Co-sponsor of Kentucky’s same-sex marriage ban could be part of the Commonwealth’s Congressional Delegation

Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo holds a 7 point lead over Attorney General Jack Conway (pictured). The poll was conducted on behalf of the Lexington Herald-Leader, WKYT, and WAVE.

Lieutenant Governor and former Kentucky Senator Daniel Mongiardo (D) filed a complaint Tuesday with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission against his primary rival, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway (D). The two are facing each other in the Democratic primary. Mongiardo was unsuccessful in his 2004 run against Jim Bunning (R).

Mongiardo says Conway has accepted $70,000 from executives with utilities Conway regulates as the Commonwealth’s chief law enforcement officer and head of the Kentucky Department of Law.

“Attorney General Jack Conway has sworn an oath to represent the ratepayers of Kentucky and I think he fails at this. It’s a clear conflict of interest. It’s obviously unethical and if it’s not illegal it ought to be,” Mongiardo said.

Mongiardo offered four examples in his complaint. They dealt with a $22 million rate increase for LG&E in January 2009; a $5.9 million rate increase for Atmos Energy in June 2009; Conway’s investment of up to $5 million in Texas-based energy company Kinder-Morgan, which does business with Atmos Energy; and a pending rate increase of $262 million for LG&E and Kentucky Utilities (KU).

Conway campaign manager Jonathan Drobis called the ethics complaint a political stunt. “Kentucky law requires that a formal complaint must be signed ‘under penalty of perjury.’ No such statement appears on Mongiardo’s complaint,” Drobis said.

“Under the law, Mongiardo must know he was making material misrepresentations and that’s why he did not make the statement under penalty of perjury – out of fear for being prosecuted for his baseless accusations.”

When Mongiardo served in the Kentucky Senate, he co-sponsored the 2004 Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage and “other similar unions” in Kentucky. In 2009, Kentucky Fairness Alliance’s executive director resigned to join the Mongiardo campaign. Kentucky Fairness Alliance officials have stated their executive director resigning to going the Mongiardo campaign was not an endorsement from the organization for Mongiardo.

In a poll released Wednesday Dan Mongiardo (D) and Rand Paul (R) are the front runners in their respective party’s races for the U.S. Senate representing Kentucky.