Jack Conway

Jack Conway
Attorney General of Kentucky
Incumbent
In office
2007 - Present
Term ends
2015
Years in position	6
Party	Democratic
Predecessor	Gregory Stumbo (D)
Compensation
Base salary	$113,615
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 8, 2011
First elected	2007
Term limits	N/A
Education
High school	St. Xavier High School
Bachelor's	Duke University
J.D.	George Washington University
Personal
Birthday	July 5, 1969
Place of birth	Louisville, Kentucky
Profession	Attorney
Religion	Roman Catholic
Websites
Office website

John William "Jack" Conway (born July 5, 1969, in Louisville, Kentucky) is the current Democratic Attorney General of Kentucky. He was first elected in 2007, and won re-election in 2011.

Conway unsuccessfully sought one of Kentucky's U.S. Senate seats in 2010, losing to Republican candidate Rand Paul after a bitterly fought campaign.

Prior to his election, Conway worked as a private attorney for the firm of Conliffe Sandman Sullivan and as a staffer in the administration of former Kentucky Governor Paul Patton.

Biography

John William Conway was born in Louisville, KY, on July 5th, 1969, to lawyer Tom Conway and his wife, Barbara. He graduated from St. Xavier High School then completed his B.A. in public policy at Duke University in 1995. He received his J.D. from George Washington University.

From 1991 to 1997, Conway worked as a legislative aide to the U.S. House Banking Committee in Washington, D.C. From 1995 to 2001, he worked as legal counsel and deputy cabinet secretary for Kentucky Governor Paul Patton. Conway ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in Kentucky's 3rd Congressional District in 2002, narrowly losing out to Republican incumbent Anne Northup. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) tried to convince him to run for the same seat two years later, but he declined the offer.

Conway is a member of the following organizations:

• Kentucky Bar Association (1995-present)
• Lousiville Bar Association (1998-present)
• Leadership Louisville Foundation (2000-present)

Political career

Kentucky Attorney General (2008-present)

As attorney general, Conway "sought execution warrants against death-row inmates who have exhausted their appeals; opposed gay marriage; backed mandatory sentences for drug dealers; and cracked down on Internet crime." The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) claims that "while he does have liberal views on some issues such as abortion rights and health-care reform, his outlook is conservative or moderate on others, including the death penalty and gay marriage."

Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act

On March 11, 2013, Conway, together with twleve other state attorneys general, sent a letter to Congress in support of the Protecting Financial Aid for Students and Taxpayers Act, a bill which would ban for-profit colleges from using federal funds for marketing and recruiting techniques. Sponsored by Senators Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), who chairs the chamber's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the law aims to “ensure that scarce federal education dollars will be used to serve and educate students rather than to finance advertising campaigns, recruitment operations, and aggressive marketing.” Consumer protection is one of the key duties assigned to the attorney general in each state.

According to the law's text, student enrollment at for-profit degree-issuing institutions such as the University of Phoenix more than doubled between 1998-2008, during which time the federal government--through student financial assistance programs--provided 86% of revenues to 15 reviewed publicly traded companies operating these for-profit colleges. A separate analysis of 15 such companies concluded that, on average, 28% of all expenditures were on advertising, marketing, and recruiting. Critics, including the attorneys general responsible for the letter advocating the bill's passage, contend that these expenditures are used to deceive consumers about program costs, graduation rates, or their employment potential beyond graduation. The bill seeks to restrict spending of this nature by higher education institutions or other postsecondary educational institution by prohibiting use of federal loans or grants in specific areas, and requiring that all such institutions whose revenues can be traced to federal educational assistance funds "report annually to the Secretary and to Congress the institution's expenditures on advertising, marketing, and recruiting."

In the letter, the attorneys general urged, “Federal taxpayers should not be asked to foot the bill for aggressive recruiting and deceptive sales tactics of colleges that have placed profits ahead of ensuring student success.” There are an estimated 3,000 for-profit schools nationwide, though neither the letter nor the bill cited the name of a specific institution.

ACORN

See also: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now

The June 2008 Survey and Scorecard report published by the liberal political organization, ACORN, gave Conway an A- letter grade. The report was published to shine the spotlight on state attorneys general "leading the fight to protect homeowners from joining the flood of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure," according to the group. The grade distributed to the individual attorneys general "generally broke down along party lines," with the exception of Louisiana's Buddy Caldwell.

