Attorney General

The Attorney General serves as the state's chief prosecutor, chief law enforcement officer and the state's chief law officer, writing opinions to government officials and agencies concerning the law.

The winner will be elected Attorney General of Kentucky for the next 4 years.

Candidates

  • Russell Coleman (R)

    www.rcforag.com
    This candidate failed to respond to our survey.

  • Pamela Stevenson (D)

    www.pamforag.com
    Candidate survey responses below.

1. How does your background qualify you for serving in this office? Please provide examples of your work to protect and promote civil rights in Kentucky.     

Stevenson (D) - With a J.A.G. career that spanned 4 continents, I have prosecuted crimes, defended the innocent, represented servicemembers and the Air Force in civil matters, and taught human rights and justice. With 39 years of legal experience at the local, state, federal, and international levels, I am one of the most qualified candidates ever to seek the office of Attorney General.  As a state legislator I have sponsored and cosponsored legislation that would restore voting rights to ex-felons, automatically issue an identification card for newly released ex-convicts and protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination.

2. Some Kentucky communities have passed ordinances stating that people will not be questioned about immigration status by local authorities, and that local police will only assist federal agents in enforcing immigration laws when there is a warrant signed by a judge or a risk of violence. How would you use your authority as Attorney General to uphold these policies? Please explain.     

Stevenson (D) - Here is what I’m not going to do:  Waste taxpayer dollars and resources from already strapped law enforcement agencies to harass law abiding Kentuckians regardless of their citizenship status; I will not be joining lawsuits with other Attorneys General that will divert taxpayer resources and dollars to target and harass communities of people who are striving to achieve their version of the American Dream; I will not allow the office of the Attorney General to become weaponized against our fellow Kentuckians because they are seeking to live a law abiding life in a safer place than where they were born; I will not allow the office of the Attorney General to disrupt our farm communities where immigrant labor has become a necessity to feed families across the country and the world.

3. Kentucky has the 7th highest incarceration rate in the nation overall and disproportionately imprisons Black people.   If elected, what will you do to make strides toward ending and reducing mass incarceration?     

Stevenson (D) - We must first recognize that we cannot arrest our way out of our problems.  Our commonwealth is being challenged by the scourge of opioids, fentanyl and other illegal drugs; we are saddled with the challenges of poverty in inner city neighborhoods as well as on the roads of our rural counties; poverty and addiction create a powerful desperation that manufactures crime and criminal activity.  For us to live in safer communities and to end the expensive practice of mass incarceration, we need to make investments in our people.  Not just the financial kind, but the kind where we put rehabilitation in front of incarceration for non-violent offenders and create diversion programs for those battling the disease of addiction.  Our solutions must always be focused on how to prevent our people from becoming future statistics and that takes real investment from our state government partners.

April Taylor
KFTC member from Lexington, KY

“One of the first things we have to do is look at non-violent crimes people are forced to plead guilty to, but all that jail time doesn't do anything to reduce violent crimes or make our community safer. Police go after low-level drug offenses like for marijuana and disproportionately target Black and brown communities. Officers in my area planted evidence on people for years and only recently got caught. As a society, we shouldn't ruin lives for something that doesn't make us safer. Police officers have limited time. They should use it doing things that reduce crime. On top of that, we have too many prisons in Kentucky. Empty prison beds in KY might be driving demand for more arrests for prisons to be profitable. It shouldn't be that way.”

April Taylor

4. Kentucky's Energy and Environment Cabinet has cut deals that let polluters off without any fines, including a Western Kentucky coal plant that leaked arsenic into the local water supply. As Attorney General, what is your plan to hold polluters and state agencies accountable for gross violations and systemic non-enforcement of environmental laws?     

Stevenson (D) - As Attorney General, I will use every resource at my disposal to hold those that illegally pollute our water supply, our food supply or our air accountable.  My office will work closely with federal partners and organizations whose mission it is to ensure that our water is safe to drink, our crops are fit to eat and our air is clean enough to breathe.  If a state agency is allowing for an operator or company to continue to operate with the knowledge that the operator or company is in violation of the law, then I will open an investigation into the agency and those within it who are allowing these violations to occur.

5. The Attorney General has an important role in protecting consumer interests in utility rate cases. As Attorney General, what are the principles that would guide your intervention in utility rate cases? Would you support policies and rate structures that encourage energy efficiency and distributed renewable energy and help reduce the financial burden on low-income Kentuckians? Please explain.     

Stevenson (D) - As your next Attorney General, I will take my role as the “People’s Lawyer” seriously and commit myself to being Kentucky’s consumer watchdog.  That means that I will be a vigilant advocate against unfair and unnecessary rate hikes and will work within the law to hold public utilities accountable when they violate their mission to provide affordable power to Kentuckians.  It is every elected official's duty to support and advocate for policies and structures that will prevent or reduce financial burdens for those that they serve.  I will always champion policies that will allow new energies to be as widely used as our fossil fuel industry has been and continues to be.

6. What steps have you taken or would you take to fight political corruption in Kentucky and ensure open, fair and transparent government at the state and local levels?     

Stevenson (D) - Partnerships are key to cracking down on political corruption.  We have many agencies, advocacy groups (both public and non-profit), and partners at different levels of government that are all monitoring how public dollars are spent and how our public business is conducted.  But, sometimes we are not communicating effectively with each other.  In my office, I would assign a public corruption working group that streamlines communications and shares information with our partners who are sharing the burden of keeping corruption out of Kentucky.  This way, we can create a system that will focus on preventing the spread of corruption as well as the prosecution of those that are involved in corruption.

7. Too many Kentucky communities lack reliable, safe, and affordable drinking water. Recently the water crisis in Martin County made headlines, and similar problems exist across our Commonwealth. As Attorney General, how would you use the power of your office to investigate and hold accountable local water districts and ensure that the public has access to safe, reliable and affordable drinking water?     

Stevenson (D) - In 2023, every Kentuckian should have potable drinking water.  This means that we have a lot of work to do to right the wrongs of administrators of the past.  We need to work with the Department of Local Government among other partners to identify which water districts are well-managed and which ones could be either corrupt or negligent in their conduct.  This is an issue that I have been committed to learning more about, by joining with the Mountain Caucus to seek answers to this continuing problem.  As your next Attorney General, I will use the power of my office to ensure the safety of drinking water and to work on reforming broken water districts that are failing Kentuckians.

8. In the face of efforts to try to erode reproductive rights, several state Attorneys General have taken action to protect access to abortions that are legal in their states, from setting up hotlines to make sure that medical providers and people seeking care know their rights, sharing resources for accessing care, and participating in litigation to protect access to care. What would you do as Attorney General to try to protect reproductive rights in Kentucky?  

Stevenson (D) - Most importantly, I see healthcare as a basic human right, and that means all healthcare including women’s reproductive health.  Alongside of that I put the highest value on personal freedom.  That means to remove the government from interfering with your ability to have ownership of your own life.  In the case of protecting access to abortion, I will seek out and implement national best practices that are working for women in other states across the country.  As your Attorney General, I will not act in the service of an extreme legislature to violate the constitutional rights of Kentuckians.  I will always defend a woman’s freedom to make her own healthcare choices.