Tiller's Attempt to "Buy" the 2002 Race for Kansas Attorney General
WHAT METHODS DOES TILLER USE TO KILL BABIES?
WHAT DOES TILLER DO WITH THE DEAD BABIES?
DOES
TILLER PERFORM LATE-TERM ABORTIONS ONLY IN CASES OF HARDSHIP?
IS
ABORTION SAFE FOR THE WOMAN?
DOES A BABY EVER SURVIVE AN ABORTION?
LIES!
WHAT
CAN I DO TO STOP THE KILLING?
SCRIPTURES
AND QUOTES
The Back Door Cash
In an effort to defeat Pro-Life candidate Phill Kline, Tiller used his political action committee ProKanDo to pump over $210,000 into the 2002 race for Kansas Attorney General. Following is an in-depth analysis of the situation.
WHY?
Why did Tiller spend so much money in an effort to defeat Kline?
During the 1990s, the Kansas Legislature passed several bills to curb elective late-term abortion. As a state legislator, Phill Kline was instrumental in passing this legislation. However, Carla Stovall (who was Kansas Attorney General at the time) and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston interpreted these laws so they could not be enforced.
Phill Kline
Kline knew that if the new abortion laws were to be enforced, he would have to do it himself. When Kline ran for Kansas Attorney General in 2002, Tiller knew he would enforce the laws the way they were written. Since Kline took office, Tiller has been much more reluctant to perform elective late-term abortion.
HOW?
How did Tiller pull it off?
Based on financial reports filed with the Ethics Commission, here is a likely scenario of how the scheme unfolded in the 2002 election for Attorney General.
#1. George Tiller set his sights on the Attorney General race, since the AG office has such a direct impact on his abortion business. Tiller wishes to contribute large amounts to proabortion candidate Chris Biggs, but is restrained by Democrat operatives who know that the names "Tiller" or "ProKanDo" would be harmful to Biggs. Instead, they decide to launder the money into the campaign. The Democrat operatives set up a political action committee called Kansans for Democratic Leadership (KDL).
#2. ProKanDo hires campaign consultant Anna Lidman of Grass Roots Solutions from Portland, Maine. Lidman flies to Kansas to devise a "battle plan".
#3. Both ProKanDo and KDL hire Stones Phones to poll voters. This helps them target their ads more effectively.
#4. KDL hires Compass Media... a liberal campaign group... to create and purchase the radio ads. Some ads are purchased directly from large radio stations such as KFDI.
Compass Media uses a company called Spotset Media to make numerous purchases from smaller radio stations.
The barrage of ads are run in the last few days leading up to the election. KDL reports that many or most ads were to start running on the Saturday before the election.
#5. The $153,000 transaction from ProKanDo to KDL occurs on Monday, November 4th which is the day before the election.
Since radio stations don't normally run political ads on credit, one of the parties involved (such as Compass Media) would have had to "float a loan" to KDL from Saturday to Monday. This assumes the dates reported on the ethics reports are honest and the money wasn't exchanged sooner. (Notice that the type of transaction is not a check, cash, or loan but is designated other.)
Since the transactions were reportedly made the day before the race, Kansas ethics rules don't require these to be reported until January 2003... long after the race is over.
#6. Having served its purpose, KDL is dissolved. All remaining money is contributed to various Democrat causes.
FACTS
KDL's was organized on October 14, 2002.
Their final expenditure was made on November 19, 2002, thus KDL existed for only 36 days.
Except for a single $1,000 contribution from a labor union, all KDL money (a total of $265,000) came from ProKanDo or directly from Tiller himself.
This means that 99.6% of KDL money came from Tiller.
The first contribution from ProKanDo to KDL was made on October 16th which was only two days after KDL was chartered on October 14th. This contribution was for $40,000.
For this $40,000 contribution, ProKanDo did not spell out the name "Kansans for Democratic Leadership" but instead listed the obscure, two-day-old acronym "KDL" (see below).
For this $40,000 contribution, the address given by ProKanDo for KDL does not match the address given by KDL for itself. The address given by ProKanDo for KDL is a Wichita post office box with a Topeka zip code as shown above. The address for KDL given for itself is a Topeka post office box with a correct zip code as shown below.
