New allegations involving alleged campaign finance irregularities surfaced against Sen. Dwayne Umbarger Wednesday morning.

Charges of misusuing campaign funds were leveled against Umbarger by Kris Van Meteren, who served as campaign spokesperson for his mother, a Republican who was defeated by Umbarger in the August primary election.

Van Meteren detailed the allegations in a letter he hand-delivered to the office of the Kansas Ethics Commission Wednesday morning.

Van Meteren accused Umbarger of using campaign funds to purchase fuel for vehicles that were not used for campaigning. Van Meteren said evidence suggests that the vehicles were probably tractors or other farm implements. Umbarger is a farmer/rancher.

Carol Williams, executive director of the commission, said as a matter of policy, the commission would neither confirm nor deny that a complaint had been lodged.

Wednesday’s allegations aren’t the only charges made against Umbarger by Van Meteren.

In August, immediately following the primary, Van Meteren alleged in a complaint filed with the commission that Umbarger had used campaign funds to purchase an open-sided carport at his Thayer home. The complaint filed Wednesday was an amendment to that initial complaint, Van Meteren said.

A letter from Williams to Van Meteren suggests the commission was aware the original complaint had been filed, even though it won’t formally acknowledge it.

“We are in receipt of your complaint filed against Senator Dwayne Umbarger, which has been designed as Complaint #422,” Williams wrote.

She proceeded to describe the process that governs commission hearings:

“Once a complaint is filed, such filings and the allegations contained therein are confidential unless and until probable cause is found on the complaint and a public hearing is scheduled,” she wrote.

She also indicated in the letter that the commission would determine during a meeting today whether the original complaint alleged “facts sufficient to constitute a violation of the Campaign Finance Act.” If probable cause was found that a violation occurred, an investigation would ensue.

Although Williams confirmed to Kansas Liberty that the commission met today, she would not discuss details of the meeting or say whether the original complaint against Umbarger was on the agenda.

Following the initial complaint, Umbarger told Kansas Liberty then that he had intended to enclose the carport so he could store campaign related material in it. But he didn’t have an opportunity to get that accomplished before a finance report was due. He ultimately repaid his campaign for the carport.

Umbarger did not immediately respond to a Kansas Liberty query sent Wednesday afternoon.

In his complaint, Van Meteren says Umbarger reported in a campaign finance report that he purchased $1,400 worth of fuel 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 calculated 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," he added, "Sen. Umbarger would have had to travel nearly 2,500 miles within his district within a three day period to consume that much fuel.”

- Phil LaCerte