Ethics complaint

Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky Daniel Mongiardo filed an official complaint against Conway with the state's Executive Branch Ethics Commission in May 2010 after Conway, who negotiates utility rate increases as part of duties as attorney general, accepted campaign contributions from utility companies. According to Mongiardo, taking campaign money from the same businesses he regulates was an unethical conflict of interest on Conway's part.

Conway's office responded that because he was not a sitting member of the Public Service Commission (PSC), and therefore did not have an actual vote over any potential utility rate increase, the complain was baseless. Mongiardo countered that, as the state's top law enforcer, Conway serves a "very specific regulatory oversight role and power over utility companies applying for and requesting a utility rate increase."

The complaint came three weeks prior to the two men facing off in the Democratic primary race for the United States Senate, a contest Conway ultimately won.

Elections

2015

On April 24, 2013, Conway said "there's a good chance" he will run for governor in 2015. “I think I have enough statewide experience that I could go and talk about state issues, issues that are concerns all across the state as well as look out for Louisville’s interests,” he stated.

2011

See also: Kentucky state executive official elections, 2011

Conway announced he would seek re-election in the 2011 Kentucky statewide office campaign nearly two weeks after losing a race for U.S. Senate to Republican Rand Paul in the 2010 midterm elections. P'Pool is a Hopkins County Attorney. Conway won the Democratic nomination unopposed, and defeated Hopkins County Attorney Todd P'Pool in the November 8 general election.

Issue positions

Conway emphasized the strength of his record as Attorney General of Kentucky during his campaign for re-election in 2011. He did not begin actively campaigning until well into election season; according to Amanda Van Benschoten of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Conway kept a "low profile" for the first six months of 2011 and did not hire a campaign manager until June 2011. When asked about his relative inactivity early in the campaign, Conway claimed he was focused on doing his job as attorney general.

In response to criticism from Republican candidate Todd P'Pool over Conway's decision to not join a multi-state lawsuit against President Barack Obama's health care reform law, Conway argued that his office's resources had been curtailed by budget cuts. He said he was being "fiscally responsible" in not joining the lawsuit because "he would have been taking [lawyers] away from something else: cybercrimes, or criminal appeals, or consumer protection, or Medicaid fraud."

Conway was dogged by accusations from Republican Party of Kentucky chairman Steve Robertson surrounding a drug investigation into Conway's brother, Matt. According to Robertson, Matt Conway, who resigned as assistant commonwealth's attorney in Jefferson County in April 2011, may have received preferential treatment from the attorney general. Before his resignation, Matt Conway admitted to police that he had lied about being tipped off to the investigation by Louisville Metro Police. Jack Conway called Robertson's claims "mean and out of bounds" and asserted that he had no involvement in his brother's case except to encourage him to retain counsel.

Attorney General of Kentucky, 2011
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Jack Conway Incumbent	55%	449,638
	Republican	Todd P'Pool	45%	367,661
Total Votes				817,299

2010

Conway announced in April 2009 that he would challenge veteran U.S. Senator Jim Bunning in the Democratic Party primary during the 2010 Kentucky U.S. Senate race. He became the third Democratic candidate to enter the campaign, following Lieutenant Governor Daniel Mongiardo and former United States Customs agent Darlene Fitzgerald Price. After a contentious primary campaign during which Bunning dropped out of the race, the state attorney general narrowly defeated the lieutenant governor 43.98 to 43.18 percent, a margin of victory of less then four thousand votes. Conway subsequently lost the general election to the Republican candidate, physician Rand Paul, receiving 44.2 percent of the vote to Paul's 55.7 percent.

Issue positions

• Estate Tax:

During his 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate, Conway came out against the repeal of the federal estate tax, but broke with his Democratic Party colleagues by supporting an extension of George W. Bush-era tax rates. He suggested he would balance the federal budget by making modifications to Medicare, enforcing "pay as you go" budget rules and following the recommendations of the bipartisan debt commission formed by President Barack Obama.

• Earmarks:

During a debate with opponent Rand Paul, Conway said he would "stand up for northern Kentucky," where earmarks are concerned, suggesting he supported their existence.

• Abortion:

Conway supports abortion rights during the first trimester of pregnancy and supported the federal health care reform law sponsored by President Obama. He also favored ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy towards gay service members. According to Issues2000.org, he also supports affirmative action.

