Wilson, Warnock vie for County Attorney
Oct. 6—GREENUP — If there's one common trait among the pair of Greenup County Attorney candidates in 2022, it's this: They're comfortable in the courtroom.
Mike Wilson, 65, has served as the county attorney for 33 years. As is common practice in the judicial realm in Greenup County, he saw fit to apply a sports analogy to his love for an important aspect of the job.
"If there's more time in court or more demands of the office, it's like saying there's more games in the season," Wilson said. "If you're a ball player, you like to play ball. If you're an attorney, you like going to court."
Matthew Warnock, 46, gravitates to the courthouse, too.
"Having 20 years of courtroom experience, I've tried cases, I've worked dockets. I've worked hundreds if not thousands of cases, whether it be a traffic ticket to a DUI — whatever comes across, I've done it."
Warnock worked with Wilson as the assistant attorney from 2011-21.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Greenup County voters will have to make a decision between Wilson, a Democrat, and Warnock, a Republican.
Mike Wilson
Having begun in 1989, Wilson's time as county attorney touches four different decades.
Prior to the Wilson era was Charles Daniels serving 36 years.
Wilson learned a great deal from his mentor, he said.
"Charlie was just really good with people," said Wilson, who was a pallbearer at Daniels' funeral. "He would defuse situations and resolve things without going to court or jail."
Among a Kentucky county attorney's duties are prosecuting misdemeanor violations and providing legal counsel to fiscal courts and county officials.
"I always tell people I prosecute anything from a dog barking to a DUI case," Wilson said.
Over the years, Wilson said the office has constantly adapted, especially on the technology front.
"We very early used Apple computers to get officers in and out a lot faster," he said.
Wilson said although he's had a private practice throughout his 33 years, the job has become a full-time position.
"It's naive to think that it's not," he said. "If I win, I will transition out of the private practice completely. The demands of the time have grown and grown and grown."
Wilson said the No. 1 asset he would bring back to the office is experience.
"I've probably had a couple hundred trials to a jury verdict in a criminal court," Wilson said. "I'm certain I've participated in more court proceedings than any other attorney in the history of Greenup County, simply because, with this office, you're constantly in court. I like being in court; I like arguing in court."
Wilson said while there's a statutory minimum duty of every county attorney, "I always try to do a little bit more," such as being involved in anti-drug programs at schools and making sure kids have clothes to stay warm in the winter. He's also supported dry efforts.
"I've seen the destruction in court that alcohol and drugs cause," Wilson said. "The fact that I have a sober example is good when I go talk to kids because I can be authentic with them. I can say, look, you can live a good life and not be involved in these things."
Wilson views himself as approachable.
"People see you as their attorney," he said. "There are people that may need to speak to an attorney who maybe don't have the resources to speak to an attorney. There's never a fee to talk to me."
Wilson put some thought in his campaign signs. Some of them feature a Jeep, representing his 2013 Jeep with 83,000-plus miles on it. He said people recognize his Jeep, and that he couldn't figure out how to get his name on a bologna sandwich. That's been another part of his campaign, as he's arranged a handful of area delis to give out free bologna sandwiches a few times since the early summer.
For anyone who might think someone with 33 years in the books would want to retire, Wilson says this: "The question is, why wouldn't I want to keep doing it? If it's a full-time job, good, because I like all parts of it."
Wilson is married to Jo Ellen. Their daughter, Lindsay Wilson-Cartwright, is a graduate of Michigan State College of Law and she is an administrative law judge. Robert Wilson, their son, graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 2020. He's in his third year of psychiatric residency in Long Island, New York.
Matthew Warnock
Warnock said he's traveled all over the spacious land of Greenup County and has noticed a common thread.
"People want change," he said.
Warnock spent 10 years working as the assistant county attorney prior to resigning in 2021 — so that he could run for the county attorney office.
He was the county attorney for three months of that stint after Wilson notified Greenup's judicial executives of his retirement in 2018. However, Wilson was allowed to return to the job because he ran unopposed in that election.
"There's not a lot of learning to do because I know how the process works," Warnock said. "I've done everything in that office. I feel, to be honest, uniquely qualified to step into that role to have a seamless transition when I'm elected and move forward with some of my ideas."
His ideas include more transparency, more technology and an adjustment in child support collection.
As for transparency, he said, if elected, he'll have an open-door policy where "people can sit down without an appointment and talk to me." He also mentioned extended office hours and more financial transparency with annual audits.
Warnock wants to implement a county attorney website where people can get answers to frequently posed questions.
Warnock said he'd like to be aggressive on child support collection.
"I feel that needs a refocusing," he said. "A lot of children in our community are not getting the basic needs they deserve. A lot of that is not getting the child support that is due. We should aggressively prosecute those cases and get the money into the homes of the children that need help."
A graduate of the University of Kentucky with a degree in history and from the University of Dayton School of Law, Warnock has been practicing law for 21 years. He worked in Jefferson County in the public defender's office before returning to his roots in 2004, to practice with his father, Frank "Hill" Warnock. His grandfather, Frank Warnock, was an attorney, too.
"I'm a third-generation lawyer," Matthew Warnock said. "It's a great legacy I'm so proud of."
Throughout a 13-month active campaign, Warnock said it's been "refreshing to see how someone from South Portsmouth may have the same wishes as things they want done as someone who lives in Russell."
"I'm really super excited about this," he added. "I think I can really make a difference. ... I think with everybody working together, we have the best chance of getting Greenup County back to the glory days with some developments."
Warnock is married to Dr. Stacy Caudill, a chief medical officer and hospitalist at King's Daughters Medical Center. Their daughter, Chloe, is a third-grader at Russell-McDowell Intermediate.
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