>> The early release of a Kentucky prison inmate leads to outrage and calls for change.

Kentucky's U.S.

Senate race gets another shakeup as Amy McGrath, the Democratic nominee from 2020, enters next year's race.

Governor Beshear travels to the early presidential primary state of New Hampshire.

The 2026 legislative session comes into view.

Childcare, AI, and lobbying by school districts.

Among the topics getting attention, it finally looks and feels like fall and comment is next on KET.

Good evening, I'm Bill Bryant and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky, a look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Isaiah Kim Martinez, senior reporter for Whas 11 in Louisville.

Alex Acquisto, politics and health reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

And Mario Anderson, anchor and host of InFocus Kentucky on Spectrum News one.

Let's jump right into the week's events that thrust Kentucky into the national spotlight.

Ronald Exantus, who stabbed a six year old boy to death in 2015, in Versailles, was released from prison under a loophole in Kentucky law.

Kentucky parole Board members who had nothing to do with the release have been receiving threats.

Alex Exantus admitted to killing the child, but was found not guilty of that by reason of insanity.

He was convicted of assaulting other family members, but his release has certainly set off a firestorm, right.

>> And he qualified for early release, as you said, not because the parole board granted it to him, but because of a loophole in the law that allows for he was eligible for what's called mandatory supervised release, essentially because of good time behavior, completed work and education, and which means that it made him eligible within six months of his prison sentence completion.

Now, ideally, that that exists in the law as an incentive, typically for people who commit nonviolent crimes.

Obviously he committed a violent crime.

And so he he became eligible.

And obviously he was released even though he was rearrested again.

And it has really set off a firestorm of concern around how this could happen in the first place.

>> And the statute bill for that supervised release program is actually very nuanced.

If this man, in this case, Ronald Exantus, excuse me, was convicted of murder, he would not have even qualified for this program.

It was because specifically, he was found not guilty of murder because of reason of insanity.

He was found guilty of these assaults.

That discrepancy allowed this program to play in.

I do want to mention, though, that was simply six months early.

The majority of his years that were taken off the table were because some of the credits that he built both of time before trial, good behavior, some of his educational credits he had while incarcerated.

So if folks out there have issues with this specific case and how it played out, it is with like we had talked about before the show, the judicial system and some of the statutes as a whole, rather than the parole board's decision.

>> He went to Florida, Mario, and then was arrested again.

>> That's right.

According to the state law in Florida, he was supposed to have registered as a felon within 48 hours of being in the state.

And the sheriff's office there in Marion County.

They said that he failed to do that.

So they picked him up at his residence where he was at and arrested him.

And he's currently waiting for his next steps.

But the attorney general there in Florida said that they're working to send him back to Kentucky.

And we're trying to figure out what that means.

>> Does his arrest there mean that the conditions of his release here have been violated?

>> That's the question.

We've actually been reaching out to the Public Safety and Justice cabinet here in the state, trying to get an answer as far as because we know in Florida, there was an issue with whether he registered as a felon.

When he got there.

The sheriff's office says, no, he didn't do it within two days.

What does that mean for when he comes back?

Does he go right back to prison?

What does that look like?

At this point, we have not received an answer.

>> As we noted, Isaiah, it's the parole board that's been getting these threats, even though, again, they took no vote on this.

Right.

>> They actually unanimously bill voted to.

>> Vote to keep him incarcerated.

>> And they basically said again that it was because of the statute, specifically because of the way Kentucky law works, that he was released.

They believed he should still be in prison today.

But of course, he was released just a few days ago.

And in this political landscape, it's important to say we talk a lot about political violence.

And we've heard from board members.

I actually talked to the board chair over the phone today, and it was not lost on anybody.

These threats, according to the board members here, are direct.

We're talking text messages.

We're talking phone calls, and some of them even racially charged.

So this is this is serious.

And I don't think anybody you talk to will say the threats are okay.

>> Well, the governor had this to say about those threats.

>> They were trying to do what you wanted them to do.

They made the decision the way that you claim that they should have.

And the only there's just no acceptable.

Reason to ever threaten another human being with violence.

And these people do a hard job on the parole board.

They shouldn't be subject to, to to these types of threats being made at them.

>> And I want to be clear, again, that the parole board voted to keep Exantus in prison here in Kentucky.

But, Mario, these threats now are being investigated as crimes.

