Grayson announced Friday that he is resigning effective immediately.

Grayson met with Governor Steve Beshear on Thursday to notify him of his decision.

Neither Democrats nor Republican can deny the accomplishments of Secretary Grayson during his near two (2) terms in office.

Grayson modernized the Office of the Secretary of State by bringing more services online, enhanced Kentucky’s election laws through several legislative packages, and revived the civic mission of schools in Kentucky by leading the effort to restore civics education in the classroom.

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is only one of three states who offer a “Fast Track” incorporating service, and Kentucky’s Department of State website has won several awards.

The Kentucky Department of State is headed by the Secretary of State, a constitutional officer of the Commonwealth.

The Kentucky Department of State has many duties, including:  holder of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth,  Chief Election Officer of the Commonwealth, Kentucky Land Office, Maintaining the Governor’s Executive Journal, co-signing all legislation with the Governor, serving out of state summons and warrants, appointing Notary Public’s, granting and revoking business licenses, as well as granting and revoking permission for a company to do business in Kentucky.

“I cannot thank the citizens of Kentucky enough for the opportunity to serve them. During my tenure, we have accomplished nearly every goal we set forth, and I am confident that the Office of the Secretary of State is more efficient and is a better resource for Kentuckians than ever before,” Grayson said.

Governor Beshear announced Friday that he will appoint Elaine Walker, the current mayor of Bowling Green, as Kentucky’s new Secretary of State.

The Commonwealth’s next election for constitutional officers is this year.

Grayson plans to move his family East after the school year is completed.

A child holds a sign reading "Will I Have To Pay In A Negro League." Photo: Ed Reinke / AP

On May 22, 2010 however, the tables turned against Paul at Kentucky’s Republican Party headquarters in Frankfort at a rally organized by the Kentucky Republican Party to rally the Commonwealth’s GOP behind Paul after a bitter primary campaign in which much of the Republican party backed his opponent, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

About 30 demonstrators used Saturday’s meeting as an opportunity to blast Paul for misgivings he expressed about the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  He told MSNBC host Rachel Maddow on Wednesday that he abhors racial discrimination, but suggested the federal government shouldn’t have the power to force restaurants to serve minorities if the business owners don’t want to.

“It’s fundamentally un-American to oppose the Civil Rights Act,” said University of Louisville student Perry Green, flanked by a fellow protester carrying a placard declaring: “Rand The Klan’s Man.”

Paul, a Bowling Green eye doctor and son of former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, didn’t mention the civil rights flap in brief remarks to supporters inside GOP headquarters. He refused to take questions when he left Republican headquarters and drove past the demonstrators standing across the street.

Hundreds of Paul supporters gathered in Frankfort on Saturday to show their support for the first-time candidate. He pledged to hammer on one key message in the general election campaign against Democratic nominee Jack Conway.

“I will call for one simple thing,” Paul said. “Let’s not spend more money than we take in.”

Kentucky’s U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, the highest ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, who had endorsed Grayson in the primary race, called for Republicans to unify behind Paul in the general election and to reach out to Democrats.  “Dr. Rand Paul’s message can win this election,” McConnell said.

Demonstrator Perry Green, left center, talks with Rand Paul supporter Jason Durda as they meet across the street from a Republican Party unity rally in Frankfort, KY, Saturday, May 22, 2010. Photo: Ed Reinke / AP

Despite a bitter primary, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson praised Paul at the rally.

“If you are a Kentucky Republican, a Kentucky Democrat or a Kentucky independent, and you know we have to get our fiscal house in order, there’s only on choice for you in the fall; it’s Dr. Rand Paul,” Grayson said.

TreyGrayson.info, was established to smear Grayson in the primary election, claiming Grayson was Republican “in name only” among other things.

Democrats have seized on some of Paul’s comments since Election Day, including his criticism of U.S. President Barack Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, calling it overtly anti-business.

Paul isn’t the first politician to criticize the government’s handling of the oil spill, but few have dared defend BP in the aftermath of last months’ explosion at the offshore rig that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

But the comment about the Civil Rights Act was what most rankled Ashley Courchene, a retired registered nurse.

“I’m ashamed,” said Courchene, a Frankfort Democrat. “This makes me sick to my stomach that we, as an educated country, would consider electing someone with a Klan mentality to a public office.”

Governor Steve Beshear (D) issued a press release Wednesday calling for Democratic Party unity to defeat Rand Paul in November’s general election. Lieutenant Governor Dan Mongiardo still hasn’t pledged to work on Conway’s behalf. And until he does, that could freeze large numbers of Democratic voters who are faithful to Mongiardo.

