Yes, Dr. Green was paying former Louisville Alderman President Denise Bentley to help with her primary campaign. Green won, beating an incumbent. Bentley was also helping two other Democrats, Sharon Dummitt and Lesa Dae with their primary campaigns against incumbents. They lost.

But that's not the story. The story is Bentley's current job and why she would be involved in any primary race in Louisville or Lexington. Bentley currently makes $78,000 a year as a special assistant in the Governor's Office of Local Development. She's Governor Fletcher's liaison to Louisville and Lexington. In other words, she's being paid to make friends and spread the "Fletcher Creed" in Kentucky's two largest cities. Getting involved in political races, especially DEMOCRATIC primaries wouldn't seem to be the best way to do that.

Bentley is a non-merit employee, so she's allowed to participate in politics. She says she's a long time friend of Green's and was not on state time when she was working on Green's campaign. Same with helping Dummitt and Dae. When I asked Governor Fletcher about the wisdom of non-merit employees in his administration working on primary campaigns, he accurately said it was legal, as long as they campaigned on their own time. But Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall told me "we're concerned and looking into it. We don't insert ourselves into primary contests". Hall says Bentley never gave anyone in the Governor's office a heads up that she was campaigning in a primary. You've got to wonder how well the Governor will be able to work with David Tandy and Mary Woodridge, the incumbent Council members targeted by Fletcher's right hand person in Louisville....Denise Bentley. By the way, the proposed arena that Fletcher wants so desperately to build......it's in Tandy's downtown district.