>> That's right.

And the governor mentioned during that team Kentucky update that he believes it stems from a lot of misinformation about this case, again, being spread on social media.

But he did say that Kentucky State Police and FBI, they are the ones that are heading this up to look more into what's being alleged and the text messages, and they will determine the next steps.

>> Well, some lawmakers now want to change or tweak the law.

State Representative Jason Nemus is one who's promising some discussion of this when the session begins in January.

>> And he has mentioned to again, if he were not convicted today, he would not have qualified for this loophole.

You know, mandatory supervised release.

Again, it it works for some people, and it has been supported by Republicans in the legislature because, again, it's meant for people who commit nonviolent crimes as an incentive for good behavior to lessen your sentence.

But we also have people like representative TJ Roberts from northern Kentucky vowing to file a bill to do away with it completely again, calling it a gross miscarriage of injustice.

And of course, we heard white House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt to mention how it's wholly unacceptable.

So I think we will we should expect to see bills at least a few to this end, trying to sort of rein in what has happened so that it doesn't happen again.

>> And to Alex's point, Representative Nemus, of course, was a co-sponsor on the Safer Kentucky Act, which at this point, like Alex mentioned, if this man was essentially sentenced and was in prison right now because of the offenses he was convicted of, he would have had to serve at least 85% of his sentence, which would have put him somewhere around 17, 17.5 years, as opposed to the seven and change that he served up until October 1st.

>> Yeah.

Well, clearly a developing story that we'll continue to follow the U.S.

Senate race now as we move to politics has gotten more crowded.

Primaries on both sides now and crowded ones this week, former fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who ran for the U.S.

Senate in 2020, jumped into the 2020 race.

>> You deserve a senator who acts with decency and patriotism, who believes in the goodness and the promise of America.

This open Kentucky seat will decide the balance of power in the Senate.

The stakes are high.

We all need to step up and act with courage to meet this moment.

>> The first observation I made was that that is a much more stark announcement video compared to her high production commercials of 2020, when she was on aircraft carriers and used fighter jets and, you know, very fancy ads, then.

>> This was certainly simpler, right?

Dark room, just the chair.

And I believe her line right at the top is no slogans, no gimmicks, no BS.

I mean, she's run a race before, she probably feels, and I think it's fair to say she doesn't have to introduce herself to Kentucky as much.

I think most folks, even Democrats, might ask, well, how is your campaign going to be different this time around?

And I know she's sort of given different answers, or I guess, the same answer to most folks who have interviewed her.

But it's been a lot of how the climate has changed.

She has said less, I believe, outside of maybe some of her policy priorities as it relates to tariffs, how she will approach this race differently.

>> Yeah, you're exactly right.

She's kind of limited her conversations to talking about tariffs and also her opposition to President Donald Trump and his leadership style and use of executive power.

But she hasn't gotten into the weeds just yet of, you know, day one priorities.

If she was elected as a U.S.

Senator.

>> And if I had to guess, I would say that she because she's she's sort of presenting herself as a common sense Democrat, which is why I think we saw that pared down video from her.

I think she's going to try and stick to these sort of meat and potato issues, especially as the other people, Republicans certainly, you know, this is she's in the Democratic primary, but if she wins the Democratic primary, the other Republicans right now are all sort of vying for Trump's support.

There's a lot of focus on social wedge issues.

And, you know, in 2020, when she ran against Mitch McConnell, her campaign had a lot of momentum.

She raised, what, almost $100 million historic amount.

She still lost by 20 percentage points.

Obviously, Trump has won again in Kentucky since then, but his popularity has fallen to.

And so she's trying to appeal to this voter of maybe I voted for Trump, but I'm dissatisfied with him and you can count on me to bring common sense.

>> It's interesting, though, when I did ask her, do you see yourself as more of a moderate or progressive Democrat in today's climate?

She wouldn't answer that question.

I believe she had told other outlets she's a common sense Democrat.

Like, where have we heard that before?

I mean, it was impossible for me to ignore interviewing her how much she sort of had a similar message.

From what we've heard from the governor recently, Governor Beshear.

And that's at least in this line about the tariffs.

You know, she says voters didn't think when they were voting for President Trump that they'd be voting for higher prices.

They thought they were voting for lower prices.

Her words, of course, we've heard the governor say that a lot.

