The1991 Kentucky lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1991, to elect thelieutenant governor of Kentucky. IncumbentDemocratic Lieutenant GovernorBrereton Jones chose not to seek re-election to a second term in office, instead running for governor.
Pike County executivePaul E. Patton won the general election against attorney Eugene Goss, by a margin of 514,023 to 250,857 votes.
This would be the last time the Lieutenant Governor and Governor were elected separately. In 1992, three Constitutional Amendments were placed on the ballot. One of these amendments was to end the governor and lieutenant governor from running separately in an election, which passed, 51.1% to 48.9%.[2]
Throughout the primary, attorney generalFred Cowan had generally been seen as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. However, on May 15, 1991, it was revealed that Cowan had sent a campaign contribution letter to Eric P. Shaffer, a registered architect who was under investigation for political contributions by Cowan's office, just days before he was scheduled to appear in Court. In the letter, Cowan asked for a campaign contribution request of $2,000 from Shaffer. Shaffer was subpoenaed April 3, and was scheduled to arrive in court on April 9. The date of the letter was April 7. This made it look like Shaffer was being pressured to give a campaign contribution to Cowan in return for clemency.
Cowan had stated that he was not aware that Shaffer was under subpoena, and that his letter was one of many sent out in early April. Nonetheless, this severely hurt his image.[3] On election day, Cowan lost toPike County executivePaul E. Patton by a margin of 41,765 votes.[4]
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