This is the second of three articles in a series about Mike Kelly’s Amberwave PAC. The first article focused on the impact of Amberwave’s spending for or against candidates running as JoCo commissioner candidates in the 2024 general election.
This article explores details of the PAC’s funding and expenditures.
A final article asks questions about information missing in the PAC reports.
The Amberwave PAC filed three reports in 2024 on its money raised and spent. Overall, the PAC raised about $210,000, spent $199,000 and has $11,000 cash on hand.
I am not able to reconcile all the details of the reports with these summary values.
Amberwave donors
Let’s look at these groups of PAC donors:
- Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund nonprofit
- Labor Unions
- Businesses
- Governor’s PAC
- People
The two largest Amberwave PAC funders were
- $85,000 from a mystery Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund 501(c)(4) nonprofit, and
- $65,000 from a group of mostly out-of-state labor unions.
Information in the graphic above about independent expenditures is from the “other transactions” in the Oct. 2024 report.
In the graphic quotes are around “Mike Kelly’s PAC” and “Laura Kelly’s PAC” since these elected officials are the names behind “their” PACs but their names do not appear on any of the legal documents about the PACs.
Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund ($85,000)
The source of the $85,000 given to Amberwave PAC by the Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund is a bit uncertain, but likely is from “dark money.”
Several nonprofits gave LJEDF money in recent years, which could have been the source of the donation to Amberwave.
While LJEDF does not report its donors on its IRS 990, an exhaustive search of all available IRS 990s can reveal many of its nonprofit donors from their tax filings.
The Tides Foundation was the largest recent donor to LJEDF giving over $2 million, with a relatively unknown organization, Global Impact Social Welfare Fund, the second largest giving about a half-million.
Global Impact Social Welfare Fund is also a donor to Kansas Values Institute, which spent $23 million in 2022 to help re-elect Gov. Laura Kelly.
Global Impact Social Welfare Fund’s parent organization, nonprofit Global Impact, grew its assets by over $60 million in the most recent reporting year, so its $8.9 million contribution to the Welfare Fund was almost pocket change.
Three Arabella Advisors’ “dark money” funds, and the Gates Foundation also gave large donations to the Welfare Fund.
LJEDF and Tides Advocacy are two $50,000 mystery donors to Kansans for an Affordable Future, which was active in Douglas and Sedgwick County elections last year.
Last year LJEDF was also a mystery source of political money in Illinois and Colorado local elections. See Related links below.
Labor Unions ($65,000)
Labor unions gave $65,000 to the Amberwave PAC:
- The Bluestem Fund PAC, Topeka, $10,000. Former Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius formed this PAC more than two decades ago. In 2024 $75,000 in contributions to Bluestem were from out-of-state unions, and $10,000 was from a Kansas union. This PAC is related to The Bluestem Foundation for Economic Freedom nonprofit.
- DRIVE, Washington, DC, $10,000. The Teamsters run this Democrat, Republican, Independent Voter Education organization.
- IBEW Local #124 Voluntary Political Fund, KCMO, $15,000.
- Pipefitters Local 533 Voluntary Political Fund, KCMO, $15,000.
- Mid-America Carpenters Regional County, Missouri-Kansas Area, St. Louis, $5,000.
- Operating Engineers Local 101, KCMO, $5,000.
- Sprinkler Fitters Local Union 314 Political Fund, KCMO, $2,500.
- Plumbers local Union No. 8 PAC, KCMO, $2,000.
- Plasters and Cement Masons’ Local Union #518 PAC, Independence, MO, $500.
Businesses ($13,600)
- Garten Trust (no address given), $5,000
- Sunflower Redevelopment LLC, KCMO, $2,500
- Cindy Houston, Grata LLC, OP, $2,500
Grata Development LLC, OP, $500
Travis Schram, Grata Development, OP, $700 - HDR Inc. Employee Owners PAC, Omaha, NE, $500
- Polsinelli, KCMO, $500.00
- NLC Property LLC, OP, $1,000
WPPI LLC dba Westchester Park Apartments, OP $1,000 - Osman Consultants LLC, OP, $100
Governor’s PAC ($10,000)
- Gov. Kelly’s Middle of the Road PAC, OP, $10,000
Individuals ($36,173)
Amberwave received $36,173 in 91 contributions from 84 individuals.