Even the post office box numbers don't match.
This $40,000 contribution is the only contribution from ProKanDo to KDL listed on pre-election ethics reports. Due to the misleading address and an obscure acronym, there was no way to trace the money from ProKanDo to KDL until the January 2003 ethics reports were filed... long after the election was over.
The Topeka post office box given by KDL for itself (PO Box 1914) is shared with several Democrat organizations and the Kansas Democrat Party itself.
It is not known who holds the Topeka post office box given for KDL by ProKanDo (PO Box 2711) or if the boxholder even knew about the scheme.
Though shady and immoral, none of these acts were clear violations of Kansas law. No charges have been filed, and no fines have been levied.
The ProKanDo financial report filed on October 28, 2002 shows $14,935 of "cash on hand at beginning of period" despite the fact that this report was their first financial disclosure.
The Dealers Who Made It Happen
The source of the money was Tiller himself.
The chairwoman of ProKanDo is Julie Burkhart.
The chairman of KDL was Tom Sawyer, State Representative from Wichita. Ironically, Sawyer is a member of the Ethics and Elections Committee at the State Capitol.
Sawyer has taken over $7,500 in campaign contributions from Tiller.
The KDL treasurer was Chris Gallaway, a young Democrat activist.
In March 2003, Governor Sebelius wrote a letter-of-recommendation for Gallaway calling him "one of the nation's experts in campaign finance compliance." Gallaway is now president of Young Democrats of America.
Even before the November 5th general election, ProKanDo had spent thousands of dollars to try to defeat Kline in the August 6th Republican primary. ProKanDo mailed the following postcard to registered Republicans in Kansas.
David Adkins said this postcard campaign backfired and cost him votes.
Click here to learn about the leadership of ProKanDo.
Click here to learn about some of the ProKanDo's noteworthy contributors.
Click here to return to the overview of ProKanDo.
Click here to learn about Tiller's quest for "Privacy".
Click here to return to the home page.
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Wichita abortion doctor poured thousands into race for A.G.
By Scott Rothschild, Journal-World
Thursday, July 31, 2003
Topeka - In the closing days of last year's election for attorney general, high-profile abortion doctor George Tiller, of Wichita, contributed more than $150,000 to try to defeat Republican Phill Kline, according to campaign finance records.
But the public knew nothing about it.
The contributions did not have to be reported until after the election, and even then, because Tiller's contributions were moved through two political action committees, it was difficult to determine who was spending what on whom.
In statewide campaigns like those for attorney general, individuals are limited in Kansas to contributing $2,000 to a candidate in the primary and $2,000 in the general election.
But there is no limit on contributions used for so-called independent expenditures. Such
expenditures advocate for a candidate, but it is done independently of that candidate's campaign.
And such expenditures were used to finance a last-minute push on behalf of Kline's opponent.
For example, on Nov. 1 -- four days before the election to choose between Kline and Democrat Chris Biggs -- Tiller donated $153,000 to Pro Kan Do, an abortion rights political action committee controlled by Tiller, according to campaign finance records.
That same day, Pro Kan Do turned over $153,000 to a political action committee called Kansans for Democratic Leadership. And on Nov. 4 and Nov. 5, Kansans for Democratic Leadership spent $153,000 on pro-Biggs radio ads, according to the documents.
Carol Williams, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission and a longtime political observer, said such an expenditure was significant in Kansas politics.
"It is a large sum of money," Williams said. "You just don't very often see something that is pretty much bankrolled by one force."
And in the context of Biggs' campaign, the amount was astronomical. In the three months leading up to Oct. 24, Biggs had spent a total of $133,191 on his campaign.
The last-minute barrage, however, wasn't quite enough to put Biggs over the top.
A relative political unknown, the Democrat came within half a percentage point of upsetting Kline, a vocal opponent of abortion.
And the $153,000 hand-off from Tiller to Pro Kan Do to Kansans for Democratic Leadership wasn't the only time it happened.
