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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...

Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes (D.) said Friday that Sen. Rand Paul (R.) "can be beaten," "just ask his neighbor." Grimes made the comment at Kentucky's Fancy Farm picnic, which serves as a start to the state's campaign season for both parties, the Associated Press reports. She said at the Democrats' traditional bean supper, "many folks think that Rand Paul can't be beat. I don't buy that. Just ask his neighbor. He can be beaten." Grimes was referring to a November attack on Paul by his neighbor that left him with five rib fractures, including three displaced fractures....

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders BERNIE SANDERS Sanders requests recanvass of Kentucky primary Sanders fundraising for state-level candidates The Hill's 12:30 Report MORE ’s campaign is asking Kentucky officials to review the votes from last week's primary. Results currently show that Hillary Clinton beat Sanders by one half of a percentage point in the Bluegrass State. Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes announced Tuesday afternoon that the recanvass will take place on Thursday at 9 a.m. local time.

One of the duties of the Kentucky Secretary of State is to oversee elections. So shouldn't it seem a bit strange that such a person, Alison Lundergan Grimes, acts in a blatantly unprofessional manner by publicly gloating over the loss of a candidate she opposes by mocking him? Not to MSNBC's Chris Matthews. He not only failed to question this, he happily gushed over Grimes while speculating about the next step in her political career. You can see Grimes' gloat followed by Matthews' gush in the following video.

During her three political campaigns, including an $18 million run for the U.S. Senate in 2014, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes reported paying $111,831 to Lexington companies owned by her father, former state Democratic Party chairman Jerry Lundergan, and $41,745 more in direct payments to him and other family members, for various services. One Lundergan company purchased and provided Grimes with a 45-foot tour bus she used for her Senate campaign. Another owns The Carrick House on North Limestone, where she held several major events. Grimes and Lundergan also shared Lexington attorney Robert "Coley" Stilz III, who was...

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...

Once hailed in the press as the Democratic candidate in 2014’s “marquee race,” which could see the Republican Senate minority leader unceremoniously defenestrated by Kentucky’s voters. Grimes’ loss to Mitch McConnell was among the first heartbreak of election night for liberal Democrats when her race was among the earliest to be called for the Republican candidate. When all the votes were counted, Grimes lost by just over 15 points. It wasn’t even close. If you missed Kentucky’s secretary of state, she was not gone for long. Having failed in her mission to oust McConnell, the former Democratic U.S. Senate...

“Did you vote for Barack Obama?” this is a simple six word question that can destroy Democrats whether they answer it or not. During the last election cycle Republicans were tortured and defeated by a simple question: “Are you against abortion in all cases?” These seven words wrecked an easy win for Republicans in Missouri and damaged more than one other GOP candidate. This year, quite by accident, an equivalent question for Democrats has surfaced and it doing as much damage to them. When asked by the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board if she voted for Obama, Kentucky Democrat US Senate...

The campaign of Kentucky Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes has filed a lawsuit to stop Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign from distributing a mailer that it says amounts to illegal voter intimidation tactics. The Grimes campaign on Friday said it had filed for an immediate injunction with the state court in Franklin County, which is where the state capital is located. The campaign is calling for a state and federal investigation of the mailers that say they're authorized by the Kentucky Republican Party and the McConnell Senate campaign. The legal filing by the Grimes campaign can be read below, first reported...

"McDonalds is Hiring" —SATIRE Alison Grimes—the anti-coal Obama supporter who has twice refused to simply admit that she voted for the now-toxic President Obama during the last two elections—called Ace Reporter Hugh Betcha to clarify her positions on the future of coal in Kentucky and her race to the finish against Mitch McConnell for his Kentucky Senate seat. Hugh, winner of the Al Sharpton “Most Articulate News Reporter, 2014” award, a 2013 Nobel prize winner for his short story, “The Accomplishments of Barack Obama,” and recently feted on The View for his even-handed political reporting, a man who walks with...

The liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org is demanding that Democratic Kentucky Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes take down an ad that uses the term “illegal aliens.” “This latest TV ad from Alison Lundergan Grimes is deeply upsetting. Grimes seems to be forgetting that we are a nation of immigrants that has continually strived to honor all the hard-working people who aspire to the American Dream,” Ilya Sheyman, MoveOn.org’s executive director, said in a statement. “It’s deeply troubling that Grimes would stoop this low in order to try to defeat [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell, and she needs to take this offensive...

As we reported here on NewsBusters, during a recent Morning Joe appearance Chuck Todd twice said that Dem candidate for senator from Kentucky Alison Lundergan Grimes "disqualified herself" for refusing to say whether she voted for Barack Obama for president. On Chris Hayes' MSNBC show tonight, Todd said he was "sick to his stomach" when he saw that his comment had been used in an ad for Mitch McConnell. But interestingly, instead of blaming the McConnell campaign, Todd tagged Grimes, saying she had "invited this on herself" by her refusal to answer the simple question. View the video here.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has gone dark in Kentucky, where the party is targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. After a significant investment in support of Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, the DSCC had not reserved time for the final three weeks of the race and, as of today, is no longer on the air. “The DSCC has now spent more than 2 million in Kentucky and continues to make targeted investments in the ground game while monitoring the race for future investments, but is currently not on the air in the state,” a DSCC official told...

Mary Katharine already covered the first part of this exchange and noted the second, but it’s worth revisiting for Mitch McConnell’s brief rebuttal. The Republican incumbent scoffs at Alison Grimes’ invocation of a sacred right to avoid answering an obvious question, and demonstrates it by announcing he “proudly” voted against Barack Obama in the last two presidential elections: Mitch McConnell Proudly Voted For Mitt Romney There’s also no sacred right to not announce how we vote. I voted for Mitt Romney, proudly. I voted for John McCain. And by the way, 116 out of 120 Kentucky counties agreed with my...

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), speaking: “Last week, President Bush concluded the North American Free Trade Agreement, which will stimulate our economy and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.” Voice-over: “Mitch McConnell has been tragically wrong about foreign trade deals. They have cost Americans over half a million jobs. Kentucky is still losing jobs, and McConnell is still voting to give companies tax deductions for outsourcing. Mitch said it is not his job to create jobs. The least he could do is stop sending them away.” – Senate Majority PAC ad running in Kentucky, where McConnell is being challenged by Ky....