
Inside Kentucky Politics (9/6/2024)
Clip: Season 3 Episode 70 | 7m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
Renee Shaw talks Kentucky politics with Bob Babbage and Trey Grayson.
Renee Shaw talks Kentucky politics with Bob Babbage and Trey Grayson.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Kentucky Edition is a local public television program presented by KET

Inside Kentucky Politics (9/6/2024)
Clip: Season 3 Episode 70 | 7m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
Renee Shaw talks Kentucky politics with Bob Babbage and Trey Grayson.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipTime now for end of week wrap up of the major political news of the week.
And we have our faves with us, Bob Babich, Trey Grayson.
Good to see you, gentlemen.
Thank you.
You're on here more and more, which is good.
Nobody, Nobody.
I keep asking, Right.
Nobody is complaining.
Okay.
Because you made news this week, Mr. Trey Grayson and a story about Charles Booker's 2022 failed run for U.S. Senate against Rand Paul, by which he was beat.
What, 25 points?
Sounds familiar.
It's absolutely.
But I'm Bob.
He still owes like $130,000 or the campaign owes that much.
How unique or rare is that this far out?
It is pretty rare.
You know, most folks, most campaigns, when there's debt, it's usually because somebody rich Rand, lent the money as opposed to giving the money.
And then if they lose, they can't really raise it back.
But it is unusual to have that high of a figure this far out.
Now, the challenge is he lost.
So he's not exactly somebody the folks are wanting to give a lot of money to.
You know, I was I think the quote that was in the story was when, you know, when I ran, I wasn't really I wasn't paying attention that stuff.
I was being a candidate.
But that's a lot of money.
And, you know, you hire people so that that doesn't happen because ultimately, even though you're not legally obligated, you're morally obligated, you know, to those to those vendors, to the folks that you hired to get you elected.
Yeah.
It wasn't his money.
He owns, you know, a consulting firm.
Right?
Right.
There's several different groups of people he owes money to.
Yeah, but.
But it looks bad.
It's really bad.
And if he tries to run for something again.
Mm hmm.
Setting aside whether somebody want to work for him, they maybe want to advance.
But it's a campaign issue.
You know, if he can't if he can't balance your budget, you can't, you know, that kind of thing.
And so I think politically, it's a problem for him.
Yeah.
What do you think, Bob?
Yeah.
We'll experience in this area, all of us tracking campaigns and you want to win.
So you you borrow or you overspend or you over obligate.
And then once you lose, the chance of getting that back is hard work.
Imagine going out to raise $130,000 now to try to pay that debt off.
Impossible.
Mm hmm.
Is he responsible to pay that back as an individual?
I don't think he is.
Okay, so the campaign still has to.
Yeah.
The debt of the campaign.
He didn't.
He didn't.
If he put money, if he'd given the campaign money for taking a loan or.
Or the guaranteed a loan.
I think if you personally guaranteed a loan, he'd be liable.
But that's a banking lobby, right?
That's a banking rule, not an FEC rule.
Yeah, he's not obligated.
But there is some moral aspect to this.
Leaving folks on paid.
Yeah, absolutely.
The school choice amendment.
So this is the big issue, the big ballot thing item in Kentucky, because the congressional races are kind of locked up, state legislative races.
Some could be interesting, but we don't expect big shift there.
Judicial races may be interesting.
But the question here is going to be real interesting.
And there's already an ad that's out that is a pro amendment to add.
Let's take a look.
I'm a public school support.
I wanted to to make a difference and and help children in states that have had maturing school choice programs.
They're finding profound benefits in the public schools.
Students have higher test scores and there's lower suspension rates.
And those benefits are really profound with low income students.
That competition just elevates results for everyone.
School choice will give Kentucky students the best opportunity to succeed.
Vote yes on Amendment two for Educational Freedom.
Protect Freedom PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.
So, Bob Babbage, what do you think when you have a current public school teacher or a public school teacher who is the front person saying yes to amendment two?
