The Kansas Chamber of Commerce’s top executive on Monday sharply condemned former Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s claims that the group didn’t support him because it wants a supply of illegal labor coming into the state.
“Kris Kobach’s claim regarding why he did not receive the Kansas Chamber PAC’s endorsement is entirely false,” Chamber President and CEO Alan Cobb said in a statement Monday morning.
“He didn’t earn the endorsement because of his track record of failure – in the courtroom, as indicated by losing multiple cases costing Kansas taxpayers millions and being ordered by a federal judge to receive legal education, as well as repeatedly losing at the ballot box,” Cobb said.
“Kansas needs an attorney general who is competent, knows the law, and will serve our great state with integrity,” Cobb said.
“Kris Kobach’s record clearly shows he isn’t qualified to be the next attorney general of Kansas,” Cobb said.
The chamber’s political action committee has endorsed Republican state Sen. Kellie Warren over Kobach and former federal prosecutor Tony Mattivi.
At a forum Friday sponsored by the Kansas Federation of Republican Women, Kobach said he’s drafted bills banning sanctuary city for other states that have passed but not in Kansas, something he blamed on the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
“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.”
It’s not the first time that Kobach has made that claim.
Last year, Kobach acknowledged having an uneasy relationship with the chamber because of his hard-core opposition to illegal immigration.
“At times, they have been almost advocates for illegal labor,” Kobach said of the chamber.
But Cobb has dismissed that idea over the months as well.
Appearing on conservative talk-show host Pete Mundo’s radio show last year, Cobb openly questioned whether Kobach could accomplish anything as attorney general.
“His track record is really poor on accomplishing things and getting things done,” Cobb told Mundo.
“I think he would lose in a general election. It’s too important of a position to put that at risk,” he said.
“At what point when you keep getting rejected by the voters, should you not have a little bit of self-reflection, wondering, ‘Hey, maybe I should try to do something different.’”
Kobach is coming off losing races for governor and the U.S. Senate and a reputation for an inability to raise large sums of money.
He was also held in contempt of court and ordered to take continuing legal education courses stemming from his unsuccessful defense of the proof-of-citizenship requirement for registering to vote.
Kobach personally defended the state law in that case in which a federal judge dismissed his claims of widespread voter fraud to justify the registration requirement.
A judge ordered Kobach to pay $26,000 in legal fees and expenses after being held in contempt of court.
The state also was hit with a $1.9 million judgment to cover the cost of legal fees for civil liberties lawyers to challenge the law.
