KENTUCKY: Rand Paul Can't Run For Senate And President At The Same Time

The Kentucky legislature has adjourned for the year without voting on a bill that would have allowed Sen. Rand Paul to appear twice on the 2016 ballot. Paul requested a change in state law so that he could retain his Senate seat while running for president.

"In Kentucky, you ought to run for one office at a time," Brian Wilkerson, a spokesman for Kentucky House Speaker Greg Stumbo, told CNN on Thursday. "The speaker's thoughts haven't changed on that." The state's Democratic governor, Steve Beshear, is highly unlikely to call the legislature into special session to consider the measure. And that means if Paul's allies in the state legislature want to try again, they're going to have to wait until the legislature reconvenes next January. By that time, a number of 2016 White House contenders may already be officially in the race. GOP State Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, a supporter of Paul's, has argued that Kentucky's law prohibiting running for two offices at the same time is meant to apply only to state-level offices – not federal offices such as the presidency, the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House.

Sen. Marco Rubio, another potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, objected to Rand Paul's request earlier this month, saying, "I think by and large, when you choose to do something as big as that, you've really got to be focused on that and not have an exit strategy."

RELATED: Many states allow candidates to run simultaneously for two offices. In 2008, for example, then-Sen. Joe Biden ran successfully for both vice president and to retain his Senate seat representing Delaware.