A warning to Kansans: Kris Kobach has gained prominence by scamming cities
Any Kansans who believe Secretary of State Kris Kobach is primarily interested in the state’s welfare, or that he is qualified for higher office, saw those notions demolished this week.
A devastating story by The Star and ProPublica showed that Kobach’s lucrative career chasing anti-immigrant legislation is a sham. The secretary of state has earned at least $800,000 over the years traveling from city to city to draft and defend rickety ordinances aimed at restricting immigration.
To their deep regret, officials in those communities did not know what Kansans have learned: Kobach is a terrible lawyer. In city after city, his poorly drafted ordinances were struck down by the courts, even though Kobach was paid handsomely to write them and defend them in court.
Valley Park, Mo., taxpayers coughed up $300,000 because officials there were sold on Kobach’s pitch. The city’s immigration ordinance, drafted with Kobach’s help, was eventually gutted.
Grant Young, Valley Park’s former mayor, described Kobach’s approach: “Let’s find a town that’s got some issues or pretends to have some issues, let’s drum up an immigration problem, and maybe I can advance my political position ... and maybe make some money at the same time,” he said.
It may be the best description ever of Kris Kobach’s understanding of public service.
It wasn’t just Valley Park, of course. Farmers Branch, Texas, ended up $7 million in the hole. Hazleton, Pa., borrowed $1.4 million to pay for Kobach’s folly. Taxpayers in Fremont, Neb., raised property taxes to put money in Kobach’s pocket.
The secretary’s what-me-worry response? These cities knew what they were getting into. “The elected representatives of the people made a decision with full awareness that fighting the ACLU costs money,” he said.
Less obvious, apparently, were other reasons for the effort: to raise Kobach’s national profile and to pad his bank account.
Kansans should see the story as a bright, blinking caution light.
Kobach was sanctioned by a federal judge for contempt. He has been ordered to take remedial classes in basic courtroom rules.
Kobach helped President Donald Trump form a voting commission aimed in part at exploring the laughable contention that Trump actually won the popular vote in 2016. Predictably, the commission collapsed from its own silliness.
In 2014, Kobach tried to prevent a Democrat from withdrawing from the U.S. Senate race, a nakedly partisan effort. “The law is perfectly clear,” he said at the time. Yes, clear to everyone except Kobach, who lost the case.
Do we see a pattern?
If elected governor, Kobach promised to re-evaluate his outside work. “Obviously as governor I would not have the same number of hours of free time that I do as secretary of state,” he said. “I’ll be reducing my lawyer work, the law work, considerably.”
Set aside, for a moment, the outrage Kansans should feel for paying Kobach a full-time salary for part-time work. Does anyone know what “considerably” means? Or is it likely Kobach will use the governor’s office, if elected, as a mere backdrop for more appearances on cable TV, more stumbling legal work, more flimflammery?
Kansans have been warned again that Kris Kobach is not fit to serve in any public position, let alone to lead our state as governor. Republican voters should remember that when they cast their ballots in Tuesday’s primary.
This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 6:06 PM.