The other day when I was combing through the text of the Kansas Constitution, as I often do on my time off, I’ll admit I was hard-pressed to uncover the passage where the state’s founding document directs or gives even tacit authorization to its chief executive to organize and fund political action committees to unseat her political rivals in the Legislature – vis-a-vis Governor Kelly’s “Middle Of The Road” political action committee.
So, what in the wide-wide world of sports is going on here? Don’t we have three branches of government each with a specific function as set forth by the founding document? A legislative branch elected by the masses to make laws, an executive branch also elected to execute the laws made by the legislature and a judicial branch somewhat insulated from everybody else to weigh the rightness of the law and those brought before it?
Am I missing something?
Now granted, I recently surrendered to fate and started wearing reading glasses, which though tough on my ego should make my study efforts even more astute. Likewise, I’m positive my comprehension of broadly and publicly consumable news reports since the August 2023 announcement of the Governor’s “Middle Of The Road” PAC didn’t fool me into some misunderstanding. Multiple news agencies in the state have written about Kelly’s effort to find more amiable and less “overriding” candidates for office in both the Kansas House and Senate, and that she didn’t care what stripe they wore as long as they were “moderate.”
In other words, not the crazy, fire-breathing brand of conservative office seekers trying to lower taxes, stop the killing of babies, keep the sausage out of your daughters’ locker rooms and cinch up the southern border. You know…radicals.
But actually, according to a review of the expenses of Kelly’s MOTR PAC by my friend Earl Glynn over at his Watchdog Lab Substack, all the cash outlays form Kelly’s PAC went to…wait for it… drum roll…hold the phone…Democrats in the past election cycle.
What the…?
And fortunately for Kansans – but not so much for Kelly’s donors – those outlays weren’t too successful according to the election results in those legislative races. In fact, not very successful at all. In fact, about as successful as all those emu eggs I bought back in the ’90s.
Why is this all so important? Kelly would desperately like to eventually get some kind of legislation passed that’s more socially applause-worthy to her purple-haired buddies from Lawrence than designating an official state salamander or something. She failed to keep men in women’s sports and locker rooms two years ago, failed to keep it legal to browbeat a woman into having an abortion, failed to stop tax credits for adoption and the establishment of adoption savings accounts to make adoption more affordable – and numerous others. For the amiable Kelly who the Kansas media sold as a “moderate” twice over but always approaches government like a cross between Martha Stewart and Rambo, it’s been a pretty tough two years.
Still, I’m danged if I can find anywhere in my perusal of the state constitution where it says forming a PAC to “off” your political enemies – figuratively of course, not in a “Sopranos” kind of way – is in keeping with the duties proscribed to the governor for her $110,000 a year taxpayer-funded salary. Let’s take a gander…
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF KANSAS: Article 1. – Executive
§ 1: Executive officers; selection; terms. Who’s elected to what offices and for how long, after the election reorganization of 1974. Nothing here about starting a PAC to quash your enemies.
§ 3: Executive power of governor. The supreme executive power of this state shall be vested in a governor, who shall be responsible for the enforcement of the laws of this state. Nothing here about “…and to fund the campaigns of those opposing your enemies…”
§ 4: Reports to governor. All the bureaucrats have to give at least one report to the governor per year, thank you very much.
§ 5: Governor’s duties for legislature; messages; special sessions; adjournment. The governor may, on extraordinary occasions, call the legislature into special session by proclamation…come back and get your work done, please. Notably, nothing here about “and I only have to call the ones I like.”
§ 6: Reorganization of state agencies of executive branch. If the governor wants to get rid of the department of spicy salsa licensing, she can do so. That’s just the way it is.
§ 7: Pardons. The pardoning power shall be vested in the governor, under regulations and restrictions prescribed by law. Just don’t do it again.
§ 9: State seal and commissions. There shall be a seal of the state, which shall be kept by the governor, and used by him (gender terrorism) officially, and which shall be the great seal of Kansas. All commissions shall be issued in the name of the state of Kansas; and shall be signed by the governor, countersigned by the secretary of state, and sealed with the great seal. On really official looking paper, slightly browned on the edges so it looks vintage.
§ 11: Vacancies in executive offices. When the office of governor is vacant, the lieutenant governor shall become governor. The legislature shall provide by law for the succession to the office of governor should the offices of governor and lieutenant governor be vacant, and the next and the next, all the way down to the meter reader in Strong City. Here again, PACs aren’t mentioned.
§ 12: Lieutenant governor. The lieutenant governor shall assist the governor and have such other powers and duties as are prescribed by law, and shall wear wicked cool x-ray specs like the ones advertised in the back of the Spiderman comics from 1974.
§ 13: Compensation of officers. Well, nobody works for free. Pony up, taxpayers.
See, it’s just not there. Nowhere in the Kansas constitution does it say the governor as one of the three institutions modeled after our nation’s Democratic Republic, should mount a hit squad against her political enemies.
Maybe Kelly’s been reading a constitution from somewhere else. Or maybe she needs new glasses, too.
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
