Bob Heleringer

Heleringer (pronounced "hell ringer") is the oldest of six children of Robert C. Heleringer (1926–2005) and the former Mary Lou O'Donnell (1927–2004). Robert C. Heleringer, also known as Bob Heleringer, and his father, A. M. Heleringer (1898–1964), founded and operated for a half century Heleringer's Furniture Company in Louisville. Heleringer attended Our Lady of Lourdes School in Louisville, where he was taught by the Roman Catholic Ursuline Nuns of the Immaculate Conception and acquired a keen interest in U.S. history. He graduated as an eighth grader in 1965 and went to Trinity High School in 1969. He worked in the family furniture store during high school. The Heleringers had first lived on the South End of Louisville near Churchill Downs but later moved to a larger residence at St. Matthews, a suburb on the East End of Louisville.[1]

Heleringer was born in the week between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness races. His maternal grandfather from whom he acquired his middle name, Leo O'Donnell (1896–1993), was a Thoroughbred trainer who co-founded the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association. Heleringer's mother and his siblings raced horses in the 1990s and early 2000s and acquired a winner in Put Me In. Heleringer worked as a mutuel clerk and racing official at various locations while he attended the Roman Catholic Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1973. He then enrolled at the University of Louisville School of Law, at which he was the editor of the student newspaper. He graduated in 1976 and immediately launched his law practice. In 2000, he was named an "Honored Alumnus" by his law school.[1]

In his twenties, Heleringer campaigned for fellow Republicans Gene Snyder, a U.S. representative for Kentucky's 4th congressional district, and Jon Ackerson, a state senator and later state representative for Jefferson County who successfully recommended Heleringer for the position as "administrative assistant" to the then eight-member Republican Senate Caucus, long before the Republicans obtained the majority in the state Senate in 2000.[1] In the 1979 state election, Heleringer in a vigorous campaign unseated the Democratic Representative Bob Benson. Heleringer ran as a staunch opponent of abortion, which had been legalized in all states six years earlier by the United States Supreme Court.[2] Unlike most opponents of abortion, Heleringer also opposed capital punishment: "I think it's wrong to take a life regardless of what that person has done." He compared lethal injections to "sanitizing" legal executions.[3]

As a legislator, Heleringer was the vice-chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, from which berth he became known for criticism of excessive state spending on contracts. He has worked for organizations which represent the disabled and the horse industry. In 1985, Representative Heleringer was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for mayor of Louisville; he lost to the Democrat Jerry Abramson, who was subsequently the first Louisville Metro Mayor. In 2006, Heleringer was the unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor[4] on an intra-party ticket headed by Steve Nunn of Barren County, the son of former Governor Louie B. Nunn. Steve Nunn, who had entered the legislature at the same time as Heleringer, lost the gubernatorial nomination to U.S. Representative Ernie Fletcher, who then became the first Republican to win the Kentucky governorship since Louie B. Nunn. Steve Nunn is now serving a life sentence for the murder of a former fiancée.[5]

In 2008, Heleringer ran unsuccessfully for the Kentucky State Senate.[1]

In 2015, Heleringer finished second among twenty-one candidates for the seat on the state 30th District Court for Jefferson County vacated by the retiring Judge Michele Stengel. With 19,432 votes (11.6 percent), Heleringer lost to Democrat Todd Hollenbach of Louisville, the former two-term state treasurer who led the field with 32,340 (19.2 percent). Kentucky has no runoff elections in such situations; so plurality prevails.[6]

When he was campaigning in 1979 for the legislature in the same election in which Louie B. Nunn unsuccessfully sought to return to the governorship, Heleringer met Cynthia "Cindy" Carby, a young woman whom he signed up to vote. Despite some reservation from her father, the couple married the next year and had four children in eight years: Sarah (1981), Ann (1982), Tommy (1984), and Philip (1989). Heleringer told his bride that while they might not become wealthy, life would never be dull. With their children all grown, the Heleringers refurbished his boyhood home in St. Matthews, where they reside. They also spend part of the year in Vermont.[1]

Heleringer is an instructor at the Equine Industry Studies program at the University of Louisville. As there was no textbook for the original course, Heleringer began to prepare a book. After thirteen years, he completed Equine Regulatory Law, which also encompasses the history of the horse racing industry. He also teaches equine studies at the women's school, Midway University in Midway, Kentucky.[1] In December 2015, Heleringer resigned as the executive director of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, an advocacy group established in 2004. KEEP, as it is known, announced a future statewide focus, rather than concentration on Louisville, Lexington, and the capital city of Frankfort and the dropping of its former lobbying activities on behalf of casino gambling.[7]

Heleringer writes occasional columns, mostly political, for the Louisville Courier-Journal.[1]