Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, left, and House Speaker David Osborne conferred during the State of the Commonwealth address in the House chambers on Jan. 3, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)
FRANKFORT — The top two Republicans in the Kentucky General Assembly laid out the process to remove a lawmaker in response to questions about allegations of inappropriate behavior against Louisville Democratic Rep. Daniel Grossberg.
Speaking to reporters in the Capitol Annex Wednesday afternoon, House Speaker David Osborne said indications of impropriety within the chamber are taken seriously. Meanwhile, Senate President Robert Stivers said he sees a bipartisan appetite to review the matter.
Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville. (LRC Public Information)
In the months following this year’s legislative session, the Lexington Herald-Leader revealed allegations of inappropriate behavior towards women by the freshman lawmaker, including text messages. The newspaper recently reported Grossberg received a lifetime ban from a Louisville strip club after inappropriately touching a dancer and that he offered another dancer $5,000 to have sex with him.
Grossberg has repeatedly denied the allegations and has said he plans to seek treatment “to reduce my impulsive behavior.”
Osborne said that while an ethics investigation is ongoing, “we have taken steps to, at the request of the minority (caucus) and their leadership, to make some changes.” The Herald-Leader has previously reported Grossberg is the subject of two investigations by the Legislative Research Commission and the Legislative Ethics Commission.
“Certainly, we take any indication of impropriety or inappropriate behavior very, very seriously in this workplace, and will continue to do so,” the speaker said. “There is a process for removing a member from the body and expelling the member from the body. So that certainly will be, I’m sure, a possibility. To my knowledge, those conversations are not ongoing at this point.”
Kentucky legislators are not subject to the typical impeachment process, but rather can be removed by a two-thirds vote of their chamber, under the state Constitution.
Democrats have largely unified in shunning Grossberg following the reports. Leading Democrats, including Gov. Andy Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, have called on Grossberg to resign. House Democrats voted to expel Grossberg from their caucus. He’s been booted from his interim committee assignments.
However, Grossberg appears to have little resistance in getting another term. He faces no opponent in the November general election for the 30th House District after narrowly winning his primary election by 50 votes.
Stivers said that he had previously told Osborne he sees “a bipartisan request to look into this.”
“It appears to be that there is a bipartisan sentiment to do something if it is proven,” Stivers said. “And if that happens in that way, the Senate will support their decision, even though we will not be able to impact that decision.”
When asked if a special session of the legislature to remove Grossberg was a possibility, Osborne said he anticipated the matter would wait until lawmakers convene for the regular session in January.
In Kentucky, the governor must call the legislature into a special session. The General Assembly sought an amendment to give it that power in 2022. Beshear opposed it. Stivers said that perhaps if the governor had supported the amendment, “we could have already dealt with it.”
Grossberg’s attorney, Anna Whites, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
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