Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Goodwine already had a massive fundraising advantage in her Kentucky Supreme Court race, but now the Louisville teachers’ union is helping her widen that margin.
Better Schools Kentucky, the Jefferson County Teachers Association’s political action committee, reported Monday it will spend $200,000 on advertising to support Goodwine’s candidacy.
Last week, Goodwine’s campaign reported raising $223,165 for the general election, more than ten times that of her opponent in the race, Frankfort attorney Erin Izzo, who had raised only $20,679, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.
The heavy union spending in the nonpartisan judicial race follows Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s high-profile endorsement of Goodwine, which an independent judicial watchdog group criticized for its potential to “further blur the line between judicial and partisan elections.”
The Louisville teachers’ union is no stranger to making large political contributions. The group spent $500,000 to help elect Beshear in 2019 and chipped in $300,000 for his reelection in 2023. While the union typically supports Democratic candidates, it also spent $300,000 on ads in several state House primaries this year to support Republican candidates it deemed more supportive of public education.
JCTA president Maddie Shepherd told Kentucky Public Radio they were getting involved in the Supreme Court race because they’ve “seen a number of issues that affect both education, teachers and unions make their way to the courts” over the past several years.
Citing an interest in making sure that there are “reasonable, pro-public education, pro-union folks that are in positions of power,” Shepherd said a review of Goodwine’s record showed she was the candidate “most aligned with our values.”
The union PAC’s filing with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance indicated its spending will go through a separate PAC called Liberty & Justice for Kentucky, which spent roughly $338,000 on ads in a 2022 Kentucky Supreme Court race for incumbent Justice Michelle Keller
Kentucky Supreme Court races are nonpartisan, but the Goodwine-Izzo race is starting to resemble the Keller race from 2022, where partisan messaging and endorsements were common and criticized.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear took the unusual step of endorsing Goodwine in March, along with a $2,100 contribution to her campaign from his PAC, In This Together.
In a speech at a Democratic fundraiser in June, Beshear boasted that “we’re gonna elect the first Black woman in Kentucky Supreme Court history.”
Beshear’s endorsement could “have the effect of eroding public confidence in the impartiality of judiciary,” said the Kentucky Judicial Campaign Conduct Committee, a judicial watchdog group concerned about the increasingly partisan nature of Kentucky’s nonpartisan judicial races.
In a June letter to Goodwine, the committee wrote that Beshear’s endorsement could erode public confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary.
“While a justice may recuse from a case, the governor appoints the temporary replacement justice. So, we think members of the Executive Branch, especially the governor, should not be involved in judicial elections,” the committee wrote.
In response, Goodwine said Beshear’s support would not prevent her from adhering to “the highest ethical standards.”
Goodwine and Izzo are running for the 6th District of the Kentucky Supreme Court, the only race for the high court this year. The central Kentucky district includes Fayette County and seven nearby counties, including Franklin. A plurality of registered voters in the district are Democrats — 47%, to Republicans’ 40%.
In addition to Beshear and Better Schools Kentucky, Goodwine has also been endorsed by the Kentucky AFL-CIO labor union and the pro-LGBTQ+ rights group Fairness Campaign.
In response to the JCTA spending for Goodwine, Izzo told Kentucky Public Radio it “reeks of a significant attempt to buy influence on our Supreme Court.”
“Voters should reject it, and demand fairness and impartiality from our judges at all levels,” Izzo said. “Kentuckians deserve a Supreme Court that is independent, not one acting as a rubber stamp for a left wing SuperPAC and the Teachers’ Unions.”
To date, no PACs have registered with the state to spend on behalf of Izzo’s candidacy
Izzo has mostly self-funded her campaign, reporting just more than $4,000 from contributors, according to online campaign finance records. Among those are $800 from the Madison County Republican Party and Fayette County Republican Women’s Club.
Big PACs involved again in high court race
The 2022 Supreme Court race in the GOP-majority northern Kentucky district turned into an overtly partisan race, with former Republican state legislator Joe Fischer’s campaign touting him in ads as “the conservative Republican" candidate and using elephant imagery associated with the GOP.
Fischer sued the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission that year to block the state agency from investigating his campaign for alleged violations, namely running a partisan race.
The Republican State Leadership Committee, a national GOP group, spent $375,000 on ads to elect Fischer. Liberty & Justice for Kentucky spent nearly that amount on ads supporting Keller, with the PAC mostly funded by labor unions — including $100,000 from the Kentucky Education Association, the statewide teachers union.
Keller won the race by nearly 10 percentage points, despite Republicans having a large voter registration advantage in the district.
This story has been updated with additional information.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
