Randall Weddle, then a candidate for London mayor, listens as Gov. Andy Beshear helps celebrate the opening of WB Transport’s new warehouse in April 2022. (Screenshot with permission of WYMT)
FRANKFORT — The board that oversees enforcement of Kentucky’s campaign finance laws wants more information in the investigation of whether London Mayor Randall Weddle made illegal contributions to help Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear win reelection in 2023.
The Kentucky Registry of Election Finance board on Thursday deferred action on a staff recommendation that would have resolved the matter. Registry board members said they were unsure of many important details of what happened and could not make any findings for now.
The registry staff had recommended that the board find that Weddle did indeed violate the law by making numerous contributions in the names of other people to Beshear’s 2023 campaign for governor and the Kentucky Democratic Party, but that Weddle did not know his actions violated the law.
Under the staff recommendation for an “unknowing violation,” the matter would be referred to a “conciliation” process between the registry and Weddle to agree on punishment — normally a fine of up to $5,000 for each violation.
But as a 90-minute discussion of the case drew to a close, board members said they needed much more information about the process that led to Weddle making $202,000 in excess contributions and the subsequent process taken by the campaign and party to refund those contributions to Weddle.
“I want more information,” said board member H. David Wallace. “… I don’t think it’s fair to the citizens of the commonwealth, I don’t think it’s fair to Mr. Weddle, not to find out the exact facts.”
Other members agreed and the board voted 6-0 to defer action as the registry staff now resumes its investigation into this high-profile campaign finance controversy that had seemed likely to come to a quiet end.
The board’s decision leaves open all possible options for future action by the board, including accepting the recommendation passed over on Thursday, or it could find that the violation was a “knowing” action by Weddle — a more serious finding that would result in referring the matter to the attorney general for possible criminal prosecution.
And some members of the board wanted more information about the actions of the Beshear campaign and Kentucky Democratic Party.
State law limits the amount any person can contribute to a campaign; the limit at the time was $2,000 per election. State law also limits how much a person can give to a statewide political party to $15,000 per year ($5,000 to a registry-regulated account and $10,000 to a federal account regulated by the FEC). It is illegal to evade campaign finance laws by channeling contributions through so-called “straw donors.”
Weddle lawyer Guthrie True attended the Thursday meeting and answered questions of the board members. Afterwards he said, “Obviously, I would’ve preferred they proceed with the (staff) recommendation. … This was an unknowing situation. That was the absolute right recommendation. But I understand the registry’s decision and I understand they’re interested in facts that are outside of Mr. Weddle’s ability to provide.”
Case rooted in Kentucky Lantern report
The investigation stems from reporting in the Kentucky Lantern on April 17, 2023 that Weddle’s family, friends and employees of a company he co-founded called WB Transport had donated at least $305,500 to Beshear’s reelection campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party. According to Kentucky Lantern’s analysis of contribution reports filed with the registry and the Federal Election Commission, this Weddle-WB Transport group was the largest donor to Beshear’s reelection effort.
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Kentucky Lantern reported that huge amount was not the only thing unusual about the contributions: None of the donors listed as giving $2,000 to the Beshear campaign and $15,000 to the Kentucky Democratic Party had ever before made a large political donation; Weddle is a Republican, as are most of the straw donors he used as conduits for the contributions.
Weddle himself was not listed as giving any contribution to Beshear. He initially told Kentucky Lantern he had nothing to do with raising the money, although he did say he knew his wife and family were big supporters of Beshear.
Beshear and his campaign manager Eric Hyers declined to be interviewed for that initial Kentucky Lantern report.
Three days after the report Beshear didn’t directly answer questions about the unusual aspects of these donations. He did say, “We’ve had support from Democrats and Republicans, thousands and thousands and thousands of people across Kentucky and across the United States. But all of those have been voluntary, and nothing has or ever will be promised for any type of donation.”
A spokesperson for Beshear’s campaign said at the time that the campaign required its donors to attest that they are contributing their own funds and no one else’s.
Excess contributions refunded
But in June of 2023 Hyers, Beshear’s campaign manager, said that $202,000 in contributions mentioned in the Kentucky Lantern report were excess contributions that had been made on Weddle’s credit card. Hyers said contributions had been refunded — $12,000 by the Beshear campaign and $190,000 by the Democratic Party — to Weddle’s credit card. Attorneys for the Beshear campaign and Democratic Party said in letters to the election registry that Weddle himself had told a member of Beshear’s staff of the excess contributions he had made on his credit card in late April, and campaign and party officials took the matter immediately to the registry which recommended the refunds.
At the time Attorney General Daniel Cameron was running as the Republican nominee for governor against Beshear. As such, his office said he was prevented by state ethics law from launching an investigation into the contributions of his opponent in an active race. His office referred the matter to the FBI, which has declined comment on whether it is looking into the excess contributions.
Weddle and Beshear clash over what happened
Days after Beshear won reelection over Cameron in November 2023 the registry announced it would investigate the matter.
In early 2024 Weddle responded to the registry, saying he did not intentionally make any excess contributions.
Weddle said in his response to the registry that he told Lucas Johnson, a fundraiser for Beshear, that he would have to make some contributions from others on his credit card and that the others would reimburse him later. But instead of being warned that such a move would be illegal, Johnson told Weddle, “Okay sounds great.”
That quote from Johnson was documented by a text message that Weddle included in his response. Weddle said he learned from a friend that it was illegal to make contributions in the name of others even if the others later reimbursed him. Weddle also submitted other text message exchanges with Johnson to support his statement that he unsuccessfully pressed Johnson for months to fix the situation and refund the illegal excess contributions made on the Weddle credit card.
After the Kentucky Lantern story was published, Weddle said he took action to be sure the full story was brought to Beshear’s attention.
Hyers immediately disputed Weddle’s account of what happened. “Despite any new assertions to the contrary, the campaign and party first learned about the issue in late April 2023 and reached out to KREF (the registry) to self-report the matter the same month,” Hyers said in a statement. “The campaign and party worked closely with KREF to refund the contributions and reflect the refunds on their filings.”
Board members want more information
On Thursday, registry board members raised questions that they say remain unanswered by the investigation. Some said they wanted information from Johnson and others from the Beshear campaign for a detailed response to Weddle’s story. Others said that notes of the registry’s investigation include no documentation that any of the more than dozen straw donors eventually paid Weddle back for the contributions he made in their names.
The staff’s report said the registry’s investigator had great difficulty getting cooperation from the straw donors.
Board member Jessica Burke said the registry’s investigative records indicate that the only straw donor the registry investigator was able to interview was Weddle’s father-in-law David Owens, who told the investigator that he did make a contribution but the money came from Weddle. “My son-in-law did it all. I didn’t even have the money,” he told the registry investigator, Burke said.
Burke said that this seemed to be far from a common, legal example of contribution “bundling” where one person gathers checks of several donors to deliver to a campaign.
Wallace said, “I still have a real problem saying that I could walk down the street, call my neighbors and say ‘Hey, you want to give some money to ABC campaign? I’ll just put it on my credit card and you all pay me back when you get the chance.’”
Thomas P. O’Brien, chairman of the registry board, said the investigation will continue and be brought back before the board “at the appropriate time.
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