Various and sundry excerpts, blurbs, and what-not from across the political news sphere.
KY group working to protect abortion access raises four times as much as opposing campaign
A group determined to defeat a GOP-backed ballot question this November that seeks to remove a protected right to abortion from the Kentucky constitution has raised nearly $1.5 million this year in campaign donations. Protect Kentucky Access, in its Registry of Election Finance report for 2022 released Tuesday, includes donations from hundreds of individuals, including many physicians. PKA’s opponent group, Yes For Life, has raised $350,000 in 2022 by comparison. (Herald-Leader)
Ky. mayor candidate who was shot at takes aim at gun auction
A candidate for Louisville mayor who was shot at by an assailant in his campaign office is pledging to crack down on confiscated firearms that police send to auction. Democrat Craig Greenberg said Wednesday that part of his plan to reduce violent crime would include directing Louisville police to render seized firearms inoperable before they go to auction. State law requires that confiscated guns be sent to Kentucky State Police for auction, and that the sale proceeds be used to buy equipment, like body armor, for police officers. But Greenberg said many of the guns that go to auction end up on the streets and back in the hands of criminals. He called the practice “absurd and dangerous.” (Herald-Leader)
Railroad strike, and the economic damage it would cause, looms closer
While two more rail unions reached tentative agreements with railroad management on new contracts Tuesday, the two most important unions — representing the engineers and conductors who make up the two-person crews on each train — remain at loggerheads in negotiations. If they don't resolve their differences, the first national rail strike in 30 years could start early Friday.
Those engineers and conductors unions represent roughly half of the more than 100,000 unionized workers at the nation's major freight railroads. Without them on the job those trains will not run, nor will many commuter and Amtrak trains that run over freight rail lines. Indeed, Amtrak has already suspended some of its routes. (CNN)
Beshear: Trump family members’ election fraud lies are ‘not helpful’
Democratic Governor Andy Beshear says Trump family members repeating lies in Kentucky this past weekend about the 2020 election being stolen is “not helpful” and erodes trust in institutions. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and his partner Kimberly Guilfoyle spoke at an event Saturday called “Freedom Fest” in northern Kentucky, hosted on a farm belonging to Republican gubernatorial candidate and suspended lawyer Eric Deters. According to the newspaper, all three promoted the falsehood that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. (WFPL)
Study: Kentucky is the 6th least diverse state in US
As Hispanic Heritage Month begins on Sept. 15 and continues through Oct. 15, Wallet Hub identified the most and least diverse states in the U.S. across six primary categories:
– Socio-economic
– Cultural
– Economic
– Household
– Religious
– Political
Kentucky found itself near the end of Wallet Hub's diversity index, ranked as the sixth least diverse state in America. (Fox Lexington)
The fastest growing political affiliation in KY is “Other”
As the GOP takes a victory lap for edging Democrats in voter registration, the group that is growing the fastest in Kentucky are independent voters. In July, “Other” registration grew at more than double the rate of Republican or Democrat registration, according to Secretary of State Michael Adams. (KY Fried Politics)
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