Request By:
Honorable James W. Lyon, Sr.
Attorney at Law
300 Main Street
Greenup, Kentucky 41144
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You ask whether it would be a conflict of interest for a state probation and parole officer to run for district judge. You also ask whether he would have to resign from his state office as a probation and parole officer to run for the judgeship, which is a nonpartisan office.
Assuming that this probation and parole officer is in a position in the state's classified service, then KRS 18.310(4), which prohibits such an employee from being a candidate for nomination or election to a paid public office, would control. Thus if he wants to run for district judge, he will first [before running] have to resign from his state office. The matter of a conflict of interest under this analysis is academic.