Real estate developer and gambling company are among top donors to Beshear super PAC

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear’s super PAC In This Together reported raising $618,200 during the first half of this year to the Federal Election Commission late Thursday.

The super PAC was founded soon after the governor’s reelection in 2023 and funds his ongoing political activity and aspirations as he explores a possible run for president in 2028.

In This Together is the type of political committee that can accept contributions of unlimited amounts. And it got three big ones earlier this year. The report filed with the FEC discloses:

• TDA Properties of Elizabethtown contributed $100,000 on March 25. Kentucky Secretary of State records list Tim Aulbach as president of TDA Properties.
• Ullico Management Co. gave $90,000 on June 2. The Washington, D.C.-based  insurance and investment company serves trade union members.
• ECL Entertainment of Las Vegas, gave $75,000 on March 21. ECL Entertainment owns Kentucky Downs race track in Franklin and four gambling parlors where players bet on so-called “historic horseracing” machines.

But the report filed with the FEC this week reveals only a part — perhaps only half, or less — of the details of In This Together’s financial condition because the PAC also reports part of its contributions and expenses to the Internal Revenue Service. The report it must file with the IRS is not due until later this month.

While no final conclusions about the super PAC’s fundraising and spending can be drawn until that disclosure with the IRS is posted, nearly all of the spending listed in the report filed Thursday with the FEC went for operating expenses.

The report lists only one disbursement that follows the purported purpose of the super PAC, which is to help political candidates and causes that share Beshear’s political beliefs and goals. That was a $2,200 contribution to the political committee of Michael Mueller, the Franklin County judge executive.

The largest expenses by far were paid to GPS Impact, of Des Moines, Iowa. They totaled $129,000 and paid for list acquisition, digital consulting and digital ads.

Other big expenses were: $43,800 to Outperform Strategies, the Louisville political consulting firm headed by Beshear’s longtime political strategist Eric Hyers; $30,000 to Elias Law of Washington, D.C., for legal services; $25,000 to the fundraising consulting firm headed by Beshear’s longtime fundraiser Lucas Johnson; $18,000 to Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, North Carolina; $17,500 to CFO Compliance of Providence Rhode Island, for compliance consulting; $15,000 to Capital Strategies of Marina Del Rey, California, for strategic consulting; and $12,000 to Lauren Hitt of Washington DC, for communications consulting.

in a response to emailed questions from Kentucky Lantern, Hyers suggested the pending report to be filed with the IRS will list much more direct spending by In This Together to help  Beshear-supported candidates, including a “six figure” expense for targeted mail that helped Susan Crawford win election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in the spring.

Big donors during the period other than the three listed above include several state contractors, companies closely regulated by state government, lobbyists and appointees of Beshear to important state boards. These other big donors include:

• Morgan Collins Yeast and Salyer, of London, $25,000. Lawyers in the firm have been large and consistent donors to Beshear. Beshear appointed partner McKinnley Morgan to chair the Kentucky Personnel Board.
• State highway contracting companies headed by the Cleary family of Tompkinsville, $15,000.
• LG&E of Louisville, $10,000.
• McGhee Engineering of Guthrie, $10,000
• Nine engineers with state engineering contractor GRW each gave $1,000 to total $9,000.

Donors listed as giving $5,000 during the period include: Beshear’s father, former Gov. Steve Beshear; Nachiketa Bhatt of Prospect, who heads Freedom Adult Day Healthcare; Joe Ellis, a Benton optometrist appointed to the Board of Optometry by Beshear; David Figg of Beaver Dam, an appointee of Beshear’s to the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees; Hal McCoy of Hopkinsville, husband of Elizabeth McCoy who was appointed to the UK Board by Beshear; Frank Shoop, the Georgetown car dealer who recently stepped down as a UK trustee; Leslie Haney, a Lexington engineer with EA Partners, which has long held state contracts; and lobbyists Sherman Brown and Bob Babbage.

The Kentucky Lantern plans to post a comprehensive story later this month after it files its other disclosure report with the IRS.

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