By the way, I did ask her what her number one policy priority would be if elected.

And she did say repealing tariffs.

>> Well, Mario, you and I interviewed McGrath as well about her announcement.

At one of the questions I asked her was, how do you win in Kentucky?

By criticizing President Trump, who carried the state by 30 points.

And and she said to Alex's point, she says that voters are not getting what they voted for.

>> Yeah, that's right.

That's why she, again, is again transitioning her message to talk about some of these national issues, the current day of events that's going on.

She's doing a lot of commentary on the Department of Defense and the restructuring there.

That's from Pete Hegseth, the secretary.

With her military experience, she can be able to speak towards that.

She's hoping that that message will resonate with voters and hopefully, you know, have her have them join her campaign and support.

>> It was interesting.

She gave credit to the Democratic field in your interview about that, about the Democratic candidates having a military or law enforcement service.

>> Me about the primary on both sides is that on the Democratic side, all of the candidates have served their country.

All of the candidates come from, you know, Secret Service, CIA, United States Air Force, United States Marine Corps, and all the candidates on the other side have served themselves and have served, you know, in this political arena their whole lives.

>> Mario McGrath in 2020 had to outlast Charles Booker in the primary.

And that was a tough primary.

But this time it has, as I said to her, you allowed it to get crowded.

>> That's right.

And again the the filing deadline still until January the 1st Friday in January.

So plenty of time for some other people to step up.

But yes, she's very supportive of of Pamela Stephenson, who first declared her intent for this race, but also Logan Forsythe and Joel Willett there, the three other candidates that have jumped into this race before her, and they've got varied experience in the military, and she's remaining positive to her primary candidates as of today.

>> History and math favor Republicans in the race.

No Democrat has won a Kentucky U.S.

Senate race since Wendell Ford's last victory in 1992, and Republican registration is also gaining while Democrats are losing ground.

We will point out the fastest growing segment is actually independent, but the GOP is gaining ahead of the 2026 primary.

Isaiah, do you read anything when you see those numbers with the registration right now?

>> Well, I think the results have sort of shown itself, Bill.

I mean, we've seen Republicans get elected across the board.

They certainly see this Senate race as a bit of a shoo in for Republicans.

They probably see the May primary as the general election, essentially.

But like you mentioned, I mean, independents are growing, and there is no doubt that folks on both sides are making sure that they don't alienate the independent vote, despite the fact that Kentucky has been so ruby red recently.

>> And I'll add to, you know, the May primary independents can't vote in that primary.

So that 11% electorate there, but both sides will have to cater to their current bases.

And it makes it more difficult because Kentucky is known for having low voter turnout during a primary in May.

And we've talked about if there's bad weather that could impact it as well.

>> But 11 points can sure throw a general election, right?

>> I just wonder too, like when there you have similar backgrounds, right?

We talk about the Republicans all sort of, you know, talking about Donald Trump so much.

It's hard to distinguish yourself when you have so many Democrats who all sort of have this law enforcement serving your country background.

If you're in a primary, how do you distinguish yourself that way?

I mean, that could be a real challenge.

>> We always watch the money chase at this point, and some of those reports have come in now.

Specifically for the Senate.

>> In the Senate, and I believe we were talking about this before the show.

Congressman Andy Barr, not a complete surprise because he's a sitting member in Congress, but $1.8 million in this last fundraising quarter.

We know that both the Cameron campaign and the Morris campaign have not released those numbers as of yet, but clearly pretty notable on Barr's side.

>> Yeah.

And Andy Barr, he's his team is very confident in their standing.

So they put it out quickly to let people know across the state that they are having no trouble raising money in three months.

And the other two candidates, they are keeping quiet until it's officially posted.

>> Nate Morris's folks did say, though, that they would let me know next week about some of their numbers.

So we'll look out for those.

>> And because Barr is running for the Senate, he's leaving the sixth district seat open.

Republican Ralph Alvarado amassing a war chest that seems to be outpacing the others early on.

>> Believe the numbers at 380,000 for him.

And then, of course, we're seeing Zach Dembo on the other side.

The former federal prosecutor on for the Democrats, I believe.

What is that at 290,000.

So those are the biggest numbers we've seen as far as the sixth district to this point, at least in the last quarter.

>> Yeah.

And pretty large numbers for congressional race.

You typically don't see that in a three month period.

