Kentucky optometrists keep campaign cash flowing to the powerful in Frankfort
Republished from Kentucky Lantern
FRANKFORT, Ky. – For decades, optometrists have wielded what seems to be outsized influence in Frankfort.
In 2011, for instance, they rammed a controversial bill through the General Assembly in a matter of days that significantly expanded the types of care optometrists can provide, despite warnings of risks by ophthalmologists, the medical doctors trained in eye care.
In a massive lobbying blitz, optometrists from throughout Kentucky flooded the Capitol, packed committee hearings, greeted lawmakers from their home counties and won passage in just 11 days of a bill that expanded their ability to provide laser and other eye surgeries, prescribe controlled drugs and perform other procedures previously limited to ophthalmologists.
Optometrists also made more than $400,000 in donations to candidates and political causes during that period, according to an analysis by the Courier Journal. They donated to 137 of the 138 members of the legislature — skipping only one, a physician who had announced he would not vote for what he called “a terrible bill.”
“It really was like a blitz,” said Dr. Chip Richardson, a Georgetown ophthalmologist who followed the passage of Senate Bill 110 in 2011. “It was a surprise bill that appeared with no warning.”
As a result, Kentucky “has one of the broadest scopes of practice for optometrists in the United States,” according to the National Board of Examiners in Optometry, which tests candidates for licensure in all 50 states.
Optometrists, who hold a four-year advanced degree in eye care, argued the bill would improve access to quality care and make it more affordable.
At the time, some legislators credited the success of the optometrists to the effort the group had made to establish a relationship with lawmakers.
Outspending doctors, bankers PACs
The relationship is nurtured by 11 registered lobbyists retained by the Kentucky Optometric Association, including super lobbyists John McCarthy, the national committeeman for the Republican Party of Kentucky, and Amy Wickliffe, the former finance chair for the Republican Party of Kentucky.
But the relationship is mostly sustained by a strong, steady flow of campaign cash to those in power in Frankfort, including — but not limited to — Republicans who hold a supermajority in the General Assembly.
The Kentucky Lantern’s analysis of online records of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance and the Federal Election Commission shows that in the past four years, optometrists have made more than $700,000 in contributions to candidates for the General Assembly, governor, other statewide offices and the two state political parties.
The big beneficiaries of the donations are those who wield the power in Frankfort — the Republican supermajorities in the General Assembly and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.
Most of the more than $700,000 was contributed by the Kentucky Optometric Association’s political action committee called Optometric PAC. The Lantern’s analysis shows that Optometric PAC has made 483 contributions since Jan. 1, 2021, totaling about $400,000 to help candidates for the General Assembly. But the PAC contributions were supplemented by more than $300,000 in contributions to candidates for the legislature, governor and other state offices during the same period from more than 100 individual optometrists.
Though not as large as the seven-figure amounts donated by a couple of out-of-state billionaires to affect Kentucky elections in recent years, the Optometric PAC contributions are larger than those of most Kentucky special interest groups. The election registry website shows Optometric PAC gave more in contributions in the past two years than the political action committees of the Kentucky Medical Association and the Kentucky Bankers Association.
Dr. Michael Smith, treasurer of the Optometric PAC, described the political contributions as part of engagement with officials.
“Kentucky optometrists have a long history of civic engagement,” he said in a statement. “The Optometric PAC supports elected leaders who share our goals of accessible, quality health care for Kentuckians.”
Optometric PAC’s contributions are as consistent as clockwork. Most of the 138 state legislators get at least $250 – even those in the tiny Democratic minority. But the big money goes to help re-elect majority Republicans. Optometric PAC has given $20,000 each over to the Republican Party of Kentucky, the House Republican Caucus and Republican Party of Kentucky since Jan. 1, 2021. Majority leaders and key Republicans get more than others. For instance, the campaign committees of House Speaker David Osborne, Speaker Pro Tem David Meade, Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, and Majority Caucus Chair Suzanne Miles each received $8,200 from Optometric PAC since Jan. 1, 2021.
Optometrists push to change licensing exam
Among others who got larger amounts is Rep. Derek Lewis, the London Republican who cochairs the Administrative Regulations Review Subcommittee. Lewis has received $5,700 from Optometric PAC in the past four years. In addition, last October, 14 individual optometrists bundled contributions totaling $3,275 to Lewis’ campaign committee.
Currently the optometrists are seeking a change in state regulations to allow candidates for licensure to substitute an exam offered by Canada for a portion of the standard, national exam — drawing criticism by opponents, who say it is less rigorous than the exam currently used by all 50 states.
Lewis, whose committee heard testimony on the optometrists’ proposal in April, said at the time he was inclined to favor the effort by the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners to allow the Canadian portion of the exam, saying “all the optometrists I spoke to across the state are for this.”
Optometric PAC did not make a contribution to either candidate in the 2023 general election for governor, but scores of individual optometrists did.
Election registry records show that the largest share of the optometrist contributions during the period went to the reelection campaign of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear: 64 optometrists bundled contributions totaling more than $68,000 to Beshear’s reelection committee. In addition, the Optometric PAC donated $15,000 to the Kentucky Democratic Party while Beshear was raising money for his 2023 reelection. Optometric PAC also donated $2,500 to Beshear’s 2023 inauguration committee.
By far the most active donor among the individual optometrists since Jan. 1, 2021 was Dr. Joe Ellis, of Benton, president of the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners, which is pushing for the easier Canadian exam, arguing that prospective optometrists may be discouraged by the difficulty of the U.S. test.
While Ellis has also made contributions to important Republicans like Rudy, Ellis, and Senate President Robert Stivers, the majority of his contributions have gone to Beshear’s political committees. He is among Beshear’s bigger financial backers, giving $4,100 to his reelection campaign, $28,000 to the Kentucky Democratic Party during Besher’s reelection campaign, and $5,000 since Beshear’s reelection to the Beshear super PAC In This Together.
Kentucky secretary of state online records show that Beshear has appointed, and reappointed, Ellis to the Kentucky Board of Optometric Examiners, the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange Advisory Board and the Judicial Conduct Commission.
Beshear’s opponent in the 2023 governor’s election, Republican Daniel Cameron, also got donations from at least 31 optometrists totaling more than $25,000.
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