Unopposed, Stivers dips into stuffed war chest to boost Republicans, entertain supporters

By Tom Loftus, Kentucky Lantern

FRANKFORT — Since no one chal­lenged him for reelec­tion this year, Senate President Robert Stivers has used his over­stuffed cam­paign fund as a sort of per­son­al polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee that makes polit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions of its own and has paid oth­er expens­es includ­ing near­ly $10,000 for a din­ner par­ty to thank his donors and sup­port­ers at a posh Louisville restaurant.

The Manchester Republican who has presided over the Senate since 2013 launched an ear­ly fundrais­ing push last fall while Kentucky’s polit­i­cal world was focused on the governor’s race. Stivers raised more than a half mil­lion dol­lars as tra­di­tion­al Republican donors, race track gam­bling com­pa­nies, high­way con­trac­tors and oth­er spe­cial inter­ests lined up to donate to the Kentucky General Assembly’s most pow­er­ful member.

The huge cam­paign war chest helped scare off any chal­lengers, and the Jan. 5 dead­line passed with no one fil­ing to run against Stivers in this year’s elec­tion, leav­ing him about $500,000 with no race to run.

Reports filed by Stivers’ cam­paign com­mit­tee with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance (KREF) show that from the first of the year through Wednesday it has spent about $62,500. Only $3,690 of that went to basic cam­paign costs like print­ing, postage and web­site design.

Most of the spend­ing was for polit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions —includ­ing $29,000 in late April to can­di­dates from the tra­di­tion­al wing of the Republican Party who face chal­lengers in the May 21  primary.

Stivers amends his report

Kentucky Lantern’s ini­tial review of Stivers’ dis­clo­sures also found some large unex­plained reim­burse­ments to Stivers.

Stivers’ report orig­i­nal­ly list­ed three pay­ments to Stivers on Feb. 24 total­ing $9,744. The pur­pose list­ed for each of the pay­ments was  sim­ply “Reimbursement” with­out the required expla­na­tion of what the reim­burse­ment was for.

Stivers said in a phone inter­view Thursday after­noon that he thought his reports had includ­ed full expla­na­tions for all expens­es and reim­burse­ments. He said that the $9,744 was for a cel­e­bra­to­ry din­ner in Louisville to thank his sup­port­ers and donors after no one had filed to run against him.

“We have all the doc­u­ments and receipts,” he told theLantern. “If we need to we will file an amend­ed report.”

That’s just what Stivers did lat­er Thursday. The amend­ed report says the $9,744 paid to Stivers was for “Reimbursement For Dinner For Donors And Supporters At Hotel Distil/Restaurant Repeal.”

The Repeal restau­rant bills itself as “Whiskey Row’s only oak-fired steak­house” that offers “an award-win­ning menu” and “inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed wine list.”

Stivers insist­ed that he was nev­er try­ing to obscure that his cam­paign paid for a fan­cy cel­e­bra­tion. “I have noth­ing to hide.” He likened the din­ner expense to the cost a can­di­date might incur to rent a hotel ball­room on elec­tion night to cel­e­brate a vic­to­ry. “This was a nor­mal cam­paign expense.”

He also bris­tled at the sug­ges­tion that his cam­paign com­mit­tee has become some­thing of a polit­i­cal slush fund. “No. ‘Slush fund’ has an ille­gal con­no­ta­tion. This is not ille­gal. . . .  These are nor­mal expens­es, I’ve done it in the past.”

Stivers said mak­ing polit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions, or mak­ing dona­tions to local civic orga­ni­za­tions, spon­sor­ing a sports team or club at a local school, giv­ing din­ners or gifts to sup­port­ers are all true polit­i­cal expens­es that estab­lish loy­al­ty from sup­port­ers and good­will in the community.

“It’s good pol­i­tics. I want to thank them,” he said.

Here’s a clos­er look at what Kentucky Lantern’s review of Stivers’ cam­paign finance reports shows.

A windfall of contributions last fall

Between Sept. 21 and Dec. 6 last year Stivers raised about $510,000 — an extra­or­di­nar­i­ly large amount for a state leg­is­la­tor. The wind­fall includ­ed dona­tions from 82 spe­cial inter­est PACs total­ing about $100,000.

