The chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee has reimbursed his campaign fund for gasoline purchases and other transactions that have been questioned by a political foe.

Sen. Dwayne Umbarger, a Thayer Republican, is declining comment on the case, as is the Kansas Ethics Commission.

The repayment comes in the wake of complaints filed with the Ethics Commission by Kris Van Meteren, who served as a spokesperson for Iris Van Meter, his mother and Umbarger’s primary campaign opponent. The commission is refusing, as a matter of policy, to acknowledge whether a complaint was received or whether an investigation is taking place.

But Kansas Liberty was shown a copy of an amended complaint filed with the commission in which Van Meteren suggested that Umbarger had used campaign money to purchase gasoline for personal use. It is a violation of Kansas campaign finance laws to use campaign funds for non-campaign related expenses.

In a campaign finance report filed in July, Umbarger reported $1,400 worth of fuel purchases between July 8 and July 16.

“Even if one assumes that fuel was $4.00 per gallon and that he was campaigning in a vehicle that only got 10 miles per gallon, it is questionable that any candidate could burn that much fuel in one nine-day period in a district the size of District 14,” Van Meteren wrote in his amended complaint to the commission.

Van Meteren pointed out that a car that got 10 miles per gallon could travel more than 3,500 miles with the amount of gas purchased using campaign funds, if gas were priced at around $4 a gallon.

He said a Thayer farmer who reviewed Umbarger’s campaign finance report had pointed out two fuel purchases that were particularly suspicious.

On July 16, Umbarger spent more than $500 in campaign funds for gasoline purchased at a convenience store.

“The size of that purchase alone either indicates that he filled a number of vehicles at once or one vehicle with a very large fuel tank (approximately 125 gallons),” Van Meteren wrote.

Van Meteren said another purchase of $495 in fuel was made by Umbarger at W-G Fertilizer in Thayer, an enterprise which caters primarily to farmers and ranchers. That purchase occurred at the peak of the wheat harvesting season.

“If the idea of purchasing and burning over $1,400.00 worth of fuel within nine days seems questionable, purchasing and burning two-thirds of that amount within a three day period seems completely implausible,” Van Meteren wrote in his complaint. “Using the same rather generous assumptions as above, Senator Umbarger would have had to travel nearly 2,500 miles within his district within a three day period to consume that much fuel.”

The report also shows that Umbarger repaid his campaign for other purchases made with campaign funds, including an open-sided carport at his Thayer home.

Umbarger recently told Kansas Liberty that he intended to enclose the carport for use as a storage shed for campaign and legislative records. Those purchases were questioned in Van Meteren’s original complaint.

- Phil LaCerte

• Resource:

The reimbursements are detailed in an amended report filed by Umbarger Oct. 27 http://ethics.ks.gov/CFAScanned/Senate/2008ElecCycle/200810/S14DU_200810.pdf.

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