Trey Grayson: Republican In Name Only

Trey Grayson Archive

Flashback: Trey on Obama’s Inauguration Day

Trey Grayson’s Assault on the Constitution

I was just notified about this incident. I recommend reading the following letter. – Admin

AN OPEN LETTER TO VOTERS

Take Back Kentucky Members Meeting with Trey Grayson in March 2009

August 30, 2009

On March 3rd of 2009, Norman Davis, Richard Lewis, and myself had the pleasure of meeting with Kentucky’s Secretary of State, Trey Grayson.  Our meeting was to be limited to less than ten minutes, but during that short time we managed to educate Secretary Grayson about Senate Bill 62, and also to learn a little bit about the Secretary himself.

Mr. Lewis started the conversation by asking the Secretary if he had ever read the Bill of Rights or the Kentucky Constitution.  Though he had sworn an oath to the Kentucky Constitution in order to take his position as the Secretary of State, Grayson responded that he had never read that particular document, stating in plain terms, “we never had to read that in law school.”  Although Harvard Law School may not require its students to read each and every Bill of Rights of every state Constitution, it should be required reading for anyone who takes office in their respective state.

Rather than dwell on the oversight of the Secretary and those who elected him, Mr. Lewis continued to explain why we had paid a visit to Frankfort and the Secretary.  We told Secretary Grayson that Senate Bill 62 was being hurried through the legislature, and he seemed to think that the bill would be a good thing for Kentucky, having participated in the drafting of the bill with the Advisory Task Force for Development of the Registry’s Legislative package.  Mr. Lewis asked him specifically if he remembered the previous versions of this bill. Secretary Grayson responded that he did in fact remember the bill and also that he remembered Mr. Lewis’ previous testimonies against the bill.  However, this did not stop him from supporting the bill in previous years, nor did it stop him from supporting this bill in 2009.

Mr. Lewis continued to explain the ramifications of Senate Bill 62, and told the Secretary that this bill would nullify what was written in Section 8 of the Bill of Rights.  Section 8 states that printing presses shall be free to all people, but Senate Bill 62 removes the right of average citizens to have free printing presses and therefore freedom of speech.  At this point, Mr. Davis explained that this would create two classes of citizens regarding the right to freedom of speech.  Mr. Lewis then explained that Senate Bill 62 would exempt the media from election laws while restricting the press rights of individuals or living beings.  The bill would give rights to legal persons, but restrict the rights of living beings.

Secretary Grayson seemed to understand what Mr. Lewis was telling him.  In fact, he had a copy of the book “The Fallacy of Campaign Finance Reform” sitting on his desk, which should have enabled him to understand what we were explaining.  We asked him to please do whatever he could to stop this bill in committee, and he assured us that he would take our opinions into consideration.  Rather than stand by his word, however, he chose to side with the author of the bill, Senator Damon Thayer. He and Thayer stated during their testimony that this bill would not change any Kentucky law, but that it would change the position of the language to “more appropriate places” in Kentucky law to make the law easier to understand.

This is what occurred on March 3, 2009 at 12:35 PM until about 12:53 PM.  You may contact the following people for verification of this statement.
Katie Moyer 270-305-4057

Norman Davis 270-242-6497

Richard Lewis 502-377-6330

Source: [1]


Trey Grayson Insults Sarah Palin

In this clip, Fox News points out that Trey Grayson is an establishment politician, and this will not help him with voters who want to shake up Washington. Additionally, Trey is seen insulting Sarah Palin, who endorsed his opponent.

Trey Grayson’s Conflict of Interest

Trey Grayson is currently Kentucky’s secretary of state. Under the law, this makes him the chairman of Kentucky’s board of elections. Considering that Grayson is running for Senate, it makes sense that he should not be involved in overseeing the vote counts for this particular race. However, when asked by one of his opponents if he was willing to refrain from supervising his own election results, the Trey Grayson campaign had the following reply:

“Secretary Grayson is a national leader in elections reform who has received broad, bipartisan support for his commonsense ideas that make our elections more secure, more accessible, and more honest. This political request is absurd and blatantly self-serving.”

Instead of recognizing the conflict of interest and giving an evenhanded response, the Grayson campaign came off looking caustic and arrogant. This was a reasonable request, and Trey should have done the honorable thing and recused himself from overseeing his election results.


