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Electronically filed
COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
CAMPBELL CIRCUIT COURT
CIVIL DIVISION
CIVIL ACTION NO.
MARY JO WEDDING;
Serve: Mary Jo Wedding
179 Trankler Road,
Falmouth, Kentucky 41040
And
And
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL
Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT
01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer
Comes the Plaintiff James P. Cole, by counsel, and for his Motion for Disqualification
Request for Injunctive Relief and a Declaration of Rights against Defendants would show as
follows:
PARTIES
1. Plaintiff James P. Cole is a citizen and resident of Campbell County, Kentucky, with his
address being: 40 Woodland Hills Drive, Suite 2, Southgate, KY 41071, in the 67th State House
District, Kentucky.
with her address being 179 Trankler Road, Falmouth, Kentucky. Wedding has listed what is
maintaining accurate voter rolls and candidate filings, with his official address being 700 Capitol
4. Defendant State Board of Elections is the state agency charged with oversight over
Kentucky elections, with its address being 140 Walnut Street, Frankfort Kentucky 40601.
1. An actual, justiciable controversy exists and this Court has subject matter
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jurisdiction over this action pursuant to KRS 118.176, KRS 418.040, KRS 418.055, KRS
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL
Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT
01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer
residenCE of Plaintiff Cole and the false address of Defendant Wedding are in Campbell County,
Kentucky, and the candidate filing was in Campbell County, Kentucky. The subject matter in
this action relates to interpretation and enforcement of various provisions of state law as enacted
in statute and the Kentucky Constitution. Pursuant to KRS 418.040, et seq., this Court may
INTRODUCTORY ALLEGATIONS
2. Plaintiff resides in the 67th District for House of Representatives for the
office in the Kentucky House District 67., as defined under KRS 118.176 and KRS 116.055.
House District in which she is running for election for at least one (1) year prior to the election.
6. Upon information and belief, Defendant Wedding does not reside at the address listed
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as her residence.
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL
Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT
01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer
appear qualified to run for House District 67. This address is not the Defendant’s residence.
9. Defendant Wedding’s 2019 business filing with the Kentucky Secretary of State lists
10. Defendant Wedding’s June, 2019, handwritten filing with the Secretary of State lists
11. Defendant Wedding’s Candidate filing of September, 2019 filing with the Secretary
of State, gives an incorrect residence address of 163 Foote Avenue, Bellevue, Kentucky, within
House District 67. Wedding does not reside at that address. See: Exhibit 1.
12. Defendant Wedding’s voter registration in June, 2019, listed an address at 182
13. On January 13, 2020, Mary Jo Wedding changed her Secretary of State filing address
for her business to P.O. Box 76429, Highland Heights, Kentucky. This address is in House
District 68.
14. Defendant Wedding’s campaign website says that she enjoys spending time with her
husband of 18 years (Gary). Gary has listed his address in public records as an apartment at 28
Rio Grande Circle, Florence, Kentucky and at the farm the parties reside on in Falmouth
15. The election date for the Special Election in House District 67 is February 25, 2020.
16. Defendant Wedding will not have resided in House District 67 for one year at the
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL
Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT
01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer
17. Defendant Wedding is not qualified to be a candidate in the Special Election for
18. Defendant Wedding must be disqualified as a candidate and stricken from the ballot
MOTION
Plaintiff Cole, moves this Court pursuant to KRS 118.176 to determine that Defendant
Mary Jo Wedding, candidate for the office of State House Representative from the 67th District,
is not a bona fide candidate for that office. The judiciary is empowered by the legislature to
review and decide election contests. Newsome v. Hall, 169 S.W.3d 66 (Ky. App. 2005).
The bona fides of any candidate seeking . . . election in a . . . general election may be
The petition for nomination shall be in the form prescribed by the State Board of
Elections. The petition shall include a declaration sworn to by the candidate, that he or
she possesses all the constitutional and statutory requirements of the office for which the
candidate has filed.
Id. Subsection (3) of the applicable statute requires, by its plain language, the candidate to
swear that she meets the requirements for the office. See Skaggs v. Fyffe, 266 Ky. 337, 98
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S.W.2d 884 (1936). Defendant Wedding so attested, and the facts before this Court show that
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL
Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT
01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer
KRS 116.035 details where a voter’s residence is, and specifically for a married person,
denotes the marital residence as the residence of the party. KRS 116.035(4).
KRS 118.015(7) states that the word "resident," in the context of candidacy for election,
"shall mean actual resident, without regard to the residence of the spouse of the candidate." Our
Supreme Court determined that actual residence means an abode where a person "actually lives"
as opposed to "a mere naked legal residence." Mobley v. Armstrong, 978 S.W.2d 307, 310 (Ky.
residency, a court must consider the actions and intention of the purported resident because
neither is controlling. Id. Nothing in the public record supports a finding that Wedding’s legal
residence is the vacant apartment she listed on her filing papers as her residence. Wedding’s
website and social media posts show her with her husband and relatives in a variety of pastoral
past year. Any such claim is purely fictitious and made for the sole purpose of supporting her
Wedding’s statements showing that she resides with her husband of eighteen years, and
evidence of her home address on the farm and other address out of the district show that she is
not a resident in Bellevue. There is nothing in evidence to indicate that Wedding has changed
her legal residence. "[A] change in legal residence or domicile requires a physical act coupled
with the intent to abandon the domicile previously established." Hunter v. Mena, 302 S.W.3d 93,
96 (Ky. App. 2010). Brockman v. Brockman (Ky. Ct. App. 2019). Wedding does not reside in
the District and therefore Wedding is not qualified to be a candidate for Kentucky House District
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67.
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL
Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT
01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer
This Court may properly issue an injunction preventing Wedding from continuing to
claim that she is a valid and lawful candidate for House District 67, and a declaratory judgment
finding her disqualified. Declaratory judgments are within the purview of the Court. Axton v.
1. That the Court hold an immediate hearing on this motion as required by law;
2. That the Court enjoin Defendant Wedding from running as a Democratic candidate in
3. That the Court find that Defendant is not a bona fide candidate, as a matter of law;
Defendants Secretary of State and State Board of Elections, as well as the County
Board of Elections, to strike Defendant from the rolls and documents reflecting
Respectfully submitted,
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Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk