WICHITA — Endorsement season hasn’t had a lot of surprises as the Kansas gubernatorial campaign gets closer to the Aug. 7 primary, but that changed Wednesday.
Senate President Susan Wagle, a Republican, endorsed Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s campaign rather than the one for Gov. Jeff Colyer — or the one for former Emporia Senator Jim Barnett, who led the Republican ticket against Democrat governor Kathleen Sebelius with Wagle as his running mate in 2006.
Wagle called Kobach the strongest conservative and “the candidate who best reflects Kansas values” as the reason for her endorsement.
That decision raised eyebrows across the state, but Wagle has another concern. The endorsement came from her office’s press email account and was on her Senate letterhead — which may be a violation of state law against using public resources for campaign purposes and comes after the state Republican Party has been critical of using official emails for campaign purposes by public school teachers earlier this decade, according to the Wichita Eagle.