That could be sometimes what they get over the course of the primary campaign.

>> So and they got in July.

>> They got in in July.

So and and then the front loader proceed front leaning candidate Sherrilyn Stevenson, she had some good numbers the first quarter.

But we'll see what she's been able to raise the last three months.

>> All right.

And then you remind yourselves that some of the candidates can self-fund, you know.

And so we'll watch watch that as well.

All right.

Governor Beshear happened to be in New Hampshire this week, which happens to be one of the first Democratic presidential primary states of 2028.

Alex Beshear has also been to South Carolina.

And he tells voters in places like that that he's there to help Democrats.

>> He is the incoming chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

So his role in that is to help Democrats win in these statewide seats all over the country.

Now, he hasn't confirmed this.

Yes.

But yet.

But traveling around the country can also serve the dual purpose of getting your name and face out there, too.

If you have a plan to run for higher office, which we don't know yet if he does, but it sort of dual purpose.

But yes, he is traveling and sort of making the rounds and also continuing to be governor of Kentucky to kind of have a foot in both.

>> There was a trip out of state, out going to Europe on a business trip next week.

>> London, Dublin, Paris.

I mean, he left his team, Kentucky, basically being like, see you in two weeks.

He'll have a lot of good news when I get back on the New Hampshire front.

I mean, he's he's been there recently.

Before he's had sort of impacts or has tried to through his end this together pack on I believe it was their last gubernatorial election, if I'm not mistaken, in New Hampshire.

And it's very likely he'll be back.

We know that he's sort of trying to share his vision for the future.

He actually will be in Nebraska less than a month from now, side by side with the former president, Joe Biden, who we have not seen a lot of since he left office.

>> Yeah, so should be interesting with both former President Biden and Governor Andy Beshear side by side on the promotional materials.

So that's telling in itself.

And again, ultimately, they're raising money for the local Democrats in Nebraska.

And and Beshear having a hand in that.

>> And Alex Beshear then returned to Kentucky and returned to his push for universal pre-K this week.

Does he have to keep a visible agenda in state as well, especially in the run up to the legislative session, to be relevant here while he explores things elsewhere?

>> Right.

Obviously he cannot run for governor again, but you don't want to completely abandon your state either.

And so, yes, his through line through his whole time in office has been universal pre-K.

And this is maybe reading the tea leaves too much.

But, you know, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman has also been a major proponent of universal pre-K.

Potentially she could run for governor, too, and he could sort of be setting her up to sort of keep pushing this idea out there.

Now, obviously, he's never gotten the funding for universal pre-K.

Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican, is a known critic of universal pre-K, but he's still trying to make it known that this thing matters to him in Kentucky, and he wants to see it done.

>> Mario, you talked to some folks about childcare issues, another issue percolating ahead of the of the 2026 session.

>> That's right.

Several interviews, including with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, who advocates for the business community across the state.

And they are advocating pretty strongly, saying that this coming session, childcare, they're wanting to help address some of the gaps across our state.

It's well documented that access to childcare is not viable for every Kentuckian, and they actually are sharing that.

They want to say it's not just a family issue, it's a workforce and growth strategy for Kentucky's economy.

So since they've got a very strong sway with a lot of legislators, you can anticipate that being a top priority or item for some of the lawmakers.

>> AI got a lot of discussion this week as well.

And then State Representative Vanessa Grosso of the Lexington area wants to draft legislation for the session that would say that school districts cannot employ third party lobbyists.

It got her attention that Fayette County hired lobbyists to represent its interests in Frankfort.

>> And she says that she plans to file this bill pretty quickly once the session starts.

And she again, it's based off of Fayette County Public Schools and the issues that they've had over the last several months with transparency.

But there's been talks that Fayette County, they've invested a firm that works on PR and kind of management of the image of the district, and she feels that that's not a good idea, using taxpayer dollars to have a third party lobbyist group to be a part of that process.

>> The federal government shutdown continues.

We're seeing more impacts, certainly more concerns in Kentucky.

Many federal employees are working without a paycheck at this point.

Isaiah, that a difficult circumstance, certainly.

>> And I think we'll we'll watch to see how the airline travel changes as we go on.

I would say the big issue right now, especially from some Republicans, I heard from Congressman Brett Guthrie being one, are these next paychecks for members of the military?

Specifically?

