Kentucky Treasurer John Kennedy Hamilton has drawn considerable attention to an office that previously lay quietly in the background, performing routine administrative duties.
The treasurer's office mostly processes checks and is not involved in investments or bond deals.
Yet Hamilton, 35, has generated extensive publicity for his professional fights as well as his personal woes since taking office in 1996.
Most of the controversy has swirled around his heated battle with the commonwealth's bankers and a messy divorce that pulled many of his personal problems into the spotlight.
On the professional front, he has stepped up the commonwealth's collection of unclaimed property like abandoned accounts at banks. He did so by hiring independent auditors to comb the finances of institutions like hospitals and insurance companies.
Those audits turned up more than $2 million of previously unreported unclaimed property, and at least a quarter of that has since been remitted to its rightful owners. Hamilton has often touted the audits' success.
But banks have fought Hamilton's measures through lawsuits and aggressive lobbying of lawmakers. Their own victories have let Hamilton to publicly express his frustrations.
Hamilton, who did not return telephone calls for this story, has spoken out on other fronts as well. Perhaps most notably, he has criticized the media's coverage of his personal life.
Stories focusing on his deposition in his 1997 divorce generated extensive fodder for critics. In that deposition, he reportedly admitted to gambling losses.
Other crises, such as an arrest for public intoxication, added to Hamilton's problems. After constantly defending his personal actions, Hamilton last August announced that he would not run for re-election.
The Democrat won in 1995 in his first run for a political post. Pundits credit much of his success to the use of his famous first and middle names.
Hamilton's parents named him after President John F. Kennedy, who was killed four days before their son was born.
