Controversial new leaders divide Kansas Republicans. How did they get elected?

Just days after electing new leadership, some Kansas City-area Republicans are already wondering if their district chair and vice chair should step down due to financial and ethical concerns.

After a good showing statewide in the Nov. 3 election, Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes Johnson and Wyandotte counties, are being riven by reports of past financial dealings by new district chair Jacob Swisher. Questions have also emerged about his vice chair, Danedri Herbert, who pointedly criticized Swisher’s actions in a 2015 blog post but just ran on his ticket. That post had been deleted but has since been unearthed.

Swisher, who was elected last week along with Herbert and other officers, referred questions to Herbert, who has yet to answer them.

But party activists contacted by The Star Editorial Board shared their fervent displeasure with Swisher, noting distrust of him and questions about his financial past.

Former contractor Mike Moore is just one of them. He says Swisher once contracted him to do $5,000 or more of work on a Johnson County office building and never paid him. Moore said Swisher represented to him that he was an owner of the building, but apparently only had a management role in it. When Swisher repeatedly couldn’t be contacted for payment, Moore filed a mechanic’s lien in court and ultimately found the real owner, an attorney who quickly made good on the bill.

Two former Johnson County Republican Party officers said they fielded numerous calls at the party office about 10 years ago from debt collectors searching for Swisher, who had left town. Herbert’s 2015 blog post also indicates Swisher subsequently spent time in Tennessee, where he was expelled from the Tennessee Republican Assembly, and Boston, where a politician sued Swisher for return of payment for fundraising services that weren’t delivered.

Former Johnson County Republican Party secretary Marearl Denning said creditors called looking for Swisher “at least two or three times a week.”

Former vice chair Doris Riley recalls fielding numerous calls for unpaid rent and other debts — even though Swisher had only been a volunteer, not a party functionary.

“I was disturbed that they were calling our Republican office,” Riley says. “I didn’t want anything to do with it. I didn’t want the Republican Party or our office involved in a collection issue. What’s most disturbing is that they had connected him to the Republican Party.”

When asked if Swisher had an official function with the party back then, Riley said, “No. That would not have happened.”

It has now. And it has Republican activists in Johnson and Wyandotte counties agitated, although some prominent officials backed Swisher’s narrow 74-70 election as chairman — including Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden and outgoing Johnson County Commissioner Mike Brown.

“I have a good relationship with Jacob,” state GOP Chairman Mike Kuckelman wrote in a text. “Have known him for years. He’s a very hard worker. Helps many campaigns.”

Vice chair’s anonymous blog attacked chair

Still, as a further sign of the fission from this election, party activist Michael T. Egan sent an email Thursday to other GOP activists and donors asking if Swisher and Herbert should resign. Egan’s critics quickly questioned his credibility and standing. Meanwhile, other area Republicans shared tales of personal betrayal by Swisher.

Moore, the former contractor and a GOP precinct committee leader, said he was particularly disappointed in his dealings with Swisher since he considered him a friend.

“I think that’s the way he operates,” Moore says. “I don’t hold a grudge against the guy. In fact, I never did. I just decided that in the future that I wouldn’t do business with him because I don’t like the way he operates, at least based on my experience.” While noting the two are cordial, Moore says, “I don’t trust him.”

Why would Herbert agree to be his vice chair after excoriating him on her then-anonymous blog?

“We share common goals: winning back the 3rd District congressional seat for Republicans, electing a freedom-loving Republican governor and expanding the Republican majority in the Kansas Legislature,” Herbert told The Star Editorial Board. She didn’t answer additional questions regarding her past criticism of Swisher or other Republicans’ concerns about him.

Johnson County GOP Chairman Fabian Shepard, while not addressing Swisher directly, expressed concern about divisiveness in the party ranks: “It’s proven to be catastrophic when it comes to victories in elections.”

Indeed, it’s hard to see how a further divided Republican Party could mount a successful challenge in 2022 against Democratic 3rd District Rep. Sharice Davids, as Herbert hopes. Davids handily won reelection Nov. 3.

Further puzzling is why GOP 3rd District electors would have chosen such a divisive slate of officers and turned down the opposing slate — headlined by a unified pair of former congressional primary rivals in Adrienne Vallejo Foster and Sara Hart Weir.

If unity and recapturing the 3rd Congressional District seat are the Republican Party’s aim, this is a pretty strange way to go about it.