The people who want to influence Kentucky lawmakers spent a lot of money to try and make or scuttle new state laws this spring. Kentucky’s Legislative Ethics Commission yesterday said lobbyists in Frankfort spent over ten-and-a-half million-dollars to try and influence state lawmakers. That’s a new record. All in all, the ethics commission says the total cost for lobbying in 2018 could top 22 million-dollars. The biggest spender was Altria, the parent company of Phillip Morris, which spent almost 380 thousand-dollars to fight an increase in Kentucky’s cigarette tax.