Controversies

• "Aqua Buddha" ad

Conway's 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate sparked controversy when it ran a television ad that appeared to question the Christian faith of Conway's opponent, Rand Paul. The 30 second ad suggested that Paul had been a member of a "secret society" at Baylor University that called the Bible a "hoax." According to the ad, Paul had also proclaimed that "[his] god was Aqua Buddha." Popular reaction to the ad was overwhelmingly negative and observers claimed it had gone too far by challenging Paul's faith. A survey by Public Policy Polling showed Conway's disapproval rating rose 16 points in October, while an internal GOP poll found that 45 percent of voters were actually more likely to vote for Paul after seeing Conway's ad; only 26 percent were less likely to choose him. After his loss in the general election, Conway claimed that approving the ad was "one of the few times [he's] gone against [his] gut."

2010 Race for United States Senate - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jack Conway	44.0%
	Democratic Party	Daniel Mongiardo	43.2%
	Democratic Party	Darlene F. Price	5.5%
	Democratic Party	James Buckmaster	3.9%
	Democratic Party	Maurice M. Sweeney	3.4%
Total Votes			521,659

2010 Race for United States Senate - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Republican Party	a Rand Paul	55.7%
	Democratic Party	Jack Conway	44.2%
	Write-In		0.1%
Total Votes			1,356,056

2007

2007 Race for Attorney General - Democratic Primary
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jack Conway	71.9%
	Democratic Party	Robert V. Bullock	28.1%
Total Votes			296,907

2007 Race for Attorney General - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Jack Conway	60.5%
	Republican Party	Stan Lee	39.5%
Total Votes			1,012,292

2002

Conway's first attempt at office came in 2002, when he sought to unseat incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Anne M. Northup of Kentucky's 3rd Congressional district. Conway narrowly lost by a margin of 3.2 percent.

2002 Race for United States House of Representatives, District 3 - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Republican Party	a Anne M. Northup	51.6%
	Democratic Party	Jack Conway	48.4%
Total Votes			229,074

Campaign donors

Ballotpedia collects information on campaign donors for each year in which a candidate or incumbent is running for election. The following table offers a breakdown of Jack Conway's donors each year. Click [show] for more information.

Jack Conway's Campaign Contributions
	2011 Attorney General of Kentucky		2007 Attorney General of Kentucky
Total Raised	$931,767		$1,499,131
Total Raised by General Election Opponent	$1,125,670		$346,229
Top 5 contributors	Kentucky Democratic Party	$28,124	Kentucky Democratic Party	$124,781
	John Conway	$5,000	Jack Conway for Attorney General	$37,354
	International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers	$2,000	AT&T	$2,690
	United Food & Commercial Workers International Union	$2,000	Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 502 and Humana	$2,000 each
	United Mine Workers of America and 15 individual donors	$2,000 each	Kentucky Auto Workers and 13 individual donors	$2,000 each
Individuals	$742,489		$1,173,384
Institutions	$73,440		$81,530
In-state donations	$700,100		$1,332,861
Out-of-state donations	$171,770		$165,090

Personal

Conway currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Elizabeth Davenport, and their daughter, Eva. He is also a practicing Roman Catholic.

Recent news

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Jack Conway News Feed

• Attorney General Jack Conway says 'good chance' he will run for Kentucky ... - The Courier-Journal
• Jack Conway, Hal Rogers Protest Urban Outfitters' Prescription Bottle Merchandise - WFPL
• Former Kentucky Democratic Party chief mulling possible bid for US Senate - Lexington Herald Leader
• Kentucky AG's office investigating McCracken County zoning changes - WPSD Local 6
• County attorney affirms that insurance tax couldn't automatically go to housing - The Courier-Journal
• Conway warns of prescription drug abuse to keep kids safe - Hazard Herald
• Prescription Drug Use Is The Leading Cause of Accidential Deaths - GroundReport
• Conway urges ?black box? warning to protect babies - The Courier-Journal (blog)
• Free Personal Document Shredding Offered Saturday - WTVQ
• Free 'Shred Day' in Lexington shines spotlight on identity theft, scams ... - KyForward.com

Contact Information

Capitol Address:
Office of the Attorney General
Capitol Suite 118
700 Capitol Avenue
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601-3449

Phone: 502-696-5300
Fax: 502-564-2894
E-mail: attorney.general@ag.ky.gov

See also

• Kentucky Attorney General
• Attorney General
• Kentucky state executive official elections, 2011

External links

Suggest a link

• Official Kentucky Attorney General website
• Jack Conway for United States Senate Campaign website
• Jack Conway's Facebook profile
• Jack Conway's Twitter account
• Project Vote Smart - Jack Conway biography

References

Political offices
Preceded by Greg Stumbo (D)	Kentucky Attorney General 2008–present	Succeeded by NA