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Conway Announces First-Quarter Fundraising Totals, Decries Super PAC Influence

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Conway is concerned about the influence that a conservative 501(c)(4) group could have on Kentucky’s fall elections and beyond.

Americans for Prosperity was founded in 2004, and was led by David Koch of the billionaire, right-wing Koch brothers fame. The group and its network of undisclosed donors spent $40 million in 2010 to wrest control of the U.S. House from Democrats.

And with the recent announcement that the group has hired a director for its Kentucky chapter, Attorney General Conway says he’s concerned that the network of “dark” campaign money will warp Kentucky politics.

“I don’t think we ought to let in Kentucky state politics happen what’s happened at the federal level," said Conway. " Because people raise money for Senate campaign or House campaigns, and all of a sudden the corporate interests come in in the end and outspend what the individuals raised, and they treat the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives like it’s members are just nothing more than pawns in a larger corporate game.”
So far, Conway is the lone Democratic candidate running for governor in 2015, and says he plans to use his own PAC to combat the tide of money that is sure to pour into Kentucky this fall and the next.

Conway announced Tuesday his campaign has raised $750,000 dollars since it began in early May. Hal Heiner is the GOP's only declared candidate so far, attempting to replace the term-limited Gov. Steve Beshear.

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