Richard Beliles is dead. Perhaps I should also say, "Common Cause In Kentucky is dead" -- at least for now.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/kentucky/name/richard-beliles-obit…

Richard Beliles and Common Cause were synonymous in the Commonwealth.  

I met him not long after leaving the Office of the Kentucky Attorney General. I wrote an op-ed critical of former Mayor Greg Fischer's refusal to release the names of his office's Kentucky Derby guests.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/08/14/m…

Richard was outraged by this kind of nonsensical secrecy.

We met at Heine Brothers in Louisville's Douglas Loop to discuss the propriety of the Fischer administration's position and consider legal options. He was a striking figure -- tall, gaunt, hollow eyed -- looking a bit like an unshrouded Grim Reaper.

Later, I reached out to him for support when the then-newly formed Kentucky Open Government Coalition attempted to organize opposition to 2021's House Bill 312, a bill that became law over overwhelming objection. Richard enthusiastically joined the swelling ranks of signatories to the Coalition's letter of opposition to that bill. Lawmakers were deaf to our entreaties, and HB 312 was enacted into law as the manifestly unjust "residency requirement" in the open records law. More devastatingly, it was enacted as the mechanism by which the General Assembly's excluded itself and the Legislative Research Commission from the open records law and immunized their denial of public access to legislative records requests from review by the courts.

https://kyopengov.org/blog/today-letter-signed-members-kentucky-open-go…

I did not know Richard personally. I only knew him as a tireless soldier for a fading model of transparent and accountable government that serves the public's interest rather than public officials' self-interest.

Richard Beliles may have felt he was fighting a losing battle. He likely agreed with "Lincoln" scriptwriter Tony Kushner's observation that "the inner compass that should direct the soul toward justice has ossified" in many, perhaps most, elected and appointed public officials.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443272/characters/nm0000169?ref_=ho_web&f…

Not just Common Cause but good government, generally, was synonymous with Richard Beliles in this state. I am saddened by his passing. Kentucky is the lesser for it.