RAND PAUL INTERVIEW ON CBS MORNING NEWS:

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. and Copyright © 2010 United We Stand – Kentucky’s LGBTI News. All rights reserved.

Price and Sweeney are running against Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, and Kentucky Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo.

However, according to the Kentucky Secretary of State’s website, neither Sweeney, Conway, Grayson, nor Mongiardo are officially running. Candidates are required by law to register with the Kentucky Department of State when running for political office. Below are the candidates the Kentucky Secretary of State currently have listed as running for U.S. Senate:

It is assumed that Sweeney, Conway, Grayson, and Mongiardo have actually filed, but Kentucky’s Secretary of State, Trey Grayson, the ex-officio Chief Election Officer of the Commonwealth simply hasn’t listed the information for the general public.

To view a complete list of what is presumably all candidates running for office, click here. 

United We Stand – Kentucky’s LGBTI News™ will continue to report news about candidates mainstream media organizations are ignoring.

On December 25, 2009, a man attempted to set off explosives on Detroit-bound airplane. Kentucky’s U.S. Senate candidate Darlene Price, a former special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and author of “BorderGate, the story the government doesn’t want you to read,” released the following statement about the event today:

Immediately following the terror attempt aboard the aircraft, Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano announced: “The system worked.”  The suspect was able to bring explosives on board a flight from Europe to the U.S. and only failed in his “mission” because his bomb didn’t explode but “the system worked.”  Really?  This is a clear failure not only of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), but of the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of which TSA is a component.  These agencies have long been suffering from incompetent management.    The promotion systems in these agencies is the “good old boy” crony system.  The ‘”best and the brightest” are rarely promoted into management positions.  When better qualified agents/inspectors dare to file any type of legitimate complaint or grievance in an attempt to solve this problem, they are immediately silenced– usually with a phony investigation by the Internal Affairs Department (IA).  The retaliation for anyone in these federal agencies who dare to speak truth to power is swift and painful.  I know this firsthand.

Moreover, if an agent/inspector observes any behavior from his/her superiors that would cause a breach in our national security, they risk their careers if they dare to report their managers, even though DHS regulations and some federal laws require them to do so.  There are thousands of government Whistleblowers who have repeatedly given spine-shivering testimony about the gaping holes in our national security to both houses of Congress.  I have testified before them in Washington myself.   The Whistleblowers are neutralized and nothing gets fixed.

Two of the best government watchdog organizations on Capitol Hill are The Government Accountability Project (GAP)  and The Project on Government Over-site (POGO).  Both have been trying for years to get real Whistleblower protection to no avail.  Until agencies like DHS and TSA are no longer allowed to investigate themselves and use IA as the “goon squad” on folks who try to file legitimate complaints, we all remain at risk.

I believe these agencies and others do not have the manpower or the assets to really accomplish their missions.  We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan trying to fight a tactic: terrorism.  You cannot wage a war against a tactic.  While we have focused on military plans since 9-11, we are bleeding money away from greater investments in intelligence, improving infrastructure, and law enforcement techniques.

Most of the actual Al Qaeda terrorists who have been caught and brought to justice have been apprehended through the use of interagency intelligence such as Interpol and cooperative law enforcement and not “boots on the ground” military.  The regular military (army and marines) were not trained to conduct an intelligence gathering manhunt.  They are very good at what they are trained for, but it is not this.

Had our elected officials on Capitol Hill listened to the countless government employee and military whistleblowers over the last 20 years, and had placed into effect even a few of the recommendations from GAP and POGO, maybe 9-11 wouldn’t have happened.  Hindsight is 20-20, but they’re still not listening.  Many counterterrorism experts and top military officials agree that we are not making any real progress in our fight against Al Qaeda by escalating the war in Afghanistan.

“Make wars unprofitable and you make them impossible,” Franklin D. Roosevelt said.  There are a lot of big corporations making tons of money off of these two wars.  Not coincidentally, they are also large contributors to the campaigns of our elected officials on Capitol Hill. This places many in government in a terrible bind and it is not unfair to ask if some of our elected officials are voting the  interests of the funders of their campaigns in the name of national security.  If we don’t fix CRONY CAMPAIGN FINANCING, none of the above will ever get fixed.  It’s time the people take back their government from those who own it now.

The legal bribery of lobbying is the disease.  The rest (wars, threats to national security, substandard education, substandard healthcare etc.) are merely symptoms that will never be cured until we turn our legislatures back to a system of governing, and not a system of “quid pro quo”.