(Developing: Will be updated)
The sour relationship between Republican Party Chair Mike Brown and former Chair Mike Kuckelman took another turn for the worse this week.
After consulting an attorney, Brown sent Kuckelman an email Wednesday warning him to stay away from him and his wife.
“Recently I have seen you around in multiple venues while I was with friends and family. The number of times is concerning and more than what I believe to be a coincidence,” Brown said in the email obtained by the Sunflower State Journal.
“As my wife feels very uncomfortable, I believe it is best we avoid each other to the maximum extent possible,” Brown wrote.
On the advice of his lawyer, Brown said he was writing to direct Kuckelman “to avoid me, my wife, and my family, to the maximum extent possible until further notice.”
Kuckelman responded to Brown’s lawyer in an email, saying that he was sorry that Brown and his wife, Kristi, were uncomfortable when they were together at the same location.
“Unfortunately, for Mike, he must toughen up and come to understand that being around people that disagree with him is part of the territory of being party chair,” Kuckelman wrote in an email to Brown’s lawyer.
“As for Kristi, she is not elected so Kristi can avoid me by not attending events or going to venues that they know I frequent,” he wrote.
“This is especially true for political events and fundraisers.”
“It is a good bet that if there is a political event, a candidate event etc. in this area, I will attend if I am able to attend,” Kuckelman wrote.
“Thus, if Mike and Kristi attend political events, they clearly know there is a very real possibility they will be in the same room as me and to the extent that is uncomfortable for them, the logical answer is they shouldn’t attend.”
Kuckelman also itemized events he would be attending in the coming days so he wouldn’t cross paths with Brown and his wife.
He noted that he would be at the Royals game on Saturday and would be attending a tailgate on the west side of the stadium.
Kuckelman also laid out where he would be attending mass this week, adding that there would be two potential locations.
The latest exchange between the two came after Kuckelman and Brown had a confrontation Monday night at a meeting of the Northeast Johnson County Conservatives.
On Thursday, Kuckelman recounted a Facebook post explaining how Brown and Johnson County Republican Party Chair Maria Holiday called him out because he didn’t raise his hand when the group was asked in a “cult-like fashion” to their raise hands in support of the party. He said he took that to mean their leadership.
He said he couldn’t stand in unity with them, especially Brown, who he has been blamed for engineering a rules change that would remove groups representing African Americans, Hispanics, women and young Republicans from the party’s policy-making committees.
Brown, who has denied pushing for the rules change, has asked the party’s Rules Committee to revisit the change.
So far, there has been no indication that the Rules Committee would meet to reconsider the change.
Sitting in the back of the room, Kuckelman said he told Brown that he was united with the Republican groups that opposed the rules change.
Kuckelman said that when he started to speak, Brown called for the meeting to move on.
“I would have been content to go there and not speak a word. I am there to observe and leave. And both of them called me out,” Kuckelman said in an interview.
“I don’t support unity under the leadership of Mike Brown and Maria Holiday. I can’t. That rules change is so offensive,” he said.
“I cannot stand in unity with those two when they’re trying to push through a rule like that, specifically Mike.”
In a text message, Brown stood by his demands.
“Despite my job as the KSGOP Chairman, in my private and personal life, if I feel that my wife is in a position she can be harmed or is otherwise uncomfortable, I will always vigorously protect the interests of my family to the maximum extent possible.
“I genuinely desire this is the last time we will discuss this matter.”
