Tom Loftus, @TomLoftus_CJ –
(Photo: Alton Strupp/The Courier-Journal)
FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Matt Bevin’s inaugural committee paid $52,251 in leftover expenses during the first three months of 2016 including a $6,812 payment for bells to a Bevin company, Bevin Bros. Manufacturing, of East Hampton, Conn.
But Kelly Knight, who co-chairs the committee, said the committee bought the bells at cost and that neither Bevin nor his company profited from the transaction.
A report filed Friday with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance by Bevin-Hampton Inaugural, Inc. shows the payment was made Jan. 26 and was for “Bells with inscription for the Inaugural Celebration.”
The report also shows that contributions continued to trickle into the Bevin inaugural committee early this year even though it raised twice as much money as it needed last year to pay for the festivities surrounding the Dec. 8 inauguration.
The committee reported $10,275 in contributions in the past three months, the largest of which was $5,000 from UPS’s political action committee on Jan. 11.
Since it was created last November, the committee has raised $1,089,294, and as of March 31 has $506,073 in cash on hand with no debts or obligations.
State law allows the committee to retain the funds and spend them on a second Bevin inauguration if he wins re-election in 2019. Otherwise, a recent opinion of the registry concluded such excess funds of an inaugural committee cannot be transferred to another political committee but can only be disposed of by donation to a charity.
That, according to the opinion, is the only option left for former Gov. Steve Beshear’s 2011 inaugural committee, which reported last week that it is still sitting on $279,471 in leftover cash.
Knight said in a phone interview that Bevin’s inaugural committee wanted to buy bells as souvenirs for the inauguration because of Bevin’s campaign theme, “Let Freedom Ring.” She said Bevin Brothers is the only manufacturer of such bells in the United States.
She said Bevin wanted to donate the bells, but state law prohibited the inaugural committee from accepting a corporate contribution, and it was agreed that the committee buy the bells – 3,500 small ones and 50 large ones – at cost.
Inaugural committees can accept contributions of unlimited amounts from individuals. And the first report filed by the Bevin inaugural committee three months ago shows it got some huge ones last November and December.
The largest were from the following people: Barbara Banke, of Lexington, owner Kendall-Jackson Winery, $108,375; Terry Forcht, of Corbin, owner of Forcht Group, $100,000; Anthony Manganaro, of Paris, owner of Siena Farm, $100,000; John Schnatter, of Anchorage, CEO of Papa John’s, $50,000; and William Butler, of Covington, CEO of Corporex, $50,000.
Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.
