ANDERSON, Ind. — To hear state Sen. Luke Kenley tell it, his free tickets to the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby — and the free meals that came with it — were all a misunderstanding.
Kenley, R-Noblesville, accepted more than $1,000 worth of tickets and entertainment including meals from a lobbyist working on behalf of Centaur Inc., the parent company of Hoosier Park Racing and Casino. The gifts — tickets worth $876 and entertainment and meals worth $157 — were disclosed on the most recent report of lobbyist Robert J. Spolyar.
According to Centaur spokeswoman Susan Kilkenny, Spolyar purchased the tickets from Centaur and “on behalf of and to host Sen. Kenley.”
But it wasn’t Spolyar who gave the tickets to Kenley, and the senator said he didn’t request them from him. The tickets were handed to him by another lobbyist, Matt Whetstone, Kenley said. Whetstone within the past two years resigned his seat in the Indiana Legislature to become a lobbyist for a well-connected Indianapolis law firm.
“I made the request of a lobbyist that I didn’t know was connected with Centaur, that I would like Kentucky Derby tickets,” Kenley said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “I didn’t realize they were from Centaur until I got down there.”
Kenley said he approached Whetstone about tickets because he knew that his former colleague had been to the Derby and other high-profile sporting events.
Whetstone said that after Kenley asked him about Derby tickets, “I was just kind of a middle man for him on that. ... I said I’d call somebody for him.”
“I told him that I wanted to pay for them, and (Whetstone) said when he gave them to me, ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Kenley said. “I said, ‘OK, Matt ... You need to send me a bill, I need to pay for them.”
But before an invoice for the May events arrived, the gifts were disclosed in Spolyar’s Oct. 22 lobbying report and detailed in published news accounts. Spolyar could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Kilkenny said that in the most recent reporting period — the year ending April 30 — Centaur lobbyists spent a reportable $8,232 on entertainment, and Hoosier Park’s lobbying entertainment expenses totaled $1,644. The Derby tickets and meals provided to Kenley came after the most recent reporting period.
As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Kenley’s authority includes matters involving Hoosier Park and Centaur.
“I don’t think it created a very good impression, and for that I made a mistake of not getting it taken care of,” Kenley said.
He said he had two points of reassurance for voters — that he will pay for the tickets and that he killed a bill that Hoosier Park wanted in the last session that would have exempted from taxation money paid to horsemen.
“I didn’t think the state was in a position to do that,” Kenley said.
Ethics reform — including proposals to tighten lobbying rules and require more detailed reporting of lobbying activities — will be a major topic in the General Assembly next year. One proposal is a “cooling-off’ period that would require former lawmakers to wait at least a year before lobbying at the Statehouse.
Whetsone, the lawmaker-turned-lobbyist, is against such a reform that he said would prevent low-paid lawmakers from trading on their expertise when they leave office. “Is it needed in a citizen legislature? I don’t think it is.”
But then, like a horseplayer, Whetstone considered the odds.
“I think it’s going to happen, if you’re asking me to handicap it,” he said.
Contact Dave Stafford: 648-4250, dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com
Breaking News
Related Photos
Discussion
Kenley: Gifts from lobbyists a mistake
Senator vows to repay Kentucky Derby tickets
- Breaking News
-
-
Stocks fall at the open as Greek deal is held up
U.S. stocks opened lower Friday after Greece's bailout deal was put on hold, a day after it seemed that the country had satisfied its creditors.
-
AP sources: Obama revamping birth control policy
Retreating in the face of a political uproar, President Barack Obama on Friday will announce that religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees after all, The Associated Press has learned. The administration instead will demand that insurance companies will be the ones directly responsible for providing free contraception.
-
Advocates want no weakening of Indiana smoking ban
Anti-smoking advocates aren't happy about an 18-month exemption for bars that's included in a bill for a statewide smoking ban, and said Thursday they are aiming to prevent the proposal from being watered down any more as it moves through the Indiana Legislature.
-
Notre Dame tuition to increase by 3.8 percent
The University of Notre Dame is raising tuition 3.8 percent for undergraduates for 2012-13.
-
No. 23 Hoosiers hurry past Illinois 84-71
Illinois played like a desperate team Thursday night. That didn’t matter to Indiana. Cody Zeller scored 22 points and Victor Oladipo and Christian Watford each had 18, igniting No. 23 Indiana’s late charge to get past the Fighting Illini 84-71.
-
Wind turbine maker bringing jobs to southern Indiana
A manufacturer of small, "micro-wind" turbines has moved into a warehouse that had been unoccupied since one of southern Indiana's largest employers moved out more than a decade ago.
-
Family plucked from Pacific after boat capsizes
Three family members attempting their first voyage across the Pacific in a sailboat were left adrift in rough seas hundreds of miles from land when their mast broke in high winds.
-
Police report human remains in Grant County
Human remains were uncovered by police Thursday morning in Grant County.
-
FBI file: Steve Jobs was considered for government post
FBI background interviews of some people who knew Apple founder Steve Jobs reveal a man so driven by power that he sometimes lost sight of honesty.
-
Florida mogul, facing trial, adopts his girlfriend
The story already had people's attention: A multimillionaire polo magnate was accused of causing a drunken-driving wreck that killed a young man. But now, with his criminal trial approaching, a strange twist has raised even more eyebrows: He has adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend.
- More Breaking News Headlines
-
Stocks fall at the open as Greek deal is held up
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Expert: Removing LA School's Staff 'Appropriate'
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
Obama Gives Education Waivers to 10 States
Giffords Aide to Run for Her Seat
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Winter Slamming North Asia, Parts of Europe
Syrian Forces Renew Bombardment of Homs
States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-abuse Settlement
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Raw Video: U.S. Pullout Celebration
Raw Video: Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
Man Killed in Courthouse Shootout
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