Gambling inter­ests gave big: Officials of Churchill Downs gave $16,350, offi­cials of Kentucky Downs in Franklin gave a bit more — $16,800.

Longtime donors to estab­lish­ment incum­bent Republicans gave: Terry Forcht, head of Forcht Bank in Corbin and oth­er busi­ness­es, gave the max­i­mum con­tri­bu­tion allowed — $2,100. At least 16 offi­cials of  Forcht’s com­pa­nies gave anoth­er $20,000.

Alliance Resource Partners CEO Joe Craft and his wife Kelly Craft each gave $2,100. The Alliance PAC gave $2,000.

Spending: Reimbursements to Stivers

The biggest pay­ee so far this year has been Stivers him­self. The cam­paign has reim­bursed him $11,547 since the start of the year includ­ing a total of $9,944 to pay for the din­ner par­ty at Repeal. (That includes the ini­tial­ly undis­closed $9,744 plus anoth­er $200 that was ful­ly dis­closed in Stivers’ ini­tial reports.)

Besides that big dinner’s cost, reports list $1,874 in addi­tion­al reim­burse­ments to Stivers when he picked up the tab for sup­port­ers, donors and friends. Here’s the list:

• $995 for “Gifts of Breakfast Meats for Supports And Donors”
• $210 for “Breakfast For Supporters”
• $139  for “Chick-Fila Lunch for Staff”
• $167 for “Lunch For Clay County Students At Capital Annex Café”
• $100 for an April 30 for “Dinner With Owsley Co. Officials And Supporters.”

Civic and charitable donations – $1,500

The cam­paign lists five pay­ments as spon­sor­ships, pur­chas­es of adver­tis­ing, or dona­tions to the fol­low­ing groups since Jan. 1: $1,000 to Oneida Tourism, $250 to Oneida Outdoor Adventures, $100 to Shriners, $50 to “CCMS”, and $100 to Owen County High School.

Political donations – $44,000

Early this year his cam­paign gave $5,000 to the Kentucky House Republican Caucus Committee, $5,000 to the Senate Republican Caucus Committee, and $5,000 to a state Republican Party trust ded­i­cat­ed to elect­ing the party’s state Senate candidates.

And in the last two weeks his cam­paign report­ed mak­ing 15 con­tri­bu­tions total­ing $29,000 to can­di­dates for the Kentucky House and Senate who do face oppo­si­tion this year. Those dona­tions went most­ly to incum­bent Republican mem­bers of the Kentucky Senate and House and chal­lengers who could be described as more tra­di­tion­al Republicans rather than can­di­dates of the so-called “lib­er­ty” fac­tion of the party.

Stivers’ cam­paign com­mit­tee report­ed on Wednesday it still has $406,921 on hand.

Republicans who got contributions from Stivers’ reelection committee:

Chris McDaniel, Ryland Heights, Senate 23^rd District, $2,000

Jason Howell, Murray, Senate 1^st District, $2,000

Johnnie Turner, Baxter, Senate 29^th District, $2,000

Steve Meredith, Leitchfield, Senate 5^th District, $2,000

Ed Gallrein, Shelbyville, Senate 7^th District, $2,000

Matt Nunn, Sadieville, Senate 17^th District, $2,000

David Givens, Greensburg, Senate 9^th District, $2,000

Steve West, Paris, Senate 27^th District, $2,000

Kim Moser, Taylor Mill, House 64^th District, $2,000

Michael Meredith, Oakland, House 19^th District, $2,000

Ed Massey, Hebron, House 66^th District, $2,000

Tom O’Dell Smith, Gray, House 86^th District, $2,000

Killian Timony, Nicholasville, House 45^th District, $2,000

Timmy Truett, McKee, House 89^th District, $1,000

Richard Heath, Mayfield, House 2^nd District, $2,000

Note: Stivers’ report lists two con­tri­bu­tions of $2,000 each to Steve Meredith. This is an appar­ent erro­neous dou­ble entry because $2,100 is the lim­it for con­tri­bu­tions to a can­di­date for state legislature.