He mentioned Fort Knox, which is in his district, an Army installation where he says they are due to be paid or were due to be paid October 15th.

That's coming up.

If the government doesn't open before then, they'll be without that money, which he says will be very rough for them.

>> The Louisville political scene seems to be buzzing right now, certainly ahead of the filing deadline.

The first ever nonpartisan mayor's race is coming, and you're hearing some things there.

>> Yeah.

Charles Booker is a name that keeps being thrown around.

Nobody's denying that he could potentially be interested in that.

He's sort of feeling out where he would get his his fundraising dollars from.

But, I mean, the mayor sort of in full force at this point.

We see him at a lot of events actively touting what he's done over the last three years.

And of course, we have this special election for the for the Senate bill, of course, David Yates's district that will come open his seat because he is now the acting Jefferson County clerk after the passing of Bobbie Holsclaw, the Secretary of State, Michael Adams just announced that will be on December 16th.

And I'm already hearing names on both sides of who could potentially run.

Casa Grande is the name of an activist in Louisville who I believe, based on what I'm hearing, could have some interest on the Democrat side.

And then State Representative Jared Bauman of Louisville potentially could have interest on the Republican side.

Of course, he has been very active in this sort of tough on crime mentality with the safer Kentucky Act.

>> Attorney General Russell Coleman announced this week that he is suing the online gaming platform Roblox.

He called it an online environment where child predators thrive.

>> Like many parents, I thought Roblox is a safe choice, but I came to realize later than I would like to admit that it actually is the wild west of the internet targeted at children.

>> Here is my message to parents.

Get your kids off Roblox.

Do it today.

>> Alex Coleman is adamant that this platform is trouble for kids.

>> Yeah, he called it a hunting ground for child predators.

It's a very popular, I think, there.

You know, usage number is in the hundreds of millions.

And I think one of the problems is that you can essentially access it, use it without parental consent if you're a minor.

And so he's trying to crack down on that by suing it, essentially saying that he's alleging that Kentucky's Consumer Protection Protection Act fails to warn parents of the dangers of it.

And, of course, he cited, too, in his press release.

And in that press conference, you know, there's a 25 year old man in Kentucky who pled guilty earlier this year to plotting to extort, threaten minors.

You know, across these gaming entertainment platforms.

And Roblox was one of the ones that he used.

And so this is an easy way for him to say, we're going to sue this platform because of these heinous things, the potential for child grooming.

And it's a concrete thing that he can point to to say, I'm trying to, you know, work on your behalf as attorney general.

>> Seems to be an area of emphasis for him, isn't it?

>> Certainly.

And especially issues where you could literally walk into any like a Walgreens or CVS and you see gift cards for Roblox.

So this is something that every family sees, and that's something that the attorney general clearly is focused on.

>> And Roblox, they did issue a statement saying that they believe the lawsuit is based on outdated and out of context information.

So we'll see how the lawsuit plays out over the next several months.

>> And I think the attorney general has said other states may also file suit.

So that is something you see from time to time, as well as several states.

Get involved in an issue.

Alex, you're part of a major announcement this week involving the Herald-Leader and ProPublica.

What does that mean?

>> ProPublica is a national, nonprofit, online only news outlet, and they partner with local newsrooms a couple every year so that a reporter or reporters can work on a bigger investigation.

They wouldn't have time to work on just in the daily grind.

And so they chose the Herald-Leader and me and my colleague Taylor six, which means we get to work on investigation for a year on something in Kentucky.

And so that's very exciting.

I'll be off of my politics beat for a bit and fully embedded in this story, which is great.

>> You're saying there will be one story?

>> No, there'll be multiple.

It'll be a sort of a series.

4 to 6 is the ideal.

So there'll be multiple about the same topic.

>> Yeah.

All right.

Well that's interesting new approach.

What we do want to congratulate Kentucky's teacher of the year Michelle Gross is a middle school teacher in Spencer County.

She teaches math and also runs a gifted and talented program, where students get to pick an area to dig deeper into.

They all enjoy that.

Gross has 22 years of teaching experience.

She was among nine educators honored, and the Education Commissioner, Robbie Fletcher, called it a day of celebration.

And on a warm and sunny day, Keeneland last week got rolling and they had a big day out there again today.

So as the weather's good, the horses keep running, the crowds keep showing up.

That's common on Kentucky.

Have a good week ahead.