Kentucky Repugs: Setting an Unethical Record
Kentucky politics may be irredeemably corrupt, but at least we don't subscribe to the "look forward, not back" school of failing to hold former elected officials at all accountable.
Jack Brammer at the Herald:
Former Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer was charged Monday with 42 counts of violating the state ethics law, the most ever issued against an individual by the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.Brammer waits until the 11th graf to mention that Reetchie is a repug. Just two years the pride of the Kentucky Republican Party. Chosen for the GOP gubernatorial ticket to overcome the extreme unpopularity of Senate President David Williams. Long considered a lock for governor.
SNIP
The charges against Farmer, a popular University of Kentucky basketball player in the 1990s, included misuse of state employees, misuse of state resources, improper use of grants and improper use of "Kentucky Proud" marketing funds.
Most of the charges stem from an investigation by State Auditor Adam Edelen last year that said a "toxic culture of entitlement" permeated the agriculture department under Farmer. The report found that Farmer had state workers build a basketball court in his back yard, take him hunting and shopping, mow his yard and chauffeur his dog between Frankfort and Louisville during the State Fair — all while on the clock.
He also used an extravagant 2008 convention for fellow agriculture commissioners from Southern states to stock his own gun rack and bar, at least partially at taxpayer expense, the audit found.
The ethics commission also made a few new allegations Monday. Farmer and his sister, Rhonda Monroe, face three counts of breaking ethics laws for allegedly conspiring to submit false records to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, where Monroe is the assistant executive director. The expense records allowed Farmer to collect inappropriate payments from his 2007 re-election campaign.
This is the face of the Kentucky Republican Party: corrupt shmuck Ritchie Farmer. Not Jamie Comer. Ritchie Farmer.
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