BY The Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Gov. Paul Patton said Friday he will ask two top aides charged with violating 1995 campaign finance laws to stay on in his administration and gave a backhanded slap to the law and the indictments.
Gov. Patton said he was concerned about the indictments of Chief of Staff Andrew "Skipper" Martin and labor liaison Danny Ross. But he insisted he did not know why they were charged.
"I still have no knowledge of anything they have done to warrant such an indictment. In fact, I don't even know what it is they are accused of doing," Gov. Patton said. "They both have assured me that they have not violated the law. I believe them."
Mr. Martin, Mr. Ross and two officers of Local 89 of the Teamsters union in Louisville are named in an indictment from a special grand jury that was unsealed on Thursday. They are essentially charged with conspiring to get around campaign contribution and spending limits during the 1995 gubernatorial race.
The 1995 campaign was the first conducted under a partial public financing scheme where campaigns were limited to $1.8 million total spending. Any spending by outside organizations that was coordinated with the campaign could be counted against the total.
"I never even suspected that anyone would interpret the law to mean that a campaign couldn't communicate with an organization or individual who was supporting it," Gov. Patton said.
Gov. Patton said he favored the campaign finance rules and worked to make sure they were followed.
"Experience may expose a need to expand the details of the law so that future slates of candidates can be more clearly guided in their conduct of a campaign, but to judge retrospectively people who were doing their best at the time to follow a new and untested law is very unfair," Gov. Patton said.
During a news conference prior to embarking on a campaign trip for Democratic senatorial candidate Scotty Baesler, Gov. Patton said the allegations should have been made public long ago in the three-year investigation.
And, like attorneys for the four defendants, Gov. Patton complained about the lack of specificity in the terse, single-paragraph indictments.
