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Kansas Liberty: 21 July 2008
Analysis finds commission's list 'doesn’t accurately reflect political strength.'
Report: Powerful PACs not being disclosed by state ethics commission
The annual list compiled by the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission intended to inform the public of which Kansas Political Action Committees donated the most money to Kansas candidates may be misleading, according to a report.
The list, identified by the commission as the top twenty PAC contributors with 2007, does not reflect money spent, money in the bank or money raised.
Using more complete criteria would mean half the commission's published list would include PACs such as ProKanDo, Kansans for Affordable Energy and the Kansas Realtors, some of the most influential political donors in the state.
The report, published by Kansas Meadowlark, an investigative news source, argued the commission's list should be reflective of a larger range of financial choices rather than being solely based on candidate donations.
Meadowlark created a list using more complete data. The result "shows 10 Kansas PACs having more political clout than those published by the Ethics Commission."
According to the report, "The Ethics Commission declines to change the way it computes its 'Top 20' PAC list even when their list doesn’t accurately reflect political strength."
The Meadowlark ranking and the ethics commission do share some common ground however as they both list the Kansas National Education Association and the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce as the top two PACs.
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