A mysterious new KC group is reigniting push to recall Frank White. Who’s paying for it?
Several efforts to oust long-time Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. from office have gone nowhere in the five years since soaring real estate assessments first sparked taxpayer outrage.
Recall petition drives came and went. And when the former Kansas City Royals player, coach and announcer turned Democratic politician faced his first serious re-election challenge two years ago, White beat his Republican challenger with 55% of the vote.
White’s critics have hopes that this latest effort to unseat him will succeed where previous challenges failed. A mysterious new group with possible ties to the construction industry called Democracy in Action has stepped in to run a year-old grassroots recall campaign that had stalled until recently.
“We’re getting there,” said Oak Grove resident Stephanie Coen, a volunteer who has been active on Facebook groups since 2023 urging people to sign and distribute recall petitions. “I believe we have about 15,000 (signatures).”
That’s not nearly enough. The county charter requires that at least 42,902 registered voters – 20% of the number of people who voted in that 2022 election – must sign petitions to force a recall vote. Coen and others who want to get rid of White are hopeful Democracy in Action can finally mobilize enough people to get the needed signatures.
For the first time, people were paid to collect signatures at polling places during this month’s general election. Democracy in Action footed the bill and now aims to make a big push between now and the January deadline for putting White’s recall up for a vote on the April ballot.
If they fail to get it done by then, those signatures would still be valid for a later vote, but the energy to get more might have been spent, Coen said.
“If we cannot get enough signatures, we are stuck with Frank and his corrupt government for another 2 years,” is how Coen summed it up last week on the Facebook group Fight Jackson County Missouri Assessments.
White calls the recall effort “a political sideshow funded by a dark money group and led by individuals who prioritize self-promotion over the future of Jackson County.”
In a prepared statement, he defended his record as the leader of county government since January 2016, when he was appointed to replace County Executive Mike Sanders, who would later be sentenced to federal prison for misusing political campaign funds.
“When I took office, Jackson County’s government was plagued by political patronage and corruption that put the interests of a few ahead of the needs of the many,” White said. “I was elected to change that, to root out corruption, to bring transparency and accountability, and to take on the big fights—fights that aren’t always politically convenient but are necessary to build a better future.”
White blames rising property assessments on state law that requires counties to set real estate values for tax purposes as close as possible to actual market values. He denies any mismanagement on the part of his administration.
“We’ve made hard changes and taken on challenges that don’t always make us popular in political circles, but I’ll continue to do what’s right for Jackson County.”
Where is the new money coming from?
Some of White’s most vocal opponents have said that even they do not know much about Democracy in Action or who is behind it.
“I feel like it’s a bit sketchy,” said Sean Smith, one of two Republicans on the nine-member county legislature who has been critical of the Democratic county executive’s handling of the reassessment process and other issues.
“I want to help the effort, but I don’t want to get entangled with anything that’s improper.”
Not to worry, says Guy Howard, Democracy in Action’s executive director. The group is not nefarious, Howard told The Star in an interview.
Democracy in Action, he said, is what it claims to be in its articles of incorporation paperwork that was filed last month with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.
That document says the Kansas City-based organization has a progressive agenda aimed at fostering economic development, expanding housing options and improving transportation options.
But Howard says its initial and only project so far happens to be the recall.
“The group just recently received funding, and that’s why, I think, people are surprised that there was an organization not really known that picked up the effort to own the recall…and it’s gained momentum.”
The group is not saying where its money is coming from or how much it has. It was formed as a nonprofit under 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code.
That IRS classification allows groups to collect and spend money for political purposes with zero obligation to publicly declare where that money is coming from – hence the term dark money.
Possible ties to construction lobby
Howard declined to identify the source of the group’s funding or to name other members of the board. He was nonspecific when asked how he came to lead the organization despite having no political experience on record.
“The reason that we are set up the way we are, a lot of the people want to remain confidential,” said Howard, who lives in Lawrence and, according to his LinkedIn profile, was until last March a manager at an aerospace parts manufacturing plant in Olathe.
“They don’t want us to share who they are,” he said of the group’s board and backers. “Part of what I understand and have been told is that there have been threats. Some of the citizens work with the county and worry about retaliation, and so they don’t want to share (who they are).”
Following that interview, The Star learned that Howard is related by marriage to Bridgette Williams, executive director of the Heavy Constructors Association of Greater Kansas City.
That organization she leads represents contractors who specialize in public works projects and is active in partisan politics through its financial contributions.
Williams was a member of the committee of community leaders formed early this year to support passage of a sales tax that would have helped pay for a new downtown stadium for the Royals and major renovations to Arrowhead Stadium. White opposed the tax, which voters rejected in April.
That Howard, her sister’s husband, is executive director of the dark money group behind the recall is purely coincidental, Williams said, and noted that the Heavy Constructors have so far not taken a position on the effort.
“We’re not involved at this point,” she said. “We do have some issues with Frank, but it is a coincidence.”
Williams then went on at-length to recite some of those differences. Among them, objections to the increases in property taxes, White’s reluctance to follow the legislature’s directives on the spending of federal COVID relief dollars and objections about bidding procedures for county construction projects.
“There is a huge level of frustration for what’s going on right now,” she said, “Nobody’s suffering but the businesses and the citizens.”
Howard said the group is continuing to raise money for the recall effort and will soon be setting up a website and social media presence to attract support.
“There’s a lot that needs to be done in the next week or so to make sure that we are effective.”
Howard claimed that the group is bipartisan and not affiliated with an earlier Republican effort supporting a recall. However, officials from both parties told The Star that Howard contacted them seeking support in the weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
“I don’t know where they got the money, have no idea,” said Mark Anthony Jones, former chair of the Jackson County Republican Party. “I just know that they called three days before the election, and that’s a little bit late to jump in and organize something. I literally said, ‘Really? Where were you, you know, when we were really working on this heavy?’”
County Legislator Manny Abarca, a Democrat often at odds with White who would like to see him forced from office, said he, too, was contacted and shared Howard’s phone number online when Democracy in Action was offering to pay people to collect signatures.
“I support the will of the people, but to be clear I am not leading any effort,” Abarca said in a text message.
Criticism mounting in Eastern Jackson County
Buoyed by the support from Democracy in Action and what she hopes will be increased media attention to the effort, Coen has arranged for events where recall supporters can sign the petition without leaving their cars.
The first two of those drive-through sessions were Saturday at a Blue Springs gun range and the Civil War museum in Lone Jack. More drive-through signing events will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 23 and Nov. 30 outside the gun shop, Target Time Defense at 2140 NW S Outer Road in Blue Springs.
Eastern Jackson County is where White has the least political support. In the 2022 election, he came in second in those more-Republican precincts, with 44% of the vote to Theresa Galvin’s 56%.
But he won overall because voters in heavily Democratic Kansas City favored him 3-to-1.
Of the eight men and women who were elected county executive under the current form of government, only Kathryn Shields has served longer.
This story was originally published November 18, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
