Thursday, March 10, 2005
Kansas School Board Conservatives Are Beneficiarys of PAC's Slush Fund
Kansas election law limits contributions to state school board candidates to $500 during the primary and $500 during the general election from political action committees. However, school board candidates such as Steve Abrams, Kathy Martin, John Bacon, Connie Morris, Ken Willard, and Iris Van Meter who support including creation "science" and intelligent design in the state's science curriculum have accepted contributions from a shadowy network of right-wing PACs that seem to have been set up to get around those contribution limits.
The PACs all share the same treasurer -- in 2002, it was Elizabeth A. Stark -- and the same post office box in Topeka with the Kansas Republican Assembly. A study of Federal Election Commission filings by Red State Rabble shows that two PACs -- Fair Academic Inquiry and Research (FAIR) and Kansas Republican Victory Fund -- regularly move money between each other and their state and local committees to fund the six conservatives on the school board.
On April 12, 2002 the FAIR Federal PAC, for example, made a $500 dollar contribution to the Kansas Republican Victory Fund Federal PAC. The next day, on April 13, Kansas Republican Victory passed along a $500 contribution to Connie Morris, the District 5 candidate from St. Francis. Morris, also received $500 in contributions from the FAIR state PAC, $1,000 from the FAIR federal PAC, and $500 from the Kansas Republican Victory state PAC bringing the total to $2,500 -- or two-and-a-half times what the law allows from a single PAC.
Conservative school board candidates Iris Van Meter and Ken Willard also received multiple contributions that in total exceeded contribution limits from this interlocking network of state and local PACs.
Moreover, the PACs regularly moved money between each other. The FAIR federal PAC, for example, gave $1025 to the FAIR state PAC. It also gave $3,150 to the Kansas Republican Victory Fund federal PAC, and $500 to the Kansas Republican Victory state PAC in 2002.
Kansas Republican Victory Fund federal PAC also lent $5,000 to the Restore America PAC which has a post office box in Shawnee Mission for a month in 2002, and gave $175 to the Kansas Republican Assembly parent organization.
The PACs all share the same treasurer -- in 2002, it was Elizabeth A. Stark -- and the same post office box in Topeka with the Kansas Republican Assembly. A study of Federal Election Commission filings by Red State Rabble shows that two PACs -- Fair Academic Inquiry and Research (FAIR) and Kansas Republican Victory Fund -- regularly move money between each other and their state and local committees to fund the six conservatives on the school board.
On April 12, 2002 the FAIR Federal PAC, for example, made a $500 dollar contribution to the Kansas Republican Victory Fund Federal PAC. The next day, on April 13, Kansas Republican Victory passed along a $500 contribution to Connie Morris, the District 5 candidate from St. Francis. Morris, also received $500 in contributions from the FAIR state PAC, $1,000 from the FAIR federal PAC, and $500 from the Kansas Republican Victory state PAC bringing the total to $2,500 -- or two-and-a-half times what the law allows from a single PAC.
Conservative school board candidates Iris Van Meter and Ken Willard also received multiple contributions that in total exceeded contribution limits from this interlocking network of state and local PACs.
Moreover, the PACs regularly moved money between each other. The FAIR federal PAC, for example, gave $1025 to the FAIR state PAC. It also gave $3,150 to the Kansas Republican Victory Fund federal PAC, and $500 to the Kansas Republican Victory state PAC in 2002.
Kansas Republican Victory Fund federal PAC also lent $5,000 to the Restore America PAC which has a post office box in Shawnee Mission for a month in 2002, and gave $175 to the Kansas Republican Assembly parent organization.
