Outside GOP group pouring big money into ads for Joe Fischer's Kentucky Supreme Court race

An outside political advocacy group is spending an eye-popping $375,000 on TV ads for Joe Fischer's bid for the state Supreme Court in which he bills himself as "the conservative Republican" in the race to represent the court's 6th District.

"The last thing people of Kentucky need is another far-left judge on the Supreme Court that will rubber-stamp the failed liberal agenda coming out of Washington D.C.," said Dee Duncan, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee's Judicial Fairness Initiative, which is funding the 30-second television ad.

The group announced the cable ad launch in a news release Thursday.

The single ad buy dwarfs the $54,000 Fischer, a state representative from Fort Thomas, has raised in his campaign to unseat incumbent Justice Michelle Keller for the 13-county judicial district that stretches from Northern Kentucky to Oldham and Shelby counties.

And it promises to raise the stakes even higher in Supreme Court seats already targeted by another conservative national group, Fair Courts America.

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Registered as Fair Courts America-Kentucky, it said in a "battle plan" obtained by The Courier Journal it hopes to raise and spend $1.6 million on three key judicial races in Kentucky, including the Fischer-Keller race, to protect the state from the "radical left" and ensure more conservative judges.

The new Republican ad buy promoting Fischer also promises to inject more partisan politics into Kentucky judicial races that are supposed to be nonpartisan under the state's constitution. Fischer's campaign already has drawn scrutiny from the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission, which he recently sued in federal court to try to prevent it from taking any enforcement action against him.

Keller, a nine-year member of the Supreme Court and a judge for 16 years, said such an expenditure in a Kentucky Judicial race is unprecented both in the amount of money and in its overtly partisan nature.

"I think Kentuckians should ask themselves why people from outside Kentucky want to influence our judicial races," Keller said. "It appears to be sources outside Kentucky."

The Washington D.C.-based organization's website said it is "America's only line against socialism" and describes itself as "the largest organization of Republican state leaders in the country and only national committee whose mission is to recruit, train, and elect Republicans to multiple down-ballot, state-level offices."

Keller, who has raised about $285,000 for her campaign, said almost all of it comes from Kentuckians and hopes her reputation for fairness and integrity as a judge will be what voters consider rather than negative ads from outside sources.

Fischer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fischer, a consistent foe of abortion during his 23 years as a legislator, sponsored the 2019 "trigger law" that brought an end to abortion in Kentucky once the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade on June 24. He also is the sponsor of an amendment that will appear on the Nov. 8 general election ballot that would, if approved, establish that the state's constitution contains no right to abortion.

Fischer has been endorsed by anti-abortion groups Kentucky Right to Life and Northern Kentucky Right to Life. One recent photo on the site shows a Fischer Supreme Court campaign sign with a "Choose Life" sign on top.

The new ad puchased by the Republican State Leadership Committee will run in "multiple markets" in Kentucky.

In it a narrator says, "Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi's socialist agenda threatens Kentucky families and our way of life."

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It adds, "As our next Supreme Court Justice, Fischer will be tough on crime, protect the constitution and rule of law and oppose liberal efforts to legislate from the bench."

Meanwhile, the Illinois-based Fair Courts group has said it plans to focus on the Fischer-Keller race as well as two other judicial contests.

Its new Kentucky arm, Fair Courts America−Kentucky, was formed recently by chairman Doug Truax, who runs a group of conservative PACs and political nonprofits under the umbrella of Restoration of America, including Fair Courts America. Its website says Truax, an Illinois Republican, is a West Point graduate and Army veteran whose goal is to "preserve our way of life."

Races the group has targeted in Kentucky also include the hotly contested race for Franklin Circuit Court in which incumbent Judge Phillip Shepherd, a frequent target of conservative ire, is facing a challenge from GOP-backed lawyer Joe Bilby.

That race is already shaping up as the most expensive circuit court race in Kentucky history. Headquartered in Frankfort, the court gets some of the state's most controversial cases. Shepherd has raised more than $500,000 − more than double that of Bilby, according to the most recent campaign spending reports.

The other Supreme Court targeted by the Fair Courts PAC is the 2nd District race between state Appeals Court Judge Kelly Thompson Jr. and Bowling Green lawyer Shawn Marie Alcott, seeking to replace retiring Chief Justice John D. Minton.

Thompson, who estimates he will spend about $100,000 on his campaign, said he expects the outside conservative group will promote his opponent.

"This means the court system in Kentucky is going to be for sale," Thompson said. "If you want to come in and spend half a million dollars, you can probably win it."

Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at dyetter@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @_dyetter.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Joe Fischer's KY Supreme Court race: GOP group pours money into ads