Leading conservative groups have spent almost $1 million in the last quarter as they try to fend off a Democratic effort to break the GOP supermajority in the Kansas Legislature.
The political action committees for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Prosperity Action have spent a little more than $900,000 on Kansas legislative campaigns since mid-July.
While some of that reporting period overlaps with the primary election, both groups are funneling thousands of dollars into House and Senate races that have been targeted by outside groups waging a war over those seats in the general election.
Democrats need to just win one seat in the House and three in the Senate to end the Republican supermajority.
The chamber has spent about $516,000 from July 24 through Oct. 29 while Americans for Prosperity Action has forked out about about $391,000, state records show.
It’s hard to get a precise comparison of the spending from those groups from past years because this is the first time AFP has run its campaign through a political action committee rather than a social welfare group that isn’t required to disclose campaign finances.
Four years ago, the chamber spent about $347,000 for the quarter going into the general election and ended up laying out about $750,000 by the end of the year.
Eight years ago at the height of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s influence in the statehouse, the chamber spent about $659,000 in the quarter leading up to the general election.
“This election cycle is about more than who is spending the most. It also is about having the right candidates, the right message, and the right donors,” Chamber President and CEO Alan Cobb said in a statement.
“The PAC’s message of reigning in government spending while Kansas families are struggling, eliminating unnecessary regulatory red tape, and empowering Kansans to create jobs resonates with our state’s voters and is motivating them to vote,” he said.
The two groups put about $38,000 combined into Republican state Rep. Kellie Warren’s race against Democrat and former Rep. Joy Koesten in Senate District 11 in Johnson County.
They also have spent about about $39,000 in support of Republican state Sen. Mike Thompson, who is running against Democrat Lindsey Constance in Senate District 10.
Another key race is in Wichita where Republican state Rep. Renee Erickson is running for the seat Senate President Susan Wagle is vacating.
The chamber and AFP have put about $48,000 into Erickson’s campaign against Democrat Melissa Gregory, a race that’s already been featured in local television commercials.
Conservatives are running into a relatively well-financed Democratic Party apparatus that is getting support from outside groups that are tapping into a broad base of national donors in an effort to upend the long-held Republican supermajority.
Democratic candidates are collecting contributions from places as small as Ukiah, California (population 16,000), and Bainbridge Island, Washington (population 24,000), to major urban centers such as Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Brooklyn, New York.
The fundraising arm of the House Democratic caucus raised about $294,000 in the last quarter. Four years ago, House Democrats raised about $122,000. Eight years, House Democrats raised about $55,000.
A lot of money that House Democrats have raised has flowed into the coffers of House candidates, who are outraising their Democratic rivals in key races across the state.
For instance, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has set its sights on 18 legislative districts in Kansas, nine in the House and nine in the Senate.
In those 18 eighteen races, the Democrats have outraised the Republicans about $1.2 million to about $676,000 during the last quarter.
In only two of those 18 races – Susan Estes in House District 87 and Rep. Brenda Dietrich in Senate District 20 – have Republicans outraised the Democrat.
The trend is similar in House and Senate races where national Republicans have targeted seats held by Democrats in districts won by President Donald Trump 2016.
Democrats outraised their Republican opponents in those 14 districts during the last quarter, about $695,000 to about $238,000.
Meanwhile, the Kansas Values Institute, a dark-money group with Democratic affiliations, has spent at least $443,760 on television ads in the Topeka and Wichita markets.
The sum does not count any money that’s going toward mailers and digital advertising in other legislative districts, making the total spending undoubtedly higher.
The Republicans are not without help. The House Republican campaign committee is spending thousands on races, too, but unlike other groups doesn’t detail which ones.
AFP, the chamber and the Senate Republicans provide that information, for example.
State ethics officials on Monday notified the committee that the information was required.
The committee is now compiling the information and will file it as soon as possible.
Elizabeth Patton, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Kansas, didn’t view the Democratic fundraising as a hindrance.
“We’re outworking them,” Patton said.
“They have had some successful fundraising,” she said. “We’ll see if they’ve been able to spend it effectively or not.”
