Kentucky AG Russell Coleman amasses mighty war chest for reelection in ’27

FRANKFORT — During the past two years political committees supporting Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman have quietly raised $1 million, most of it from out of state, including massive contributions from tobacco interests.

One committee is Coleman’s own reelection committee, which formed in 2024 and reported to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance last week that it has raised $479,379 and currently holds a balance of $350,283.

The other is a super PAC called Safer Kentucky that supported Coleman in 2023 and apparently supports his reelection. Safer Kentucky has raised $517,724 in the past two years and currently holds a balance of $351,086.  

Unlike Coleman’s campaign committee, a super PAC like Safer Kentucky can accept contributions of unlimited amounts in an independent effort to support political candidates. Safer Kentucky reports these big contributions from tobacco interests:

• PMI (Philip Morris International) Global Services, of San Rafael, California, gave $50,000 to Safer Kentucky last October. PMI is registered to lobby the Kentucky General Assembly. Super lobbyist Patrick Jennings represents its interests in Frankfort. Jennings is also a donor of $2,200 to Coleman’s reelection campaign.
• RAI Services Company (Reynolds American), of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has given $52,900 to Safer Kentucky and another $2,100 to Coleman’s reelection committee. It also actively lobbies the General Assembly.  
• Altria Client Services, of Richmond, Virginia, has given $50,000 to Safer Kentucky and another $2,200 to Coleman’s reelection committee. Altria’s top Frankfort lobbyist is John McCarthy, who gave $2,200 to Coleman’s reelection committee as did his wife Cindy.
• Xcaliber International, of Pryor, Oklahoma, which advertises itself as “America’s largest deep-discount tobacco manufacturer’: $30,000 to Safer Kentucky. Two of its executives have each given $2,200 to Coleman’s reelection committee.
• Juul Labs Inc., of Washington, D.C., an electronic cigarette maker, gave $15,000 to Safer Kentucky last November.

Other large donors

Tobacco-related companies are not the only large donors to Coleman’s reelection committee and Safer Kentucky:

• Churchill Downs gave $29,070 to Safer Kentucky, and Churchill chief executive William Carstanjen gave Coleman’s committee $2,200.
• Lawyers with the personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan, of Orlando,  combined to give $26,200  to Coleman’s reelection committee.
• William Austin, chair of Starkey Hearing Technologies, of Brownsville, Texas, gave $15,000 to Safer Kentucky. He and two other top Starkey officials combined to give another $6,500 to Coleman’s committee.
• Justin Thompson, owner of the coal company Iron Senergy, of St. Matthews, gave $30,900 to Safer Kentucky. He also gave $2,100 to Coleman’s committee. Another Iron Senergy executive Brian Settles, gave $3,000 to Safer Kentucky and $2,100 to Coleman’s committee.
• Galls LLC, the Lexington company that describes itself as the “trusted source for uniforms, tactical gear and essential equipment for America’s public safety professionals,” gave $20,600 to Safer Kentucky. Three of its executives combined to give $4,921 to Coleman’s committee.

Reports filed last week by Coleman’s reelection committee and Safer Kentucky with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance list scores of other donors giving smaller amounts, many of them lawyers.

What is unusual is the large  amount raised by the two committees and that so many of the donors are from out of Kentucky. The reports show that people and groups from 37 other states and the District of Columbia donated to one or both of the two committees.

The Office of the Attorney General referred questions about the Coleman fundraising to Coleman’s campaign, but Coleman’s campaign declined to answer questions emailed to it by Kentucky Lantern, including  why tobacco interests donated so much and the relationship between Safer Kentucky and Coleman.

Coleman’s campaign replied with only this statement from Coleman: “It is an honor to serve Kentuckians as Attorney General. Every day our Office is fighting to support law enforcement and make Kentucky a safer place to live, work and raise a family. We are just getting started and will continue putting our all into serving Kentucky!”

The phone number listed in election registry records for Safer Kentucky is also the phone number for C&L Compliance, a Washington-area consultant for Safer Kentucky. Messages left at that number by Kentucky Lantern were not returned.

PMI Global Services, RAI Services Company and Altria Client Services did not respond to phone messages from Kentucky Lantern.

Here’s what Kentucky Lantern found in the reports filed by the two committees.

Coleman’s committee

Coleman is the only candidate for statewide office in 2027 who has raised significant money so far. No one from either political party has registered a campaign committee for the 2027 governor’s race.

Only two other candidates for the 2027 statewide offices — like Coleman, Republican incumbents — have raised any money at all. Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell reports raising $42,800.Auditor Allison Ball reports raising about $5,700.

Stephen Voss, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, said the $479,379 raised by Coleman’s committee is a huge amount for a candidate in a down-ballot race so early in a campaign. Because Coleman holds the advantages of incumbency plus his years as a U.S. attorney, the added advantage of such a sizable war chest “almost guarantees victory,” Voss said.

Kentucky law firms that have given the most to Coleman committees in the past year include the Paducah-based Bryant Law Center, whose attorneys and their spouses gave $11,000 to Coleman’s reelection committee and $4,000 to Safer Kentucky. Eighteen attorneys at Frost Brown Todd and that firm’s political action committee combined to donate $16,034 to Coleman’s committee. Other Kentucky donors include Nate Morris, the Lexington entrepreneur who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate this year. Morris donated $2,100.

Among the scores of attorneys from across the country who gave is former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, an attorney with Torridon Law Group, in Washington, listed as giving $1,000 last month. Barr served as attorney general during President Donald Trump’s  first administration.  That role made him Coleman’s boss  during part of the time Coleman served as U.S. attorney in the Western District of Kentucky.

Coleman’s committee reported that a major expense so far has been $34,346 to Delullo & Associates for fundraising consulting.

Delullo & Associates is a Republican political consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. Election registry records show the firm has worked in Kentucky for only two committees, Coleman’s attorney general committee and Safer Kentucky.

Safer Kentucky

Safer Kentucky was formed in 2023. Its  registration form posted on the Kentucky Registry of Election website says its purpose is to make independent expenditures that “support candidates that share our ideals and values.”

Records filed with the election finance registry show that its only expenditures to promote a candidate came late in the 2023 campaign — about $70,000 for text messaging and phone calls in support of Coleman’s first run for attorney general.

Since then, its periodic reports show it remains very active raising and spending money. Like Coleman’s reelection committee, a  major expense over the past two years has been payments to Delullo & Associates (totaling $86,424) for fundraising consulting. 

Those records also show that many donors to Safer Kentucky also gave to Coleman’s reelection committee.

Safer Kentucky’s next largest expense over the past two years has been for strategy consulting: about $60,000 paid to SW2 Political, a Washington area consulting firm. The two top officials of SW2 are Scott Will and Seth Wimer, both formerly top officials of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Will and Wimer are each listed as having given $2,200 to Coleman’s reelection committee last month.

Big Tobacco and optics 

As attorney general, Coleman is the Kentucky official most responsible for enforcing the terms of the Master Settlement Agreement,a landmark pact between nearly all states and large tobacco companies in which the companies were released from state lawsuits seeking recovery for costs incurred for treating illnesses caused by smoking. In exchange the participating companies agreed to make annual payments to the states and restrict their marketing of cigarettes.

Perhaps the most contentious tobacco legislation during Coleman’s first two years as attorney general was House Bill 11 in the 2024 session. Backers of the bill said HB 11 would curb underage vaping by limiting vaping products that can be sold in Kentucky to those products authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or that have a “safe-harbor certification”based on their status with the FDA.

But opponents, organized under the name Kentucky Smoke Free Association, said the bill was a move by Big Tobacco to grab market share. That’s because, opponents say, the vaping products of the large tobacco companies already had FDA authorization, while smaller companies were still awaiting authorization.

After the bill was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, Kentucky Smoke Free filed suit to block its enforcement.

Coleman’s office defended the bill in Franklin Circuit Court. After Judge Thomas Wingate dismissed the suit, Coleman praised the ruling. “Our General Assembly is empowered to make laws protecting Kentuckians’ health and charting our course to a bright future,” Coleman said of the court’s action. “This ruling once again underscores that reality.”

Greg Troutman, attorney for Kentucky Smoke Free, said of the Big Tobacco contributions supporting Coleman, “Based upon what I have seen in other states, the legacy tobacco companies are focusing on state attorneys general with direct and PAC contributions to influence policy. State AGs are responsible for ensuring that legacy tobacco companies comply with the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. A key element of that Agreement prohibits the legacy tobacco companies from engaging in actions which are likely to lead to increased youth tobacco use. It always creates an optics problem when a regulator accepts campaign contributions from regulated parties.”

This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.