Source: [1]

Reader Feedback

Since the launch of this site, we have been bombarded with emails thanking us for the information. Here are some of the highlights (posted with permission):

“Thanks for the website. I always look for the truth about candidates before supporting them.” – Bert

“I respect Trey Grayson on a personal level, but his connections to left wing groups makes me very worried about his ideology.” – Samantha

“The information on your site made me realize one thing! Trey Grayson is not a conservative!” – Richard

Always feel free to contact us with comments, questions, and content submissions at the following email:

contact@treygrayson.info

In other news, our website has reached the front page of Google for searches for “Trey Grayson.” See for yourself.

Thanks for your support!

The Quote that Says it All

Trey Grayson: “Remember, it’s the government’s money. It’s not your money!”

I’ll give Trey the benefit of the doubt and assume this was a Freudian slip.

Grayson’s Campaign Contributions

Grayson’s Campaign Contributions

Trey Grayson has a history of receiving an alarming percentage of PAC donations. Here is the most recent data for the 2010 election cycle:

http://i.imgur.com/f3YbBl.png

As you can see, 15% of Trey Grayson’s donations come from PACs. Contrast this with his Republican primary opponent, Rand Paul, whose PAC donations are less than 1%:

http://i.imgur.com/7yYgIl.png

Even the democratic candidates, Jack Conway and Daniel Mongiardo, received only 3% and 2% of their donations from PACS, respectively.

http://i.imgur.com/H99v9l.png
http://i.imgur.com/ywkkol.png

Where exactly are Trey Grayson’s $255,000 in PAC contributions coming from? Here are some of the highlights:

AT&T
Bankers Associations
Health Care Lobbies
Exxon Mobile
Insurance PACs
Pfizer
Senate Majority Fund

You can find the full list here.

The high percentage of PAC donations to Trey Grayson’s senate campaign are not the only troubling aspect of his fundraising, however. The following graph breaks down the contributions Trey received in his 2007 campaign for Secretary of State:

Candidate Sector Graph

The category “Lawyers and Lobbyists” has consistently been Trey’s top contribution category.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Trey’s Bailout Buddies

Trey’s Bailout Buddies

On September 23rd 2009, a large group of Senators and political insiders held a $500 per plate fundraiser in Washington DC for Trey Grayson. This event featured seventeen Senators who voted in favor of the TARP Banker Bailout. Read more

List of 23 Senators and their bank bailout votes.

10/01/08 Vote on Financial Bailout Bill
(S. Amdt. 5685 to H.R. 1424)

Alexander (TN) – Yea
Bennett (UT) – Yea
Bond (MO) – Yea
Burr (NC) – Yea
Chambliss (GA) – Yea
Coburn (OK) – Yea
Cochran (MS) – Nay
Collins (ME) – Yea
Cornyn (TX) – Yea
Crapo (ID) – Nay
Enzi (WY) – Nay
Grassley (IA)- Yea
Hatch (UT) – Yea
Johanns (NE) – didn’t vote, freshman in 11/08
Isakson (GA) – Yea
Kyl (AZ) – Yea
McConnell (KY) – Yea
Mccain (AZ) – Yea
Murkowski (AK) – Yea
Sessions (AL) – Nay
Thune (SD) – Yea
Vitter (LA) – Nay
Voinovich (OH) – Yea

Despite this “Bailout Ball” fundraiser, Trey Grayson continued to slip in the polls, and a WHAS-TV/Survey USA poll showed him behind his Republican opponent. However, the establishment insiders proved they were not willing to give up on their handpicked candidate. In November, more political heavyweights along with Pfizer PAC came to bat for Trey for two consecutive fundraisers:

http://i.imgur.com/INUZk.png

http://i.imgur.com/OEUy1.png

It is very suspicious that these members of the political establishment feel they need to go out of their way to get involved in a highly contested GOP primary in order to fund Trey Grayson’s campaign. It leads one to believe that Trey will represent the ruling class rather than the voters if he is elected.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Trey’s Radical Left-Wing Associations

Trey’s Radical Left-Wing Associations

Accuracy in Media notes:

“Aspen (Institute) is one vehicle whereby left-wing billionaires like George Soros work to influence politicians on Capitol Hill by bringing them to luxurious places, hotels and resorts, and listening to mostly liberal and left-wing speakers.”  Read More

Trey Grayson received a fellowship from the left-wing Aspen Institute, which is largely funded by George Soros. The institute emphasizes a commitment to “bipartisanship,” so Grayson’s receiving of this award was not surprising considering his support for the candidacy of Bill Clinton.

