Kansas ethics watchdog will have investigative powers curbed by new law signed by Kelly

Kansas’ ethics watchdog agency will have its subpoena powers curbed after seeking information from numerous Republican activists and leaders last year.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill Friday that alters the power of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, most notably requiring the agency to earn the permission of a judge before filing a subpoena.

The bill is a compromise Kelly’s administration brokered between the ethics commission, Republican lawmakers and the attorneys of a GOP consultant under investigation.

Earlier this year, Republican lawmakers initially pursued wide-ranging legislation that would have dramatically changed Kansas’ campaign finance law and stripped many of the commission’s powers.

Lawmakers supporting the original bill said the goal was to ensure due process for those investigated by the commission but the bill came as the commission was midway through an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations involving a wide range of Republican officials.

The most controversial pieces of the bill were removed before the Kansas House and Senate voted with bipartisan majorities to send the bill to Kelly. But lawmakers have promised to revisit the concepts in an interim committee on campaign finance law.

Mark Skoglund, the executive director of the commission, said at the time the original bill was “brazen legislation designed to undermine ongoing investigations, obliterate the Campaign Finance Act, eliminate any ability of a state law enforcement agency to investigate violations, and retaliate against the Commission for a major investigation.”

The bill that went to Kelly, Skoglund said, was a good compromise.

Skoglund’s investigation into state Republican officials is still ongoing.

On Monday, a Shawnee County judge refused to throw out several subpoenas the ethics commission had filed seeking information from several Johnson, Shawnee and Sedgwick county Republican officials.

The subpoenas sought communications with a wide range of Republican officials including Masterson, his communications director and Jared Suhn, a highly connected GOP political consultant.

Suhn’s attorneys, Ryan Krieghauser and Josh Ney, played a key role drafting and negotiating the legislation.

According to court records, Suhn was the target of an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations between 2018 and 2020.

Though full details of the commission’s investigation are not public it is believed the probe involved a broad scope of elected officials in the statehouse. The Kansas Chamber of Commerce confirmed last year it received a subpoena and accused the commission of undertaking a “fishing expedition aimed at silencing political speech.”