There has been a change made in the deadline in which candidates running in the May primary election will have to file for office, both with the Secretary of State and local county clerk’s offices.

Last week, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an order extending the filing deadline for candidates in the 2022 primary election to Tuesday, January 25.

According to Clinton County Clerk Nathan Collins, candidates seeking any office that will appear on the May primary ballot will have until 4 p.m. local time Tuesday, January 25, to declare their candidacy.

This extends the filing period by some 18 calendar days, as the original deadline had been scheduled for last Friday, January 7.

Collins also noted that drawing for ballot position, prior to the deadline extension, had been scheduled for this week but that date will be changed. An announcement of the new date for ballot position drawing following the new deadline will be announced later, possibly as early as next week.

Apparently the extension for the May primary will not effect non-partisan candidates who will not be on the ballot until November. That deadline remains for early June.

Meanwhile, a total of 10 new candidates were added to the list through the close of day Monday of this week, January 10, with four of those being local candidates and six other district, state or judicial candidates that file in Frankfort with the Secretary of State.

The local candidate count now stands at 43 total–with 40 of those appearring on the May primary ballot and three other city candidates who will not run until the November general election.

As of press time Tuesday morning, a total of 62 candidates, including judicial candidates, two of those being Court of Appeals non-partisan candidates, had officially filed.

Those local candidates who filed in the Clinton County Clerk’s Office through last week were Jason Warinner, a recently retired Kentucky State Trooper, for the office of sheriff. Warinner becomes the fourth GOP candidate for that office.

Newcomer Chrissy Parrish, an employee of WANY radio station, filed as a Republican candidate for 6th District Magistrate, becoming the third Republican seeking that seat. The district is comprised of the South and West Albany precincts.

Dan Thomas has filed for the office of Clinton County Clerk as a Republican candidate. Thomas has previously run twice for the same office as a Democrat.

Also filing for reelection to the Albany City Council is incumbent member Sarah Wilson-Browning. She is the first incumbent to file and the second to seek one of the six seats that make up the Albany City Council.

As of this time, there are still no Democrats in the race for any county office. Also, there are no candidates yet to file for constable in either District 1 or District 3.

A total of seven candidates, six county and one city, had no opposition as of Monday of this week.

There are now 18 candidates for the six magisterial district seats that make up the Clinton County Fiscal Court and the county-wide office most sought-after remains jailer and sheriff, where five and four candidates, respectively, are in those races.

Some six persons, including four incumbents, filed through the Secretary of State’s Office.

District Judge-2nd Division, James “Mike” Lawson of Albany filed for reelection for that non-partisan judgeship and is so far the only candidate in that race.

Incumbent State Senator George Maxwell “Max” Wise, a Republican, filed for re-election in the 16th State Senate District. Thus far, he has no opposition in the primary, but does have a Democrat opponent this fall.

Incumbent 1st District Congressman James Comer of Tompkinsville has filed for re-election and thus far has one GOP opponent in May.

The most sought after statewide seat by far, that of U.S. Senator from Kentucky, saw three additional candidates in the running since last report, including incumbent Republican Rand Paul.

Two other Republicans also filed for Paul’s seat, those being Arnold Blankenship and John Schiess.

With the new filings, it brings the total number of candidates seeking the U.S. Senate seat to nine candidates, four Democrats and five Republicans.

With the deadline for filing extended, the NEWS will continue weekly updates of local candidates and publish a full list of candidates who will be on the May primary ballot in early February.

(In related news, there has been a new redistricting plan for senate and representative seats in Kentucky that could affect the current 16th District. A separate article on that redistricting plan appears on page 1.)