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Measure would be on 2026 ballot if House agrees

From Kentucky Lantern

By McKenna Horsley

Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel hopes this is the year lawmakers agree to send voters a constitutional amendment that would limit the pardon and commutation powers of Kentucky governors around an election.

The Ryland Heights legislator’s Senate Bill 126 gained near unanimous approval in the Senate Friday morning, winning 37 yeses with only Democratic Caucus Chair Sen. Reggie Thomas passing on the roll call vote. McDaniel’s bill gained passage in the Senate last year, but died in a House committee.

Because the bill proposes amending the Kentucky Constitution, voters would decide its fate in 2026 should it make it through this General Assembly. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear lacks the authority to veto or sign into law bills proposing constitutional amendments..

McDaniel has filed the bill across multiple years as a response to the flurry of pardons issued by former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin to people convicted of crimes including rape, murder and child abuse after Bevin lost the 2019 election to Beshear.

Speaking to the Senate this year, McDaniel also pointed to controversial pardons and commutations issued by outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, such as a commutation for Native American activist Leonard Peltier, 80, convicted of killing two FBI agents in 1975 during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Kentucky bill would not affect federal actions.

“There will be no more hiding in the darkness of last minutes of an administration,” McDaniel said on the Senate floor ahead of Friday’s vote. “There will be no more allowing the rich and powerful to influence the scales of justice without recourse from the citizens of the commonwealth.”

Under this year’s SB 126, pardons and commutations could not be issued between 60 days before a gubernatorial election and the fifth Tuesday after an election, the date the governor is inaugurated.

When the bill gained approval from the Senate State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday, McDaniel said he increased the time before an election when governors could not issue pardons or commutations to 60 days to make sure information about gubernatorial pardons is available to voters who may vote early. Expanding the time frame was included with input from House members, McDaniel said.

In the House, Rep. Mark Hart, R-Falmouth, has introduced a similar constitutional amendment to limit gubernatorial pardons and commutation powers, House Bill 394. However, Hart’s proposal would prevent governors from issuing such actions to people who have not yet been convicted of a crime except in cases when a person is being investigated or is being prosecuted for a crime.