Further demonstrating the leftist viewpoints of this institute, Aspen has also rewarded Anthony Van Jones for his work in the “green movement.” Van Jones was the former Green Jobs Czar for the Obama administration who was forced to resign after the media discovered his radical ideologies. He is a self-avowed communist who has ties to Marxism and black nationalism. Check out this clip from “Fox and Friends” (select transcript below).

BRIAN KILMEADE, co-host, “Fox and Friends”: Phil, we have a czar, he’s a green jobs czar, he’s Van Jones, he’s got a deep history in communism.

PHIL KERPEN, AFP Policy Director: He does. He has a very checkered past. This is somebody who was involved in radical politics out in San Francisco, California. He was arrested during a demonstration/riot following the Rodney King verdict. And he said himself that he was radicalized in jail, that he found communism and anarchism. And then he started a pretty radical, kind of communist, socialist, utopian group that was supposed to end all racism though central planning. And then he decided that the real path the sort of progressive nirvana, was the this green jobs idea.  I think its pretty instructive what his past is, I am not just trying to smear the guy, but I think it’s the same sort of philosophy, the idea that government ought to be reordering society in accordance with some utopian vision that failed with communism and socialism, and will fail with this green jobs idea. We are imposing a top-down vision.

GRETCHEN CARLSON, co-host: And more importantly for America Phil, is the fact that we already have an Energy Secretary, who by the way had to go through Congress to be approved. And the reason that these czars, you don’t know anything about them, is because they don’t have to go through that process. [Read more]

This is not the first time Trey has been associated with Van Jones and radical left-wing organizations, as outlined in Trey’s Environmentalist Ties. It is troubling that any Senate Candidate would maintain such associations.

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Trey Grayson’s Socialist Scheme

Trey Grayson’s Socialist Scheme

Demonstrating that he retains some of his liberal ideologies as a former Clinton supporter, Trey Grayson joined Democrat Jonathan Miller to co-found the “Cradle-to-College” commission. The name itself suggests a commitment to the Nanny State, an overbearing government powerhouse that pretends it can take care of children better than their parents can, from “cradle to grave.”

Trey Grayson and his liberal colleague formed Cradle-to-College as a socialist scheme that uses wealth redistribution to set up college funds for newborn children. This program is very similar to current efforts by the Obama administration and the Democratic congress to extend healthcare to all Americans through the force of government. However, instead of promising “universal, affordable healthcare,” Trey Grayson’s liberal initiative seeks to extend all students the opportunity to attend college.

While Trey Grayson and his liberal associates may have good intentions in setting up this program, like government-run healthcare it is extremely flawed. By using taxation to provide each student with a “free” education, this scheme eliminates the market-based incentives that would otherwise make college more affordable and of higher quality. When universities feel they are guaranteed to receive government-sponsored aid, they no longer have the incentive to drive prices down.

The other disturbing element of Trey Grayson’s college plan is that it requires each student to perform community service in order to “cash in” on  his or her college account. While participating in community or military service is undoubtedly something to be commended, problems arise when government requires these services in exchange for money that is extracted from the people in the first place. That is, some people such as Rahm Emanuel are looking to create a big-government program in the form of “universal, citizen service.” He outlines his idea in the following video:

America prospers when individuals have their God-given rights of life, liberty, and property protected. If Trey Grayson was truly a conservative, he would emphasize the values of free markets, low taxes, and personal responsibility. A better approach to his government program would be to reduce taxes for all Kentuckians and remove government intereference from the college market. This way, families would be able to keep more of their own money, and colleges would be forced to compete for tuition. Additionally, the values of service to the local community and the country should be voluntary actions made by free Americans.

Conservatives should demand that Trey Grayson stands up for the values of limited-government, free markets, and personal responsibility instead of proposing more government programs in the name of bipartisanship.

Source: [1]