Out-of-state donors
Ten out-of-state individuals gave Amberwave a total of $4,350.
Large out-of-state contributions were from:
- Pete Browne, KCMO, $1,000
- Brian Weaver, Belton, MO, $1,000
- Brandon Vore, La Cygne, IN, $1,000
- Piercyn Charbonneau, KCMO, $500
Contributor states included Alaska, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska and the District of Columbia. One was unknown.
Kansas donors
Amberwave received 81 contributions totaling $31,823 from 74 Kansans, including:
- John Petersen, Leawood, $3,500. Attorney for Sunflower Redevelopment LLC.
- Grant Curtin, Mission Hills, $3,000. VP at Curtin Property Co.
- Jonathan Baum, Mission Hills, $2,500. Baum Capital Partners.
- Nancy Walrafen, Leawood, $2,500.
- John Isenberg, Prairie Village, $1,250.
- Jennifer Day, Overland Park, $1,000.
- Buzz Feingold, Prairie Village, $1,000.
- Hannes Zacharias, Lenexa, $200. Treasurer for Mike Kelly for JoCo Chair.
- Michael Poppa, Roeland Park, $100. Roeland Park Mayor; Mainstream Coalition Executive Director.
Amberwave expenditures
- Ethics filing fee: $750
- Stripe payments: $533.99 (missing vendor address)
- ActBlue payment: $301.26 (only used in Jan. 10, 2025 report when many more individuals were donors). It’s unclear which donors used ActBlue or Stripe.
- Contributions to four Democratic candidates: three for JoCo County Commission and one for JoCo District Attorney: 3 * $500 + $500 = $2000
- Contribution to the Kansas Democratic Party: $500
- Unitemized expenditures: $455.94
- Curious large legal expenditure to create Amberwave billed in December: $10,965.80
How can creating a PAC cost so much? (Mike Kelly is a partner at Husch Blackwell.)
- Curious documentation for a large reimbursement: $6,677.55
- Curious expenditures for most campaign expenses through vendor Databasically Inc. $176,993.81
Amberwave knows how to pay this company but does not know its address for reports?
Where is the breakdown by candidate for any printing, mail or texting in the numbers above?
The Campaign Finance Handbook for Party and Political Action Committees 2024 says this:
When an independent expenditure in excess of $300 is made which expressly advocates the election or defeat of a candidate for state or local office, the name and address of the candidate who is subject to the expenditure must be listed.
The only details showing independent expenditures for or against candidates were in the Oct. 2024 report in unlabeled attachments on pp. 4-5, which were not part of the expenditures, but part of “other transactions.”
The Amberwave “last minute” report from Oct. 31 showed an aggregate amount of expenditures for the three county commission candidates in a table that was difficult to read.
This “last minute” information should have been part of the Jan. 10, 2025 report, but cannot be found.
The final article in this series will highlight other problems in the Amberwave campaign finance reports.
Related
 | Mike Kelly’s Amberwave PAC crushes opposition in JoCo Board of County Commissioners electionEARL F GLYNN·APR 22Read full story |
Why a dark money group from Delaware is spending thousands in Pueblo’s upcoming election, Anna Lynn Winfrey, Pueblo Chieftain (Colorado), Nov. 3, 2024.
The Local Jobs and Economic Development Fund “has already put over $27,500 in non-monetary contributions into the upcoming municipal elections, according to campaign finance reports current through mid-October — with more expected in future campaign finance disclosure forms …”
Dark Money in Local Elections, Diane Benjamin, BLN News (Illinois), Oct. 23, 2024.
The Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund appears to be more of a middleman, taking in huge donations from political organizations, industry and the wealthy and then doling them out to candidates and causes on local ballots.
Kansans for an Affordable Future received $50,000 from Local Jobs & Economic Development Fund in 2023 but that was not known at the time of the 2024 election.
Full Disclosure
Attorney General Kris Kobach appointed me to the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission in March 2024.
Analysis and views expressed in Watchdog Lab articles are my own and in no way reflect the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission. I speak for myself as a private citizen on this substack.
Check online for revisions and updates.
Earl Glynn – Watchdog Lab
Earl F. Glynn is a mostly-retired data scientist, scientific programmer, software engineer and physical scientist living in the Kansas City metro area, and the publisher of the substack Watchdog Lab.
