Candidates debate whether A.G.’s staff needs to be reduced

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An early fissure is developing among the Republican candidates running for Kansas attorney general over whether the office staff needs to be reduced.

In a forum sponsored by the Kansas Federation of Republican Women on Friday, former Secretary of State Kris Kobach said the administrative staff at the attorney general’s office should be reduced while bringing in a team of conservative lawyers to try cases.

When asked how he would manage and supervise a staff of 180 employees, Kobach said he would look to shrink the administrative staff through attrition, an approach he said he took when he was secretary of state.

“Kansas doesn’t rank up there as one of the most top heavy or largest attorney general’s offices in the country,” he said.

Kris Kobach

“So, I think there is room for reducing, seeing the same kind of gains I made as secretary of state in terms of reducing unnecessary personnel,” he said.

Kobach then added that he planned to recruit a team of conservative attorneys to challenge rules and regulations handed down by Democratic President Joe Biden.

“I will probably be bringing in some of the best attorneys around the country that I’ve work with in going against the ACLU,” Kobach said.

“I’ve met some of the best of the best conservative litigators in the country, and I’d like to bring them to Kansas,” he said.

He said the attorneys would make up a special litigation unit to challenge directives from the Biden administration.

“There will be some gain in the number of attorneys to take on the Biden administration, but we will more than offset with shrinkage in other areas of the department.”

Tony Mattivi, a former federal prosecutor, questioned the wisdom of reducing staff in the attorney general’s  office.

“One thing I am not going to do, is downsize attorney general’s office,” Mattivi told the audience. “To me, that is the worst thing that could possibly happen.”

Tony Mattivi

Mattivi said the attorney general’s office needs to be a resource for county prosecutors across the state with complex cases.

“What I hear from them is ‘We need your help and we need more help,'” he said.

“The attorney general’s office doesn’t have the resources it needs to accomplish its core mission right now,” he said.

“We need to get more resources out in the field,” he said.

Then Mattivi suggested that Kobach was making contradictory promises.

“Think about what you’ve heard today,” he said.

“You can’t on one hand talk about indiscriminately filing lawsuits and on the other hand talk about downsizing the office that does that.”

Republican state Sen. Kellie Warren was asked the same question about managing the attorney general’s staff and focused her comments on working to pass conservative policies in the Legislature and her work as a private attorney.

Kellie Warren

“When I am across the street from the Capitol in the attorney general’s office, I already have colleagues who have worked with me who have seen my leadership and who have followed my leadership, quite frankly,” she said.

“With all of the variety of issues that come before the attorney general’s office, it’s important to have someone like me who has that breadth and depth of experience to fight for Kansans,” she said.

“We know that the left – whatever we do – they’re going sue and they’re going to sue to try to turn Kansas blue,” she said.

“They know that perhaps our courtrooms are more friendly to the left’s political agenda than Kansas voters are,” she said.

All three candidates came out against so-called “sanctuary cities,” criticizing a recent ordinance adopted by Wyandotte County that gives undocumented immigrants the chance to get a municipal photo ID and prohibits local law enforcement from working with federal immigration authorities.

As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Warren said she is working with incumbent Attorney General Derek Schmidt on a bill that he’s proposed outlawing sanctuary cities.

“I will work with the attorney general’s office to get that passed,” Warren said.

“That’s my job right now, to do that. And my job as attorney general would continue to do the same things,” she said.

Warren touted the fact that she defeated “woke, liberal Republicans” to win a seat in the Kansas House and later the state Senate.

“We need someone who can lead others,” she said. “You need a leader in that office who has led and had to make policy decisions.”

Mattivi, a former federal prosecutor, called the Wyandotte County ordinance “troubling” because it prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating from federal authorities if someone is suspected of committed a crime.

“In Wyandotte County right now because of that ordinance, even if law enforcement knows who committed a violent crime, they cannot work with the feds to have that person removed from the country,” he said.

“What that ordinance did, it took the tools away from law enforcement at a time when our crime rate is rising and we are less safe,” he said.

“The last thing we should be doing is taking tools away from law enforcement,” he said. “We should be giving them more tools, and that is the problem with this sanctuary city ordinance.”

Kobach, a known hard-liner on immigration, recounted his years-long fight against sanctuary cities.

He said there are perhaps three or four counties in Kansas with sanctuary city policies.

“This is an issue and I have fought this issue many times,” Kobach said.

Kobach said he’s drafted sanctuary city bills for other states that have passed but not in Kansas, something he blamed on the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

“You want to know the dirty truth about it? I’ll name names,” Kobach said.

“The Kansas Chamber of Commerce opposes anything that reduces the supply of illegal labor in Kansas,” Kobach said.

“Let be blunt about this. That’s the reason the Chamber of Commerce doesn’t like me, because I speak very clearly,” he said.

“We are going to reduce illegal immigration in Kansas and we are going to reduce sanctuary cities,” he said. “That will get done if I am there.”

Here the video of the full forum. It lasts about 50 minutes.