That's pretty persuasive, is it not?
It is a persuasive ad and it's on early.
But that's an advantage to the yes campaign between the U.S. and the know.
There's going to be a whole lot of push on this issue all the way through and quite the talk and discussion and hopefully putting the value on education that it deserves.
Yeah, And there's the attorney general, of course, has already weighed in and told public school districts what you can and cannot do.
Right.
And then others are also curious about how much they can advocate for this.
But, you know, it's happening.
Yeah, we had the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals say the county political parties could weigh in.
The Register of Election Finance said you can't weigh in on a ballot question.
You can only weigh in on partizan political activity and the court federal court said no, the counties can do that.
My my home county booth and a couple other Republican candidates wanted to spend money in support of issue two.
You know, I think it's you know, folks haven't have had an easier argument, you know, public dollars for public education.
That's a pretty succinct message.
The yes vote is a little bit more complicated.
They needed this conversation to start.
And this is a good opening argument.
I think the public school teacher is is effective.
And, you know, it'll give a chance for voters to get educated on this issue and decide what they want to do.
Yeah.
How much money do you think is going to be millions?
Millions?
Yeah.
I mean, between five and ten probably combined.
Do you.
Agree with that, Barb, on a constitutional amendment that.
Could happen beyond precedent, for sure.
Yeah.
So the Democrats in the House keep making news.
So we have we have one who Louisville Democrat who got busted on DUI.
We have Daniel Grossberg, who is the story that keeps on giving Louisville Democrat.
We've got the young Democrats of the two largest cities, Louisville and Fayette County, Lexington, saying he should resign immediately.
Should he resign immediately.
Let the past Democratic Party ch Is definitely problematic.
And, you know, the court system takes a while, the hearing and that kind of stuff.
But the court of public opinion convenes immediately and has, including Governor Beshear, who made the recommendation that he ought to consider resigning.
I don't imagine he wants to I don't imagine his counsel is saying do that right now.
And she's very effective.
But it's it's a long road to go through this for anybody, anywhere.
And the reality is he's running unopposed this fall.
If he were two years is a long time for not for the next election, even if he were to lose in a primary.
And that district is pretty solidly Democratic.
So it would be a primary race.
You know what?
If more than one run against him and even if he were to lose, I mean, he's he's there for a while.
But I think one thing that's changed in politics well, to the related so one is the speed that Bob talked about, the speed at which this stuff gets out and happens.
So that's one change.
But the second changes, we used to see more people step down when things started happening.
More people are willing to hang around, see if they can ride it out or when.
And on a technicality, I don't know that that's serving politics very well, because one of the challenges is in America right now is people think politicians are crooks and the system is crooked and rigged and when politicians don't do the right thing, don't step down.
When they make a mistake, don't apologize.
Don't resign when it's honorable.
But stick around like it reinforces some of these positions.
I feel badly for the other 137 folks on Frankfort because Grossberg behavior is impact the alleged behavior is impacting what people think about them and their ability to do their job.
And at some point, elected officials and politicians need to think about the greater good and not just the person in the mirror.
Yeah, the woman from the house with two DUIs.
That's serious as well.
Yeah, very, very serious for anybody.
Every employer thinks about that.
Every family thinks about that.
It's been a significant issue for a good 40 years.
These things have to be dealt with as effectively as you can.
And we're waiting to see what happens in both these cases.
Around The Commonwealth (9/6/2024)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S3 Ep70 | 2m 39s | A look at events happening this weekend around Kentucky. (2m 39s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S3 Ep70 | 1m 4s | There are new calls for Rep. Grossberg to resign. (1m 4s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip: S3 Ep70 | 2m 57s | Breaking ground on a new RPK headquarters in Frankfort. (2m 57s)
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Clip: S3 Ep70 | 2m 23s | Former President Donald Trump's election paperwork filed in Kentucky. (2m 23s)
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