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FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX 18) — Tuesday's State Board of Elections meeting started off as normal, but it ended with arguing, screaming, cursing and people storming out after the meeting. The fighting continued as LEX 18's Political Reporter Karolina Buczek stood in the hallway, waiting for an interview after the meeting. You can hear Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes yelling in a room, as Executive Director of State Board of Elections Jared Dearing told our crew, "it's a circus and chaos." Then Grimes walked out, letting LEX 18 know she would be available for an interview outside. ... That's when...

Kentucky officials publicly released records Wednesday that show employees in the secretary of state’s office used the voter registration system to look up political rivals, state investigators and a range of political operatives. It is not clear in many instances why the office of Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes was looking up people and their personal information — political affiliation, every home address ever on file, some Social Security numbers — but it has led critics to conclude her office abused its access to the system to gain information about her political opponents and those involved in multiple investigations...

LEXINGTON— Jerry Lundergan has retained Washington, D.C. attorney Marc Elias to join his defense team. Elias is a high-profile political attorney. He served as General Counsel for Hillary for America, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He served in the same position for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. Elias has also represented the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Elias is also well-known for being the person who hired Fusion GPS during Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Fusion GPS then hired former British spy Christopher Steele, who compiled the Russian dossier that includes salacious details about President Donald Trump. Lundergan,...

FRANKFORT, KY (SPECTRUM NEWS) — A Federal Grand Jury has indicted Jerry Lundergan, the father of Kentucky’s Secretary of State, Alison Lundergan Grimes on 10 charges. The charges stem from when Jerry Lundergan was a campaign operative for his daughter’s 2014 Senate Campaign. Along with Lundergan, Democratic campaign strategist Dale Emmons was indicted on 6 different charges. Lundergan’s charges include conspiracy to defund the United States, unlawful campaign contributions, 4 counts of false statements and 4 counts of falsification of records or documents. Emmons’ six charges are similar. He was indicted on conspiracy to defraud the United States, unlawful campaign...

FRANKFORT, KY (SPECTRUM NEWS) — After an hours long closed meeting Tuesday, the Kentucky Board of Elections announced how they would move on after a senior staffer made seriously allegations of harassment and misuse of power by Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. Monday, the Executive Director of the State Board of Elections, Jared Dearing, sent a letter to board members, making several complaints about Grimes. In the letter, Dearing wrote Grimes was weakening the system of checks and balances. He sad Grimes accessed the voter registration database to check backgrounds of potential hires and for other reasons. Grimes admits...

LOUISVILLE- Republicans have called for a federal investigation into allegations that Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes misused voter data—but so far unsurprisingly— top Democrats in Kentucky are staying mum. When asked about the allegations Tuesday, Attorney General Andy Beshear said his office was looking into the claims. “Given that the allegations are very new and very fresh, I think it would be premature to comment any further but we are in possession of that letter.” he said. Mac Brown, Chair of the Republican Party of Kentucky, has called for a federal investigation into the claims as well as Dearing...

LEXINGTON — After coming up well short of knocking off U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in 2014, Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes is looking at her re-election bid as an interview for the job, and not a personal contest. Grimes faces GOP nominee Steve Knipper in the fall Election and she says she will rely on her experience in the office and focus on jobs in the General Election campaign. “It’s an office where I have a record of success,” Grimes told Pure Politics in Lexington on Wednesday. “Whether it be helping to have started over 100,000 new businesses since...

LEXINGTON — Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes ended months of speculation Monday, telling a crowd of about 70 supporters that she will seek re-election this year rather than mount bids of governor or attorney general. Grimes had been linked to nearly every constitutional office as the filing deadline approached, but she officially launched her re-election campaign at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, the same place she jumpstarted her 2011 run for secretary of state. The 36-year-old Democrat had kept a low profile since her 15-point loss to U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell last fall, and she listed...

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes says she will run for statewide office this year. The former Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate said she has been encouraged to run for governor, attorney general and to seek re-election as Secretary of State. Grimes said she has not decided what she will do yet but that she will file for office before the Jan. 27 deadline. On Monday, Grimes attended the Alpha Phi Alpha Unity Breakfast in Lexington with former state Sen. Georgia Davis Powers. With a campaign photographer in tow, Grimes worked the room of about...

A Franklin Circuit Court judge denied a request from Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes to stop the Republican Party of Kentucky and the campaign for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell from sending mailers that Grimes called a bullying tactic. On Monday morning Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd denied Grimes’ request to halt the mailing of the fliers which say “the information enclosed contains facts related to a possible fraud perpetrated on citizens across Kentucky.” Within the mailer it refers to statements in Grimes’ ads media fact checkers have criticized, such as a claim that U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell didn’t...

