Kansas ethics panel questions the name of Kris Kobach’s political action committee

A Wichita group’s effort to form a committee to “fix stupid” in Kansas politics has inadvertently raised questions about the legality of the name of a political action committee run by Kris Kobach, the state’s top election official.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, will get a letter from the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission questioning the name Prairie Fire PAC for his political fundraising committee, said Carol Williams, executive director of the commission.

State law requires PACs affiliated with a larger corporation or organization to note that in their name. Unaffiliated PACs must use names indicating who is involved or the cause the PAC is advocating, Williams said.

Kobach said the law doesn’t apply to a PAC like his.

The issue arose this week after political activists in Wichita tried to register a PAC they wanted to call It’s Time to Fix Stupid. They got a letter from the ethics commission saying: “The name of your political action committee, It’s time to fix stupid, must be changed or expanded upon to more clearly reflect your interest.”

The Wichita Eagle found four existing PACs whose names did not appear to have a connection to their sponsors or missions: Kobach’s committee, Prairie Fire; Gov. Sam Brownback’s Road Map PAC; Bluestem Fund PAC, started by former governor Kathleen Sebelius; and D Wild Ones, a group of Pittsburg Democrats.

Brownback’s PAC name is OK because it’s incorporated and includes the corporation name, Williams said.

But Kobach’s PAC didn’t take the additional step of incorporating, so its name may not comply with the law, Williams said.

She said she will also consult with agency counsel about Bluestem Fund and D Wild Ones, and they also may get letters from the commission about their names.

Kobach said he modeled the name Prairie Fire on Sebelius’ PAC.

“Gov. Sebelius’ choice of the bluestem was one we were very familiar with,” he said. “It’s a Kansas icon, and so is the prairie fire. We were thinking of the Bluestem (PAC) when we chose Prairie Fire.”

Prairie Fire is a “leadership PAC,” the term used for committees attached to state officeholders and legislators. Kobach said he doesn’t think the naming law applies to leadership PACs because it specifies committees that are “not connected or affiliated with any one organization.” He said he interprets that to mean PACs that represent more than one organization, not PACs representing an individual officeholder.

He said it may take an opinion from the attorney general to sort the situation out and if he has to, he will incorporate his PAC or change its name.

“It’s not the end of the world,” he said. “It’s just a name.”

Wichita television personality R.J. Dickens, the chairman and treasurer of It’s Time to Fix Stupid, laughed when he found out Kobach might also have to change his PAC’s name.

“I love it. That’s just great,” said Dickens, news director at KCTU-TV.

His group plans to use its website to hold a “Stupid Tuesday” primary in August to identify those deemed the stupidest legislators in the Kansas statehouse and to direct campaign donations to their opponents.

“Kansas has the third-least-educated legislature in the country,” Dickens said. “We want to target some of these people who have basically embarrassed the state with their stupidity.”

But Williams, the head of the ethics panel, said the PAC’s proposed name just doesn’t comply with state law.

“We used to have, before the statute came into play, all these groups — Citizens for Good Government, Citizens for Fair Government, Good Government People. Well, what does that mean?” she said. “They were all associations. They were wine and spirits, they were a rural electric cooperative.”

That, she said, masked who was really contributing to campaigns and undercut the state’s campaign finance disclosure law.

Political committees not associated with a larger organization must use names that give at least a hint of who they are and what cause they’re advocating, she said.

“If they’re Kansans or Wichitans or Democrats or Republicans, there’s got to be something in the name that’s going to at least let us know animal, mineral, vegetable,” she said.

This story was originally published April 23, 2015 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Kansas ethics panel questions the name of Kris Kobach’s political action committee."