The candidates are Christine Trout Van Tatenhove, special counsel to Republican House Speaker David Osborne; former Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter; and David Beck, the former president and CEO of Kentucky Venues.

In a letter to Beshear dated Wednesday, Oct. 21, Ball said the three would serve the state honorably and asked the governor to make an appointment promptly. Under a 2020 executive order, the auditor and attorney general can each submit three candidates, and the governor selects a commission representative from the names provided.

The nominees have ties to public institutions and state politics. Christine Trout Van Tatenhove is married to former federal judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and became dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law this year. Laurance VanMeter is married to Fayette Circuit Judge Lucy VanMeter, who is running for a seat on the Kentucky Court of Appeals against Judge Will Moynahan, a Beshear appointee.

Beck was removed from his Kentucky Venues post over the summer after the state Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a 2021 law that would have shifted control of the Kentucky State Fair Board away from the governor.

The ethics commission’s appointment process has been part of a broader dispute over executive authority. In June, the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down a 2022 law that gave executive branch officials other than the governor appointment power over the commission. The Republican-controlled General Assembly had passed that law during Beshear’s first term. Republican constitutional officers later asked the court to reconsider its ruling.

Ball cited the 2020 executive order in her letter. Her nominations now leave Beshear to choose one of the three candidates for the commission.