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If you don't think a few bucks from a candidate's father to get her a judicial seat (a/k/a Katie King) is endemic of a campaign finance problem, then take a look elsewhere as seats are for sale and outside interests pony up bucks to put their people in office.  Here are two stories found back to back at the  Bluegrass Politics Blog.  Money is not the root of all evil, but the desire of money.  And that is the reason we have campaign finance laws to insure that the power of the people is exercised properly and appropriately without favor or favoritism at the ballot box.  Public office is a public trust.  Not a job, not a checkbook, not a way to get an easy retirement. 

By Government Editor on KY General Assembly

FRANKFORT ? A Leslie County businessman who is now a state representative gave $40,000 to a group of vote-buyers when he first ran for the office in 2002, a witness in a federal vote-fraud trial testified Friday. Rep. Tim Couch, R-Hyden, ran in the 2002 Republican primary against Barbara White Colter. Colter?s family had long been politically prominent and she had held the office for several terms, but Couch beat her by a wide margin. Witnesses in the federal trial have testified it was common for factions in Clay County to back slates of candidates, and that candidates pooled money to buy votes. Todd Roberts, a former assistant police chief in Manchester, testified that another city police officer, Mike Bishop, told him Couch gave $40,000 to be part of a slate of candidates that a group would buy votes for in the May 2002 primary. Bishop said he was part of that group and bought votes at a precinct in the Oneida area, Roberts said.

By Government Editor on KY General Assembly

By Janet Patton - jpatton1@herald-leader.com A pro-gambling issues group backed by the horse industry raised and spent more than $840,000 last year on the two most expensive state legislative elections in Kentucky history. The money spent by Keep Our Jobs in Kentucky on state Senate candidates that support expanded gambling came from racetracks and horse farms. It went into two state Senate special elections engineered by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear as he tried to topple Senate President David Williams, a Burkesville Republican who opposes slots at racetracks. After a slots bill sponsored by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, died in a Senate committee during a June special session, Beshear began appointing Republican state Senators to other jobs, which created openings for special elections. Democrat Robin Webb defeated Jack Ditty to take one of the seats but Republican Jimmy Higdon defeated Jodie Haydon to keep the other in Republican hands. Keep Our Jobs, which ran ads, mailed fliers and polled voters, spent $266,460 on the first race and $482,044 on the second, according to the group, which released its federal tax return Friday. In all, the group raised $845,500 and spent $842,520.55, much of it ? more than $670,000 ? on advertising.

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