April 17, 2008
[updated April 27]

Franking Abuse by Kansas Democratic Legislative Leadership

Recently both the Kansas House Minority Leader, Dennis McKinney, and Kansas Senate Minority Leader, Anthony Hensley, abused their healthy franking budgets to mail items to Kansas voters. These mailings had less to do with helping inform constituents about what is going on in the Kansas legislature, and more to do with getting certain Democrats re-elected this year.

A reliable source tells the Meadowlark that House Minority Leader Mckinney will reimburse the State for postage for his recent mailings. However, the Senate Minority Leader has not made a pledge to repay taxpayers for his franking abuse, even though taxpayers paid a hefty sum for his recent needless mailings.

Actual amounts for these mailings will be published here when available.

About a week ago, the Meadowlark received reports of unusual mailings sent by Kansas House Minority Leader, Dennis McKinney, and Kansas Senate Minority Leader, Anthony Hensley, to voters in Districts that will likely have competitive contests in this year's elections, including:

• State Rep District 16, Gene Rardin,
• State Rep District 18, Cindy Neighbor,
• State Senate District 5, Mark Gilstrap, and
• State Senate District 18, Laura Kelly.

These mailings appeared to be campaign pieces made to look like "information" pieces.

A reliable source tells the Meadowlark that a State Rep normally has a postage budget of $952/year, while committee chairs have a budget of $1246/year. These postage budgets are to be used for "educational" purposes or "constituent services."

When asked about the lack of a "paid for by" statement on these mailings, Kansas Governmental Ethics Executive Director, Carol Williams, said this:

"Legislative newsletters do not require any 'paid for by' statement. The 'paid for by' is only required on pieces that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a state or local candidate."

To date, House Minority Leader McKinney has declined to reply to an April 8th E-mail from the Meadowlark requesting this information:

• Was this mailing paid for using tax dollars?
• How many people statewide received these mailings?
• How many tax dollars were spent statewide on these mailings?
• Is the number 42854 on these flyers your mailing code?
• There is no "paid for" statement, so I assume the sender, the Kansas House of Representatives, paid for this mailing. Is that correct?

Informed sources told the Meadowlark yesterday that House Minority Leader McKinney will be reimbursing the State of Kansas for postage for the four members who received postcards and will discontinue the practice. [Only two of the four are known at this time.]

Senate Minority Leader Hensley will likely be challenged more about his franking expenditures, but he so far has not promised to pay back the tax dollars to to the State.

Obviously, leadership in both the House and Senate may need to put parameters on what mailings are legitimate for "educational" purposes, or "constituent services" instead of campaign pieces during an election year.

A request for the actual dollar figures for all these mailings is still pending.

Shown below are copies of the mailings that were challenged.

Note the circumstantial evidence below that the House mailings implicate the Kansas Democratic Party for being involved in the Kansas non-profit in 2006 that sent "hit pieces" against selected Republican State Rep candidates.

Gene Rardin won District 16 by only 2 votes in 2006.

Recently, House Minority Leader McKinney wasted tax dollars on postage from his nearly unlimited postage budget to mail a needless list of "Important State Government Phone Numbers." The only apparent reason for this piece was to get Rardin's picture in front of friendly voters for his possible re-election bid.

House Minority Leader McKinney wasted tax dollars on postage to mail a needless list of "Important State Government Phone Numbers" to Neighbor's constituents as an excuse to get Neighbor's picture in front of friendly voters in District 18.

Both mailings above for State Reps Rardin and Neighbor from House Minority Leader McKinney showed a union printing label, which is enlarged and shown below. The label is for Snyder's Printing from Oklahoma City.

This same union printing label was on the negative mailings in the 2006 general election sent by an unknown "non profit" Kansas Progress. What are the chances that the same Oklahoma City printer was used for negative mailings in the 2006 General Election against certain State Rep candidates, and for positive mailings in 2008 in support of the winners in these same districts?

This union label is circumstantial evidence the Kansas Democratic Party was behind the "non profit" Kansas Progress in 2006. Why doesn't the Kansas Democratic Party use a printer from Kansas instead of one from Oklahoma?

In recent weeks Senate Minority Leader, Anthony Hensley, sent a mailing from his nearly unlimited postage budget as Senate Minority Leader to constituents in Mark Gilstrap's Senate District 5 in the Leavenworth-Kansas City area.

Do we really need tax dollars spent to tell voters "Good Government Requires YOUR Participation"? Why is this piece being mailed now near the end of the legislative session instead of in January when the legislative session started?

The back side said "Good Government Requires YOUR Participation" as shown below in Senate District 18.

In recent weeks Senate Minority Leader, Anthony Hensley, sent TWO mailings from his nearly unlimited postage budget as Senate Minority Leader to constituents in Laura Kelly's Senate District 18 in Topeka.

Do we really need tax dollars spent to tell voters "Good Government Requires YOUR Participation"? Why is this piece being mailed now near the end of the legislative session instead of in January when the legislative session started?

All legislators are given a small franking budget, which most use near the end of a legislative session for a newsletter. However, it is unprecedented for the Senate Minority Leader to send out a newsletter using his nearly unlimited postage budget on behalf of a Senator in another district.