wouldn't even acknowledge them.

Prosecute, end quote.

[MUSIC] Time now to go inside Kentucky politics.

We're going to talk a little bit about the U.S.

Senate GOP primary and what we can expect on the final two days of the legislative session that is next week, and we have a couple of our faves with us.

We've got Abby Piper and Jared Smith, both from Piper Smith government relations firm.

Thank you both for being with us.

>> Happy to be here.

>> So let's start with the U.S.

Senate race.

And Jared, I'll start with you.

There's been some new polling out, some new ads out one ad now that is targeting Cameron.

Cameron's kind of been out of the ad fray a little bit.

And even the debate stage, he kind of the other candidates were talking over him.

Smart thing to do.

And now that there is an ad that is targeting him, he has said, well, it's because they see me as a threat, whoever they is.

First, let's show people what we're talking about.

>> He teamed up with the ACLU to release criminals early.

Not this guy.

This one.

Daniel Cameron partnered with the ACLU to end cash bail and put criminals back on the street.

>> So what do you make of this ad, Jared?

>> You know, it's it could be either Barr or Morse.

They both need to take Cameron down because Cameron, even though he's not spending money, he has 100% name ID and he's just he's got he's got his vote.

Those voters are going to be his and they're not going anywhere.

So now maybe can we start picking off the undecideds and making sure that make them Knott pick Cameron.

So I see it as essential for both campaigns to be behind it.

This this packs a little unique.

>> Knott KY pack.

Who is KY pack?

>> Not much out there, you know, which is interesting to maybe think this may be Barr related of some sort, since Morse has two packs and obviously they don't care what they say.

So, you know, not trying to hide anything.

But you know, I just don't know if being too cute there, you know, just it's it's a pack.

We already know it's a pack, you know, so like, it's interesting though, but I do think it's a very well done ad.

>> Well, and to call him like dangerously wrong for Kentucky because Abby, this goes after his what the ad would say soft on crime approach.

But a few years ago it was right on crime and it was all about criminal justice reform.

But now it's an albatross.

>> Yeah, well, it's always the politics of now, right.

And that's the, the, the, the danger of being somebody who's been in politics for a while, who's like Cameron said, he's been attorney general, he's been a gubernatorial candidate.

So there are a lot of clips out there of him.

And he's done a lot of work.

And you're never going to please everybody.

So that's a that's the liability that's out there when you have that kind of experience.

>> So we know that a recent poll, this was the Emerson College polling and Fox 56.

This was last week when we were on a different stage together, had Barr at 28%, Cameron was at 21% and Morris at 15%.

Has Morris always placed third?

>> He's always placed third, but he's come out from around 5 to 7 to up to 15, which is a big move, you know.

So his ads are working.

So let's see where he can go from there.

Does he ever get to 20.

You know so if you look at polling I saw I know this is a little off topic, but Thomas Massie and Gallrein.

>> Let's go there because that's an interesting one too.

>> That poll came out and Masis was he 43?

>> Right.

>> Yeah.

And he goes, I'm not at 50 yet, but I need, you know, so help me get to 50.

But you know, if Mason gets the 50, that race is over, right.

You know.

>> What do you think about this race about the fourth district congressional race?

What we're talking about now with the incumbent Thomas Massie and challenger at Gallrein.

>> I think you've seen this break nationally between the libertarian wing of the Republican Party and Maga.

It's actually the weirdest thing.

The left and the libertarians are together, you know, to combat Maga.

And so I think Massie's telling Republicans it's okay to disagree with the president.

And I think that's starting to gain traction up there.

>> Yeah.

My sources are saying that Massie seems to be in very good shape, that his base is is strong and it's solid and it's not going anywhere.

And I'm not sure that a Trump endorsement is really helpful.

>> Or Elon Musk money makes a difference.

>> Certainly not.

I mean, it's it's a very unique area of the state.

You have to remember that.

>> It's also Canada.

This is this is a candidate and I don't know but but did not got beat by another Navy Seal, Aaron Reed for a state Senate race.

Now he's running for the fourth congressional race.

And there's there's some people say he's not very good on the stump.

You know, he doesn't he's not a very good doesn't give a good speech.

You know he doesn't you know do the the retail politics side very well which Massie excels at.

>> Right, right.

Well he has an invitation for here.

So we'll see.

You know.

And does it benefit him to do debates.

Does it benefit him to be on the same stage with the Thomas Massie?

>> Well, I think I just saw where Gallrein said he wasn't going to do it, because he didn't want to give Massie a platform to bash Trump, which is code.

I don't want to do the debate.

Yeah, yeah.

>> And do debates even move the needle, by and large, for primary voters, maybe they're more effective for general election voters.

>> I think this year is different.

>> It's different this year because more people are tuned in than I think have been in previous years.

But I would also say your point is well taken, that the people that watch debates are people who are pretty active already in politics and know a lot about, you know, they're following these folks on social media, they're watching the ads, they're engaged in that so they can help.

I mean, if it's really for the undecideds, right?

And there's always a big chunk of that.

And that's what we're seeing right now in that recent poll, that it's the undecideds that are starting to filter into their their lanes.

>> Well, there's 29% going back to the U.S.

Senate GOP primary, 29% of GOP voters are still undecided.

>> So what that tells me is Daniel Cameron is basically 100% KDE.

That's 29%.

They're not voting for Daniel Cameron.

Yeah, they're persuadable voters.

>> And we know that Daniel Cameron hasn't been able to raise the kind of money.

>> To make to make that argument.

>> Correct, right, to make that argument.

So we'll see where that goes.

Okay, so now in a minute and 47 seconds, let's talk about lawmakers going back for the final two days of the session.

Several bills still out there.

But one of the big items that the session may not really be over on April 15th, as the Kentucky Senate president kind of ambiguously stated that they're going to proceed with the impeachment trial of Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Goodman on grounds that she had abused her judicial discretion and authority based off of six cases.

But can they do that, given that the Kentucky Supreme Court said in a 5 to 1 ruling, you need to halt all these proceedings.

But the Senate president seems to have a different way of looking at it.

>> Yeah, I think we're in a classic constitutional crisis of their own making.

The legislature and the judiciary are sniping back and forth at each other, and the legislature has a good point.

It's in the state Constitution.

They have the right to do that.

And the judiciary is like, well, you know, she didn't commit a crime technically, you know, she's just a bad judge, basically, you know, she didn't commit a crime.

And they're saying, well, she's committed so many.

She's doing so many bad things and you all aren't fixing it.

You know, why wasn't she brought before the JCC?

>> So judicial Conduct Commission, right?

Yeah.

What's your take on this?

And wouldn't the Supreme Court just overturn this on appeal anyway?

So aren't you going to get the same result?

>> Well, that's possible, but there's always this jockeying in an election year as well too.

So you got to remember that this is the judicial branch is going to be seen as somewhat of an arm of Beshear.

And so, you know, they can't let him win if they want to have that as a talking point.

And I do think that this legislature has been serious about establishing and reinforcing legislative independence for a number of years now, even when the Democrats were in charge.

And so, you know, I think that's a long standing sort of bit of field work that they want to continue.

>> Yeah.

>> I mean, the language, the Supreme Court basically kind of semi threatened that if you're a sanctioned Barr attorney, you could face, if you're in the Kentucky Barr, you could face sanctions if you voted for impeachment.

I thought that was way over the line.

And the other thing was, it's interesting.

It's like Judge Goodman is suing Kelly and Timothy for court fees.

Right.

And so.

>> Yeah, a lot to watch, a lot to keep our eyes on.

And thank