damon thayer

The president of the Kentucky Senate is giving good marks overall for the 2014 general assembly session.  Robert Stivers offered the assessment Monday during a caucus meeting of senate republicans. 

 A bill that would restore voting rights for thousands of Kentucky felons isn’t likely to pass this year.

Lawmakers say they could not reach an agreement over different versions of the proposed legislation.

A bill that would allow U.S. Sen. Rand Paul to run for both the Senate and the Presidency of the United States passed Tuesday out of the Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate. 

In the Kentucky Legislature, there was budget talk Friday in both houses, but it had little to do with dollars and cents.  It began in the Senate when Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer asked members in the House to move on a two year budget and get it to his chamber.  

The Kentucky general assembly is about a third of the way through the 2014 session.  As is the case in most Kentucky legislative sessions, a great deal of the voting comes in the later weeks and days. 

Kentucky lawmakers are being urged by a coalition of powerful health care and business groups to revamp the state's medical malpractice system. 

State Senate Majority Leader Republican Damon Thayer says more Kentuckians would cast ballots for governor, attorney general and the Commonwealth’s other constitutional offices if those elections were held in even-numbered years. Thayer says low-voter turnout for such elections ought to give pause to every Commonwealth resident.

A bill that would automatically restore voting rights for non-violent felons in Kentucky has taken another step toward passage.

The bill handily passed in the Democratically-controlled House, but likely won't be well-received in the GOP-led Senate. Similar bills have died there in previous years.

A bill seeking to amend Kentucky's Constitution to restore voting rights for non-violent felons sailed through the state House Thursday.

Unlike past years, the proposed ballot issue may have a chance in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer says it may be an issue "whose time has come," with some changes.

It's held that there’s a difference between rights and privileges. But with the issue of voter identification laws, that line gets a little blurry.

A Kentucky state senator says he is unsure when he will file voter ID legislation. Republican Floor Leader Sen. Damon Thayer says such a law is necessary to provide protections from voter fraud.