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A Jessamine County Republican filed an ethics complaint late Thursday against House Minority Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson, D-Lexington, for jointly purchasing a Frankfort condo with a lobbyist.
But Stevenson has provided the Herald-Leader copies of correspondence with the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission, the body that handles such complaints, clearing her to purchase the condo with lobbyist Sarah Bowling earlier this year.
The person who filed the complaint, Bob Barney of Nicholasville, argued to the ethics commission that Stevenson buying the condo with a lobbyist amounts to a violation of law prohibiting lawmakers from accepting “anything of value from a legislative agent,” according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Herald-Leader.
“By receiving this financial value Representative Cherlynn Stevenson has broken the law and is therefore guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. This matter requires a thorough investigation. If the above facts are determined to be true, Representative Stevenson should be prosecuted,” Barney wrote in his complaint.
Stevenson says the complaint is meritless.
“This complaint has no merit, period. It’s driven solely by election year politics, and I have no doubt it will be cleared if not dismissed quickly,” Stevenson wrote in a message to the Herald-Leader.
Bowling, a lobbyist with Cornerstone Government Affairs who served as a staffer with Kentucky House Democrats from 2017 to 2023 , had cleared the purchase with the highest legislative ethics official in the state in a May email exchange provided to the Herald-Leader by the Stevenson campaign.
“As long as the purchase is made and rent is assessed at a fair market rate, this would be acceptable under the Ethics Code, as it would not constitute an impermissible ‘thing of value,’” commission executive director Laura Hendrix wrote to Bowling.
A Stevenson campaign spokesperson said that the intent with the purchase is to live in the condo during the legislative session, which lasts from Jan. 1 to early-mid Spring, and rent it out the rest of the year. They said that the opinion from Hendrix applies to both circumstances, renting and living, and that the cost of purchasing the condo was evenly split between Stevenson and Bowling.
According to the Franklin County Property Value Administrator, the property was owned by Rake Strategies LLC, a company owned by outgoing House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts, D-Newport , and her husband. In Feb. 2023, the company bought the condo for $95,500.
Bowling and Stevenson closed on the property for $130,000 on July 16 of this year.
The condo is located in the South Frankfort neighborhood and is within walking distance to the state Capitol.
Stevenson, Bowling and Roberts will have to disclose various aspects of the purchase on their latest financial disclosure reports, Hendrix told Bowling. Lobbyists, like legislators, must file certain disclosure reports.
This situation, while rare, is not new territory.
As of his latest report, current House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, is partner in a horse racing business with three different lobbyists, including two of the highest-paid in Frankfort, Patrick Jennings and Marc Wilson.
Further, the Legislative Ethics Commission cleared a similar situation in a 1994 opinion .
Stevenson has risen in the ranks of the state Democratic party since taking office in 2019. She’s won three elections in her district — largely comprised of suburban Fayette County — by three percentage points or fewer.
Earlier this year, she was the only elected Democrat who spoke on stage at Fancy Farm , the state’s premier political speaking event.
Stevenson told the Herald-Leader earlier this month that she intends to run for House Democratic Floor Leader, the highest post in the 20-person caucus, to replace outgoing leader Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort.
The lawmaker is facing a general election opponent in Republican Vanessa Grossl.
Having only defeated a Republican opponent in 2022 by 37 votes, her re-election bid will be one of the closest-watched in the statehouse. According to elections website CNAlysis , Stevenson’s 88th House District went for former president Donald Trump by about five percentage points in 2024.
Grossl did not offer comment on the merits of the complaint.
“Our campaign is watching this unfold along with the public and has no comment. Our opponent and her campaign already attempted to go negative. We look forward meeting voters where they are and talking about our ideas for moving Kentucky forward,” Grossl wrote in a message to the Herald-Leader.
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