LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Of the over 100 bills filed during the first week of the Kentucky legislative session, one would make significant changes to down-ballot elections. 

What You Need To Know

  • Senate Bill 50 would make more city-level offices partisan

  • This includes city councils, mayors and school boards 

  • Bill co-sponsor Republican Damon Thayer said the change would give voters more information about candidates

  • Opponents of SB 50 believe partisan ideologies don't impact issues they govern

Senate Bill 50 would make city-level races, such as school boards and city council seats, partisan. Meaning, if you want to run in those races, yu have to pick a political affiliation or run as an independent. 

Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, (R-Georgetown), is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. Thayer told Spectrum News the changes are to better inform voters about the candidates. 

“I think telling people you’re a Republican or a Democrat or Independent gives people more information, I think people can make better decisions and I think we will end up with school boards and city councils that more accurately reflect the people they represent,” Thayer said. 

Senate Bill 50 has been assigned to the State and Local Government Committee. 

The proposed changes will also affect county commissioners, mayors, soil and water conservation officers. 

James Craig, a recently re-elected Jefferson County Public School board member, opposes the bill.

“Affixing a Republican or Democratic label to a school board candidate doesn’t really tell you much about what the candidate will think about the nonpartisan issues that school boards must deal with on a day to day basis,” Craig said. 

Craig represents District 3, which covers the eastern parts of the school district. He’s also a lawyer and has two students in JCPS. 

Craig believes the proposed change could even give voters “bad information” as partisan issues such as foreign policy or abortion access, are irrelevant to the work of school boards. 

“Think about grading systems, think about student behavior issues, to think about building new school systems, these things don’t lend themselves to partisan divides, they lend themselves to thoughtful, nuanced discussions that unfortunately a partisan election would obfuscate,” Craig said. 

Bonnie Jung, the mayor of Douglass Hills, a small municipality in Jefferson County, also opposes SB 50. 

“The mass majority of cities are nonpartisan, and try to interject that into every table of any city or even in every county government. It’s not good for the folks,” Jung said. 

Like Craig, Jung brings up the fact that city business like trash collection, roads and snow removal aren’t issues tied to a party. 

Still, where candidates stand politically is something Thayer wants to ensure people are informed about. 

“I think people don’t know very much about the people running for those offices because they don’t know what party they’re affiliated with,” Thayer said. 

If SB 50 was enacted, Jung believes hot-button issues, such as abortion, could influence more elections, as she believes it did in the race for Louisville mayor. 

“I think that that hot-button issue absolutely had something to do with a lot of the races that we just had,” Jung said. 

Jung adds she doesn’t know, nor care, the party affiliation of the people on her council.

Lawmakers return to Frankfort in early February. Senate Bill 50 will be one of many pieces of legislation on their plate.

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