In the one-month existence of Kansans for Democratic Leadership, it received $265,000. Of that, $258,000 came from Pro Kan Do, and $6,000 directly from Tiller.
Of the funds that Kansans for Democratic Leadership spent, the majority went in support of Biggs' candidacy, though it also spent $93,000 on polling to identify major issues for voters.
A spokesman for Tiller and Pro Kan Do could not be reached for comment.
Kline reacts
In the final week of the campaign, Kline recalled this week, he heard plenty of evidence Biggs' supporters had come up with some money.
"I knew there was an extensive influx of cash somewhere because I heard the radio ads virtually everywhere I went," Kline said.
They were negative ads, he said, but didn't mention the abortion issue.
While Kline said the public had a right to know who was bankrolling campaign ads, he wasn't critical of Tiller's expenditures against him.
"I don't have a problem with Tiller's right to do it," Kline said.
In fact, Kline months earlier was himself a beneficiary of an out-of-state group's attack ads. Those ads were against David Adkins, a state senator from Leawood and Kline's opponent in the Republican primary.
In that instance, the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, based in Falls Church, Va., waged a blistering television campaign against Adkins. The group reportedly was affiliated with the gun rights lobby.
Adkins estimated the Law Enforcement Alliance spent $250,000 on the ad blitz. And he said the existence of independent groups entering campaigns "is why people hate campaign finance."
When Adkins faced Kline in the primary, Adkins said Tiller's Pro Kan Do PAC put out a campaign postcard against Kline, but the mailing backfired.
The card said Kline wanted to go back to the days of "coat hangers," when women received illegal abortions.
"It was the most irresponsible political tactic," Adkins said, adding that it probably cost him the votes of thousands of people disgusted by the mailing's harsh tone. Adkins said he was so angry at Pro Kan Do he sent back a $2,000 contribution he received from the PAC.
Not misleading
An official with Kansans for Democratic Leadership said his group's pro-Biggs radio ads were not misleading about the source of their funding.
"Clearly, with an independent expenditure, any group could have done the same thing," said Chris Gallaway, who at the time was executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party and treasurer of Kansans for Democratic Leadership. "Tiller could have called himself 'Republicans for Biggs' and done the exact same thing," he said.
While the money came through Pro Kan Do, Gallaway said it wasn't specifically earmarked by that group to help Biggs. Tom Sawyer, who was chairman of the Kansas Democratic Party, said Democrats at the time were trying to raise money for Biggs, as he was climbing in the polls.
Neither Gallaway nor Sawyer could say why Pro Kan Do didn't simply do independent campaigning itself but speculated Pro Kan Do could have been focusing on other political races.
"We were trying to raise money for Chris Biggs," Sawyer said. "They (Pro Kan Do) eventually came through for Chris Biggs, but it wasn't easy to do. When you're raising money, you talk about what you're raising money for, what projects. At that point, we were trying to do some last-minute stuff for Chris Biggs."
The movement of Tiller's money from one PAC to another was not caught by the media during the campaign, but was revealed to the Journal-World by Kline's staff and other supporters. It was faxed to the newspaper on pages that included the attorney general's letterhead. The Journal-World confirmed the findings by reviewing campaign finance documents.
Biggs unaware
Kline said the original research was done by a supporter.
Earl Glynn, of Overland Park, earlier this week started e-mailing the information to various groups and writing letters to newspapers.
"I think the public should know about things like this," Glynn said of the $153,000 donation from Tiller. "One individual should not be able to influence politics without someone in the press" bringing it to the public's attention.
Cindy Luxem, who served as a campaign spokeswoman for Biggs during last year's race, said the Biggs campaign wasn't aware of Kansans for Democratic Leadership, nor the group's expenditures advocating for Biggs.
Under the law, groups doing independent expenditures cannot consult with the candidate's campaign.
Currently, the last public disclosure comes eight days before the election. The next report is not filed until about two months after the election.
Williams said there had been several attempts to change state laws to require more timely disclosure of campaign contributions as election days approach, but they have failed.
Copyright 2003
Lawrence Journal-World, Lawrence, Kansas