group takes big fundraising lead
Protect Kentucky Access, a coalition of abortion rights advocates, has now raised $1.75 million in its campaign to defeat the constitutional amendment — four times greater than their anti-abortion adversaries, Yes For Life.
With a key fundraising deadline passing Tuesday, we examined how this group was able to pick up such a large lead in fundraising, and why the example of Kansas likely means there is much more money coming Kentucky's way in this fight, which could determine whether the state's near-total ban on abortion remains in place.
We also looked at the fundraising numbers in Kentucky Supreme Court races, a record-smashing amount of contributions in the Franklin Circuit Court race between Judge Phillip Shepherd and Joe Bilby, and how GOP committees are in a good position to make Republicans' legislative supermajority even more dominant.
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Abortion policy in Kentucky, D.C.
While Kentucky's abortion ban remains in place, so do its effects, as a woman described at an anti-amendment panel last week that her pharmacy hesitated to fill a prescription from her doctor to ensure her early miscarriage was complete.
Also from reporter Debby Yetter, she examined how 34 girls aged 15 or younger received abortions in Kentucky — including two who were just 9 years old — before the new ban took effect, which has no exceptions for rape and incest.
On the national level, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina proposed a bill to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy at the national level — which did not receive enthusiastic buy-in from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, with less than 60 days to an Election Day that will determine which party controls the Senate.
Natural disasters, schools and Beshear
Tornadoes in the west and flooding in the east have taken not just a deadly toll on Kentuckians, but a devastating impact on schools and their students, with reporter Olivia Krauth breaking down the overwhelming challenges that remain ahead for them.
And how about the political ramifications of the natural disasters? Morgan Watkins talked to several political experts and consultants who say Gov. Andy Beshear's empathetic handling of the crises may just help him overcome the political headwinds of the heavily GOP-trending state in his reelection bid next year.
Minton v. Cameron?
A case before the U.S. Supreme Court involving North Carolina's congressional redistricting maps has drawn opposing amicus briefs from two of Kentucky's top legal officials: Attorney General Daniel Cameron and state Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr.
Cameron agreed with the state's GOP legislature that its state courts had no authority under the federal constitution to throw out their congressional maps, while a committee chaired by Minton of the Conference of Chief Justices maintained that state courts may review whether laws comply with state constitutions.
Expect the ongoing challenge to Kentucky's redistricting maps to be appealed up to the state Supreme Court by the end of the year.
Bigger than Jesus
John Lennon once created on uproar by suggesting The Beatles had become "bigger than Jesus."
No such uproar took place at the Trump-worshiping "Freedom Fest" in Northern Kentucky this past weekend, including when the former president's son told the thousands in attendance that “there is no one who has done more for Christianity than Donald Trump.”
Columnist Joe Gerth attended the MAGA party and gave his take on the alternate reality of its speakers and attendees, who universally cling to the falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Hardee's Har Har
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams has certainly drawn the ire of election fraud conspiracy theorists over the past year, but last week he became the focus of one of the biggest (and most-sued for defamation) — My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell.
In a six-minute video posted by a GOP legislative candidate who lost her primary recount, Lindell rants about Adams' alleged crimes and calls for his followers to "bombard" the secretary of state's office with open records requests about Dominion voting machines — of which there are precisely zero operating in Kentucky's elections.
Wednesday — a day after Lindell said FBI agents seized his phone at a Hardee’s restaurant — Adams tweeted this simple reply:
Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Money pours into ballot referendum on abortion rights
