4A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAS
ELECTION 2006
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2006
Phill Kline's ethical practices called into question
BY JOHN HANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOPEKA — Attorney General Phill Kline faced new questions Wednesday about his activities at churches, his campaign fundraising and what he plans to do with newly acquired patient records from two abortion clinics.
Bob Stephan, a former attorney general and fellow Republican who broke politically with Kline less than five weeks ago, asked the state ethics commission to examine Kline's fundraising and activities involving churches.
Among Stephans' issues was a $1,339 donation from a Topeka church to SWT Communications, a company Kline's wife operates. The
donation occurred after Kline spoke at the church in July.
The same event led Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State to seek an investigation Tuesday by the Internal Revenue Service.
Kline spokeswoman Sherriene Jones was confident there are no problems with such activities.
Meanwhile, Pedro Irigonegaray, a Topeka attorney representing the two abortion clinics, said he feared Kline, an abortion opponent, would raid those clinics to create potential "photo opportunities." He made the comment a day after Kline confirmed receiving edited versions of the records of 90 patients.
"We will provide the ethics commission with anything they request if they decide to look into Mr. Stephan's letter," she said.
Kline called the statements "reckless and knowingly false."
He began a new television ad Tuesday night defending his two-year pursuit of the records of 90 patients as necessary to investigate rapes of children and potentially illegal late-term abortions.
Democratic challenger Paul Morrison continued to criticize Kline's efforts to obtain the records as invading patients' privacy. But Mark Simpson, Morrison's campaign manager, wouldn't predict what the Democrat would do with the records if he is elected, saying only, "He'll evaluate the situation."
The race between Kline, who is seeking a second term and Morrison.
the Johnson County district attorney, remained intense and bitter with less than a week before the Nov. 7 election.
Stephan already has publicly criticized Kline over the donation to SWT from the Light of the World Christian Center in Topeka. The church's pastor did not return a telephone message Wednesday.
Kline speaks regularly during church services and to church groups, discussing how he and his estranged father reconciled and the importance of people having God in their lives.
But he also wrote an internal memo in August outlining an effort to fully tap his support among conservative churchgoers, with directions to staff that included having friendly pastors bring "money people" to outside events.
Stephan raised two other issues in his letter to the Governmental Ethics Commission.
One was $3,600 in payments from the Kline campaign to SWT in January to store documents and furniture in a metal building behind the Klines' home. The other was Kline not itemizing more than $41,000 in contributions of $50 or less on his latest campaign finance report, filed Monday.
"It may turn out that everything is hunky dory," Stephan said during an interview. "I don't think you should take everything for granted, that something is in accordance in the rules, just because some politician tells you it is."
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Jones said Kline was working to strengthen Jessica's Law, which increased penalties for sex offenders. Kline worked to get the law passed in 2005. Kline is also involved with the Cyber Crimes Task Force, which he helped to establish in 2003.
Going against violent criminals "has been my specialty for the past 26 years," Morrison said.
Morrison also wants to decrease the number of mentally ill individuals in prisons through a Mental Health Diversion Program. The program would get people back on their medications and back in therapy, he said.
Edited by Derek Korte
Morrison proposes to form a supplement to the current Cyber Crimes Task Force in Kansas City that would utilize the attorney general's office to track down Internet sexual predators.
ELECTION (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
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