Beshear administration official admits to raising contributions from state workers

Courier Journal

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Walter Gaffield, an official of the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet during Democrat Steve Beshear's administration, admitted Monday to three ethics violations alleging he raised political contributions on state time and at his workplace.

The ethics charges were released along with a settlement Monday at a meeting of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

Gaffield, of Lexington, was a longtime state employee who served in the politically appointed job as the Personnel Cabinet's executive director of Administrative Services from 2010 to 2015. He left in December 2015 shortly after Republican Gov. Matt Bevin took office.

In a settlement agreement released by the ethics commission, Gaffield admitted he used his position to solicit campaign contributions from other political employees within the cabinet during state work hours and in state offices. He also admitted that he made references to the workers' supervisors during the solicitations and that he collected some of the contributions while at his state workplace.

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Under the settlement Gaffield agreed to pay a $6,000 fine and accept the commission's public reprimand. He declined to comment on the matter Monday.

The three ethics counts against Gaffield say he made the unethical solicitations for a gubernatorial re-election campaign in 2010-12, for a Jefferson County judicial candidate in 2012-14, and for another gubernatorial campaign between 2014 and 2016.

The charges and settlement papers do not identify the specific campaigns for which Gaffield was raising money at these times and do not allege any wrongdoing by those campaigns.

But in the first time frame Steve Beshear was the only gubernatorial candidate running for re-election. Records of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance also show that among the contributions Gaffield has made in recent years were $1,000 to Steve Beshear's re-election in the first time frame listed in the charges; $300 in the second, to the campaign of Court of Appeals Judge Irv Maze; and $1,250 in the third, to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jack Conway.

A spokesman for Beshear said the former governor was not immediately available for comment Monday afternoon. Conway said he had no recollection of Gaffield or his contributions and that his campaign returned any contributions that appeared improper. Maze said he does not know Gaffield or the circumstances of Gaffield's contributions.

Ethics charges are allegations of civil violations, not criminal charges. Gaffield had the opportunity to contest the charges at a hearing, but he waived that right in the settlement.

At the Personnel Cabinet during the Beshear administration, Gaffield served under Secretary Tim Longmeyer, who last year pleaded guilty to a far more serious federal charge of bribery for operating a political kickback scheme from the cabinet. Longmeyer is currently serving a 70-month sentence for that conviction.

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at 502-875-5136 or tloftus@courier-journal.com