The Kansas House speaker on Thursday night said a state lawmaker should end his campaign for the Legislature after a news report revealed charges of emotional abuse involving foster children.
KAKE TV in Wichita on Thursday night reported on a complaint lodged against Republican state Rep. Michael Capps when he volunteered with Court Appointed Special Advocates of Sedgwick County.
Capps is filling the unexpired term of former state Rep. Chuck Weber in the 85th House District. He was elected to the position in July.
Capps is running for a full two-year term after dodging allegations earlier this year that he misrepresented where he lived when he filed to run for office. He faces Democrat Monica Marks in a deeply conservative district in the Wichita area.
House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr. on Thursday night issued a statement saying Capps should step aside immediately.
“Holding public office means holding yourself to the highest standards,” Ryckman told the Sunflower State Journal.
“The allegations in this matter are serious ones. The public trust matters far more than political gain.”
Capps told KAKE he didn’t plan to withdraw.
The KAKE report, citing state documents, showed that a foster mother had accused Capps of causing emotional abuse for two boys.
The woman said that “Capps hugged and kissed the boys and allowed them to sit on his lap and rub his chest,” KAKE reported.
KAKE said the state “affirmed” that Capps caused emotional abuse. Capps appealed. The state later concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated because of “mistakes by DCF in filing the paperwork,” according to the station’s report. No criminal charges were filed.
In an interview with the Sunflower State Journal on Wednesday, Capps acknowledged the state Department for Children and Families’ investigation but stressed that his record was clean. He said the investigation started last fall and ended in May.
“I can tell you there was no finding,” Capps told the Sunflower State Journal before the television report aired. “It concluded there were no findings against me. They were unsubstantiated.”
Capps suggested that the DCF investigation was just a matter of course while working in an emotionally distressed environment.
“When you’re dealing with child welfare, you’re always talking about families that are traumatized, children that are traumatized in very high emotional situations,” Capps said.
“As one DCF surveyor told me very tongue in cheek, allegations are not a matter of if but when they occur.”
On Wednesday, Capps would not disclose details of the allegations, which the State Journal would not publish without documented confirmation detailing the investigation and its conclusions.
Initially, Capps said he couldn’t discuss the details of the investigation without getting clearance from the state and the family involved.
He said he couldn’t disclose records he had in his possession of the investigation but acknowledged showing those records to others.
At one point, Capps offered to let the State Journal see the documents once he got the clearances he said he needed. But he did not follow through on the offer before appearing on KAKE on Thursday night.
Now Republicans are confronted with what to do about Capps, who could cause political problems going into the general election.
Under a law passed in 2015, it became harder for candidates to remove their names from the ballot after winning a primary.
Candidate names can only be removed if they die, move out of the state or have a medical hardship.
News about Capps’ DCF investigation has been circulating for at least several days and started to spread across the state late Thursday afternoon, even before KAKE aired its report.
There’s already talk that former Republican state Rep. Steve Brunk might mount a write-in campaign for the seat he once held.
Initially, Capps was reluctant to discuss details about conversations he had with Republican leaders about the DCF investigation.
Capps eventually said he’s being pressured out of the race because it’s feared he might be a moderate influence in the House.
“They saw this as a good opportunity to remove me and place somebody that they knew definitively would support their agenda,” Capp said Wednesday.
Asked if Republicans might be more concerned about the implications of the DCF investigation, Capps said, “There’s nothing there. I’m innocent. I was cleared of any wrongdoing. Why would we even be discussing it?”
