Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 NOT ORIGINAL

Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk DOCUMENT

01/22/2020 04:03:15 PM
Enquirer

Electronically filed

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
CAMPBELL CIRCUIT COURT
CIVIL DIVISION
CIVIL ACTION NO.

JAMES P. COLE PLAINTIFF

VS. MOTION FOR DISQUALIFICATION, INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

AND DECLARATION OF RIGHTS UNDER KRS 118.176

MARY JO WEDDING;
Serve: Mary Jo Wedding
179 Trankler Road,
Falmouth, Kentucky 41040

With Courtesy copy to:

Mary Jo Wedding,

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

163 Foote Avenue,
Bellevue, Kentucky 41073

And

MICHAEL ADAMS, in his official capacity

As Secretary of State
Serve: Hon. Daniel Cameron, Attorney General
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 118
P.O. Box 718
Frankfort Kentucky 40601

And

STATE BOARD OF ELECTIONS FOR THE

COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY
Serve: Hon. Daniel Cameron, Attorney General,
700 Capitol Avenue, Suite 118
P.O. Box 718
Frankfort Kentucky 40601 DEFENDANTS
COM : 000001 of 000007

1
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.

2. Defendant Mary Jo Wedding is a citizen and resident of Pendleton County, Kentucky,

with her address being 179 Trankler Road, Falmouth, Kentucky. Wedding has listed what is

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

believed to be a false or fraudulent residence address on her campaign filings, that being 163

Foote Avenue, Bellevue, Kentucky 41073 in Campbell County, Kentucky.

3. Defendant Michael Adams is the Kentucky Secretary of State, charged with

maintaining accurate voter rolls and candidate filings, with his official address being 700 Capitol

Avenue, Suite 121, Frankfort Kentucky 40601.

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.

JURISDICTION AND VENUE

1. An actual, justiciable controversy exists and this Court has subject matter
COM : 000002 of 000007

jurisdiction over this action pursuant to KRS 118.176, KRS 418.040, KRS 418.055, KRS

23A.010, and Rules of Civil Procedure 57 and 65.

2
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

2. Venue is appropriate in this Court pursuant to KRS 452.405, as the primary

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

properly exercise in personam jurisdiction over the Defendants.

INTRODUCTORY ALLEGATIONS

1. Plaintiff is a registered voter in the Commonwealth of Kentucky

2. Plaintiff resides in the 67th District for House of Representatives for the

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

Commonwealth of Kentucky.

3. Plaintiff is a qualified voter to challenge the candidacy of a candidate running for

office in the Kentucky House District 67., as defined under KRS 118.176 and KRS 116.055.

3. Defendant Mary Jo Wedding is a candidate for the 67th District House of

Representatives for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

4. Section 32 of the Kentucky Constitution requires a candidate to be a resident of the

House District in which she is running for election for at least one (1) year prior to the election.

5. On or about September 19, 2019, Mary Jo Wedding listed what is believed to be a

false and fraudulent address as her residence.

6. Upon information and belief, Defendant Wedding does not reside at the address listed
COM : 000003 of 000007

as her residence.

3
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

7. Defendant gave a false address in Bellevue Kentucky as her “residence” in order to

appear qualified to run for House District 67. This address is not the Defendant’s residence.

8. Defendant Wedding does not residence in House District 67.

9. Defendant Wedding’s 2019 business filing with the Kentucky Secretary of State lists

an address outside House District 67.

10. Defendant Wedding’s June, 2019, handwritten filing with the Secretary of State lists

her Falmouth address as her residence.

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

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

Kentucky Drive, Newport, Kentucky as her residence. Wedding does not reside at this address,

which is owned by a separate individual who resides there.

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

Kentucky. Neither address is within House District 67.

COM : 000004 of 000007

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

time of the election.

4
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

House District 67.

18. Defendant Wedding must be disqualified as a candidate and stricken from the ballot

and candidacy rolls.

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).

RRS 118.176(2) provides for the bona fide challenge of a candidate:

The bona fides of any candidate seeking . . . election in a . . . general election may be

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

questioned by any qualified voter entitled to vote for such candidate . . . by summary
proceedings consisting of a motion before the Circuit Court of the judicial circuit in
which the candidate whose bona fides is questioned resides. . . .
Each candidate for nomination shall file a petition for nomination.... The petition shall be
sworn to before an officer authorized to administer an oath by the candidate and by not
less than two (2) registered voters from the district or circuit from which he seeks
nomination.

Subsection (3) states in part:

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
COM : 000005 of 000007

S.W.2d 884 (1936). Defendant Wedding so attested, and the facts before this Court show that

her sworn statements were false.

5
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.

1998). The determination of a candidate's residency is a question of fact. Id. In determining

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

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

settings and out of the district residences. Wedding has clearly not resided in Bellevue for the

past year. Any such claim is purely fictitious and made for the sole purpose of supporting her

candidacy filings. Such action should not be sanctioned by this Court.

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
COM : 000006 of 000007

67.

6
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.

Goodman, Clerk, 205 Ky. 382 (Ky. Ct. App. 1924).

WHEREFORE, Plaintiff requests the following relief:

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

the 2020 primary or general elections;

3. That the Court find that Defendant is not a bona fide candidate, as a matter of law;

Presiding Judge: HON. DAN ZALLA (617377)

4. That the Court issue an Order disqualifying Defendant as a candidate and directing

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

candidates in the upcoming Primary Election;

5. Any and all other relief to which the Plaintiff is entitled.

Respectfully submitted,

/s/ Anna Stewart Whites /s/

ANNA STEWART WHITES
Attorney at Law
327 Logan Street
P.O. Box 4023
Frankfort KY 40601
COM : 000007 of 000007

(502) 352-2373/FAX 352-6860

[email protected]

7
Filed 20-CI-00075 01/22/2020 Taunya Nolan Jack, Campbell Circuit Clerk