KFTC Blog | Kentuckians For The Commonwealth

KFTC Blog

Kentucky Needs a Safety Net that Works for Us, Not Against Us

Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 20, 2020

Many Kentuckians are simply a lost job, new baby, accident or illness away from qualifying for Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP),

Kentucky students speak out against guns in schools, Senate Bill 8

Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 19, 2020

Kentuckians need our legislators to put education first. Instead, they prioritized their political wants above what our students really need with Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), which forces a firearm into every public school in the state.


Teachers across the commonwealth are paying for classroom supplies out of their own pockets or fundraising for the resources our students need to learn. Our kids and their teachers deserve funding for projects that nurture and educate, not for guns in schools.

Voting Rights EO Decision Tree

Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 19, 2020

With information from the Campaign Legal Center's RestoreYourVote.org tool, KFTC has developed a decision tree to use in the field to help people determine if Governor Andy Beshear's Executive Order restoring voting rights to 140,000 Kentuckians applies to them.  Here's a link to the PDF and an image of it is below.  

DecisionTree

Click the image  to enlarge

KFTC’s London office is on track to be completely solar-powered!

Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 12, 2020

Solar panels on KFTC's London office building

Solar panels were recently installed on KFTC’s main office in London. This was the final step in a series of energy upgrades that the building had been undergoing in the last several months, which puts the office building on track to be completely solar-powered.

Northern Kentucky Hosts Coffee For The Commonwealth

Posted by: Joe Gallenstein on February 10, 2020

The Northern Kentucky chapter hosted their first Coffee For The Commonwealth in January, inviting legislators representing Kenton County to meet for coffee with constiutents in an informal setting

Big week for Voting Rights last week

Posted by: KFTC Staff on February 6, 2020

Over 36 hours, we had three big voting rights events – a Voting Rights Lobby Day, a Criminal Justice Panel Discussion, and a Press Conference for HB 6.

1-28-20 Frankfort Lobbying-3121 20200128_094608

Voting Rights Lobby Day

In all, we had 34 documented meetings with legislators, 8 lobby teams, and 28 grassroots lobbyists plus the Kentucky Council of Church's great Prayer Day of Action on Voting Rights and 60 UFCW workers there who talked to legislators about HB 6 as a part of their meetings.

Our members built up their confidence in speaking truth to power and we had frustrating and yet valuable conversations with foes and allied legislators alike.

We got a lot done today and we can build on it. Come join us in Frankfort to continue the work!

Voter Suppression is Violence – stop Senate Bill 2

Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 23, 2020

x20200122_102707KFTC members were in Frankfort and on the phones yesterday to fight Senate Bill 2, a photo voter ID law designed to make it harder for some Kentuckians to vote by creating new hurdles for them. It’s especially troubling for young, elderly, low income and people of color communities – people who are less likely to have or need a photo ID. 

SB 2 is supposed to make it harder for people to impersonate someone else on election day. But even the bill's supporters at the hearing couldn't come up with even one example this century of any time anyone tried to do that in Kentucky.

To address this non-existent problem, they’re trying to pass a complicated 66-page bill that restructures a lot of our voting process and they’re trying to do it all in a hurry.

We ought to be making it easier for citizens to vote, though, not harder.

Voting Rights Coalition gathers to set the stage for 2020

Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 13, 2020

Voting Rights Coalition Meeting 1/13/19

Over 40 people from 22 organizations gathered yesterday in Frankfort to celebrate our recent victories around voting rights, come to a shared understanding of Beshear’s executive order, to plan our work in the General Assembly to pass a robust constitutional amendment, and to start to think about how we can work together to register the estimated 140,000 Kentuckians who just regained the right to vote.

Our legislative focus between now and April 15 will be on HB 6, Charles Booker’s bill to restore voting rights to all Kentuckians after they’ve served their time.  This bill is still needed because it doesn’t have the same exclusions as Beshear’s Executive order and it would be permanent. 

To make a difference in this campaign in just a few minutes, you can call the Legislative Message Line (800-372-7181) and leave a message for your senator and representative, plus House and Senate Leadership to say that you “support HB 6.”

How do I know if Beshear's executive order restored my right to vote?

Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 13, 2020


We won a major victory late last year when Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order restoring the right to vote to an estimated 140,000 people with felonies in their past.

Our allies at the Campaign Legal Center put together a great tool at www.Restoreyourvote.org to help people figure out whether Andy Beshear's Executive Order applies to them.


It asks a series of questions to determine if someone can register to vote, and if so, connects you with an online voter registration portal. For people excluded from the executive order but who have served their time, there's still the option of requesting voting rights through an individual partial pardon from the Governor.


Exclusions in the executive order are:

You can run for office (and win) - Filing deadline is Friday Jan 10th

Posted by: KFTC Staff on January 7, 2020

IMG_1457We don't always get the candidates we want or deserve.  Sometimes bad politicians go unopposed on election day or we're forced to choose between the "lesser of two evils."  We do the best we can with the candidates we have, keeping our eyes on our vision and longterm meaningful political change, but our voter work sure is more fun and more impactful with great candidates. 

We are Kentuckians.  We are our own best chance for change.  Maybe we're the candidates we've been waiting for.  Maybe you know and respect someone who would run for office if you encouraged them to.  Maybe it's time that you run for office yourself.

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