McConnell 50%, Grimes 42% Full internals at the link.

LEXINGTON — Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton struck a populist tone in her final campaign pitch for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes Saturday, stumping twice for Grimes days after a new poll shows her trailing U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. Regardless of survey results that have her 5 points behind the five-term incumbent, Clinton, Grimes and a cadre of Democratic politicians urged a crowd of about 1,400 enthusiastic supporters at Transylvania University’s Haggin Auditorium to volunteer and push Grimes toward an Election Day victory in the face of an all-out advertising blitz. Republicans and outside groups supporting...

LOUISVILLE — U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell started his Saturday before Election Day in Louisville rallying his troops in an effort to get out the vote ahead of Tuesday’s election. At the Best Western across the parking lot from McConnell’s campaign headquarters the five-term incumbent thanked campaign staffers and volunteers for giving up the next few days in an effort to turnout voters on Election Day. “At headquarters we’ve run out of things to do. We’ve raised all the money we can raise. We’ve bought all the TV time we can buy, and radio time. We’ve dropped all the mail pieces...

... The Grimes campaign reacted late Friday to a mailer circulating in Eastern Kentucky that looks like an official election notice, with bold text reading: “Election Violation Notice.” Once opened the mailer lists claims Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes made in a TV ad that have since been rated false by the Washington Post. The mailer was sent our by the Republican Party of Kentucky... The Grimes campaign filed an injunction on Friday afternoon requesting that “both state and federal authorities to investigate what, on its face, appears to be a clear violation of both Kentucky and federal...

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has opened up a five-point lead over Democratic opponent Alison Lundergan Grimes and appears well positioned to win a sixth term, according to the final Bluegrass Poll before Tuesday's election. McConnell leads Grimes 48 percent to 43 percent in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, with Libertarian candidate David Patterson pulling 3 percent. In a Bluegrass Poll released early last week, McConnell was clinging to a one-point lead, with 44 percent backing him and 43 percent choosing Grimes. The latest poll of 597 likely voters in Kentucky was conducted by SurveyUSA between Oct. 25 and Oct....

LOUISVILLE — On a stage late Thursday morning before several hundred people outside the Muhammad Ali Center, former President Bill Clinton tried to deliver a knockout punch against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on behalf of Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes. Clinton, making his fourth visit to Kentucky for Grimes' bid to oust the Republican incumbent from his 30-year tenure, painted Grimes as a champion for working people. He said Kentucky, which he won both times he ran for president, has not had a champion for the working people in the U.S. Senate since Democrat Wendell Ford left in 1999. Grimes...

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes began her one-week sprint to Election Day flanked by one of the most popular members of her party. Before the week’s up, she’ll be joined again by a former president and his wife, whom many believe will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2016 if she decides to run. Grimes was joined by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., before about 400 supporters at the Copper and Kings Distillery in Louisville Tuesday, and the two hemmed close to Grimes’ primary talking points on the campaign trail. In Warren, who made her second appearance...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Alison Grimes's campaign says Hillary Clinton will return to Kentucky on November first for a last minute push before Election Day. Grimes will also be welcoming Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren as well. Warren will be at a Grimes rally at Copper and Kings distillery in Butchertown on Tuesday evening. Over the weekend, Grimes will join Clinton at campaign events in Northern Kentucky and Lexington, just a few weeks after Hillary Clinton appeared in Louisville to speak on behalf of Grimes. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren will be at an Alison Lundergan Grimes rally at Copper and Kings...

Excuse the fuzzy quality of this ad, but it has not been publicly released by the Grimes campaign. In The Fact Checker’s experience, the most fact-challenged ads are those that fly under the radar, as campaigns hope that reporters don’t notice the content — but voters do. This particular ad is especially noteworthy because the candidate herself repeats a claim that The Fact Checker has already deemed worthy of Four Pinocchios. Not only does she double down on this falsehood, but she makes another highly questionable assertion as well. .... Most striking, Grimes puts her own credibility on the line...

Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidates launched new television ads Wednesday, with Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell highlighting his support among young women while Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes targets remarks the five-term incumbent made at a meeting of wealthy conservative donors in June. McConnell’s campaign struck first in his statewide ad titled “Represent Me,” which features four young women who back McConnell’s reelection as well as a link to the website womenformitch.com. “She (Grimes) thinks I’ll vote for the candidate who looks like me,” Ashley Burkhead says to the camera. “Rather than the one who represents me,” Caroline Anderegg says to the...