The Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee has issued the following statement.
This matter came before the committee as the result of a letter from Joe Bilby, a candidate for Franklin County circuit judge. Mr. Bilby alleges that incumbent Judge Phillip Shepherd stated in an advertisement that he would not accept political contributions from any political party or any elected official or their political action committees. Mr. Bilby states that Shepherd has in fact accepted contributions from “numerous” politicians “who do not hold office at the moment” and “at least one political candidate who is running for a partisan office in 2022.”
Judge Shepherd responds that he has received “over 1,100” donations to his campaign and that he works hard to identify contributions from political parties or elected officials and returns those, so identified, to the donors. He stated that he had overlooked the two contributions cited by Bilby, which were from “out of towners” who were not identified “in our review process.” He has now refunded those contributions.
Under the circumstances, it does not appear that Judge Shepherd’s advertisement is either false or misleading. Therefore, all concur that no further action by the committee is warranted.
Anthony M. Wilhoit
Chair
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