Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson is taking on new responsibilities. On Sunday, he becomes the new president of the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington. Grayson, who was first elected secretary of state in 2003 and was re-elected in 2007, says he has been involved with the national association since taking office.“What we do is work as a body to try to help each other out. We share best practices. We educate Congress when they’re talking about legislation that affects our offices. We work together to try to promote good voting election practices. One area that we’ve worked on over the last few years, and we’ve talked a lot about this, is the presidential primary reform," Grayson said.Grayson supports rotating regional presidential primaries, so states won’t continue leapfrogging over each other in order to be first. Grayson assumes the high-profile association presidency just as he’s gearing up for a possible run for U.S. Senate. He says he’ll run for fellow Republican Jim Bunning’s seat next year if Bunning decides not to seek re-election.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.