Y'all, we got to chat
Grossberg, education news, 2026 updates
Wow, what an absolutely awful time to take a week off of the newsletter to observe a federal holiday on a Friday!
Y’all, we have a lot to discuss, so let’s dive right in.
Grossberg “probably” did multiple bad things
Kentucky’s Legislative Ethics Commission decided earlier this week that they have probable cause that Rep. Daniel Grossberg, a Louisville Dem who has been under state ethics investigation for a year for a series of alleged misconduct, actually really did mis-conduct.
So, so, so many reports and allegations have flown around Grossberg over the last year, but the commission specifically found probable cause he violated state ethics policy three times:
When Grossberg attempted to get contributions in exchange for “possible state catering business or private company”
When Grossberg met with now-Lexington Councilperson Emma Curtis in his Capitol office, got drunk and asked her a series of sexually intimate and generally inappropriate questions
And, of course, when Grossberg made intimidating statements to a private business, which is probably tied to the time he tried to grab a stripper’s crotch and/or offered a stripper thousands of dollars to have sex with him (so, like, lowkey prostitution) and ended up getting banned for life from a Shively strip club.
There are kinda two potential next steps. The most likely one is that this will head to a public hearing process, which I’m told could be an absolutely wild time. So far, much of the KLEC stuff has happened behind closed doors.
Grossberg could also take a settlement and avoid having even more of his transgressions aired out publicly. But it is important to note that KLEC offered him a chance last month to end the whole thing and just accept his fate, and he refused to do it. So.
No timeline yet, and no ETA on getting a potential timeline.
Oh, and Grossberg’s lawsuit that tried to stop the private hearing that led to the public vote determining probable cause from last month is still pending, so the courts may get involved.
Maybe sexual harassment should be ethical misconduct?
One important thing to note is that much of what Grossberg was accused of involved sexual harassment. But he can’t really get in trouble for that as a lawmaker, because it is not currently considered to be ethical misconduct.
Yes, I’m serious.
But KLEC is once again asking lawmakers to consider changing that in the 2026 legislative session. They’re asking for “a comprehensive ethical prohibition against sexual harassment
by legislators and legislative agents against legislative branch employees, legislators, or legislative agents.” (Legislative agents are lobbyists.)
A few notes: As pitched, this does little to discipline harassment aimed at people working in and around Ky. politics and policy who don’t technically count as staff, lawmakers or lobbyists. For example, as pitched, if a lawmaker sexually harassed me, that does not appear to count as ethical misconduct.
Additionally, the proposal doesn’t mention legislative staff as a group that could get in trouble for acting unethically if they were to sexually harass one of the identified groups. I’m assuming that might be because that’s a bit outside of the purview of the legislative ethics commission and discipline for LRC staff would be up to the LRC, but if that isn’t the case, that could be a slight issue.
And someone tried to pass something like this during the 2025 session and it went nowhere. So.
Just a whole lot of Election 2026 updates
I thought this was supposed to be an off-year for Kentucky election coverage? But no, all sorts of stuff is happening re: races to replace Mitch McConnell and Andy Barr, plus the trickle-down effect on state-level races.
Here’s a rapid fire recap:
Congress
GOP State Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe decided she is NOT running for Barr’s seat in Congress, but she did say “a great candidate” will be joining the race soon and she will be going “all-in with him.”
Soon after that statement, RALPH ALVARADO — yes, I’m serious — says he’s strongly considering running for that seat. Mind you, Alvarado ran and lost with Matt Bevin in 2019, and was in state senate for a bit before winning reelection in 2022 and quickly announcing he was fleeing the state to be TN’s health commissioner.
Apparently, he is still registered to vote in Winchester and still practices medicine in the area. And he said he would step down from the TN role should he decide to run. But, I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize one could hold a high-ranking position in state government in one state and then run for Congress in a district in another state that is hours away. But OK.
Oh, and then GOP state Rep. Deanna Frazier Gordon announced she wants in, too.
So, as things stand right now, it looks like the KY-06 race to replace Barr currently has Gordon and GOP state Rep. Ryan Dotson, and Dems Cherlynn Stevenson and David Kloiber. Jury is still out on some other names that have been rumored, and folks have several more months to decide whether or not to run.
Also in 2026 midterm news, Congressman Thomas Massie may definitely get a Trump-backed primary challenger, and it might lowkey be state Sen. Aaron Reed. He’s the guy with the cowboy hat.
Meanwhile, it appears Elon Musk is interested in rallying behind Massie due to the way Massie actually has always wanted the cuts that Musk also wanted. Would also be an escalation in the Musk/Trump breakup saga.
In EKY, Dem Ned Pillersdorf launched his campaign to unseat GOP Congressman Hal Rogers.
Senate
MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk came to Kentucky to vouch for new US Senate candidate Nate Morris, and because of that, I learned Kirk is allegedly 6’5”.
State-level
And at the state level, GOP state Rep. Bill Wesley — the guy who made accosting a transgender woman using the bathroom at the state Capitol his entire personality earlier this year — is running for state Senate in EKY. He’s challenging incumbent GOP state Sen. Brandon Smith, who — based on his Facebook post — appears to be completely unbothered by this.
It is important to note that folks can’t be on the ballot twice in Kentucky, so Gordon, Dotson and Wesley won’t be able to run for their state House seats next year.
I’m pretty sure I’m forgetting somebody/somebodies in this section, but I cannot remember who. Apologies if I did actually forget something.
And everything else
Auditor Allison Ball dropped her office’s audit into the Ky. Dept. of Ed and it was such a wackadoodle time, my brain is refusing to recall everything she found. But largely she found a series of “insufficiencies” that were already kinda public knowledge.
Like, Kentucky isn’t hitting the student-to-counselor ratio passed into law as part of the state’s major school safety push following a deadly school shooting in Marshall County. But that’s been known for a while, and state lawmakers haven’t really pushed to fund that thing they wanted out of schools.
Welcome to new JCPS Superintendent Brian Yearwood, who survived his first JCPS school board meeting Tuesday evening.
Speaking of education, turns out former Beechwood Superintendent Mike Stacy can no longer be a teacher in Kentucky after not telling the state’s educator licensure board about a teacher facing allegations of grooming and sexual misconduct with a student. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s NKY reporter Jolene Almendarez lays the whole situation out well in this story.
One last thing
I’ve taken up enough of y’all’s time, but one more thing: I remain on the hunt for ideas for the upcoming mailbag newsletter and coverage in general. Please share your ideas in this survey! Thank you in advance.