August 31, 2004

Exclusive:  Online List of Kansas Political Action Committees

A recent article in the Lawrence Journal-World talked about how Kansans are left in the dark about political donors especially during the recent August primary elections in Kansas.

Just finding the list of political players in the State of Kansas is a bit of a mystery and a problem.  Until now citizens would need to go to the Secretary of State's Office in Topeka and pay $0.50/page to get a copy of the Kansas Political Action Committees, or candidate committees.  

The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission recently published a list of names of the Kansas Political Action Committees on their web site as of August 18, 2004.  This list is a start towards better open records in Kansas.  Carol Williams, Executive Director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, says that they will scan the Statement of Organization for each PAC and have that online in the near future.

As a public service, and as the next step toward more open records in Kansas, the Kansas Meadowlark is providing this rather large PDF file (3.4 MB) showing a complete list of Kansas Political Action Committees as of Aug 25, 2004, including the names and addresses of the chairperson and treasurer of each PAC. 

There is so much more that needs to be done for Kansas to catch up with the online reporting provided by Missouri.  Missouri provides free, online campaign finance reporting for statewide activities.  When will Kansas have free, on-line reporting of all political money?

Even just a summary of the amount of money raised, the amount spent, and the amount in the bank for each PAC and candidate committee would be a good first start for each reporting period.  The Kansas Meadowlark attempted such as summary for JoCo campaigns for the August 2004 primary.  When will such a statewide list be available?

In addition to statewide reporting, we need more public disclosure of money spent on local political issues.  For example, the Committee for Excellence was active in support of a Shawnee Mission School District bond issue that passed in April 2004.  How many construction companies, who will benefit from this bond issue, pushed for this tax increase?  Even though the election was months ago, the report by the Committee for Excellence isn't even due until January 2005.  Better disclosure of political money spent on local elections is badly needed.  Unless one can find the correct three-ring notebook in the Johnson County Election Office, this information will never be known by the public.

When will the Kansas City Star report political money stories in a serious way?  Why is the Star afraid to publish such information?

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