(Updated to include comment from House minority leader)
House Republican leadership has put Democratic state Rep. Ford Carr on notice for a rules violation stemming from comments he made questioning the motives of a fellow Democratic lawmaker on the last day of the legislative session.
Republican lawmakers were informed of the letter on Friday in an email sent by House Speaker Pro Tem Blake Carpenter. The letter was sent to Carr on Friday.
Carpenter wouldn’t release the letter and didn’t specify the precise rule that was violated. He said the issue was being treated as a personnel matter.
Carpenter said the letter addressed Carr’s speech on the last day of the session.
“As all of you know, Rep. Carr has recently violated the rules of our chamber, and we believe it is necessary to address this issue promptly,” Carpenter said in the email.
“Our intention is to address this violation of the rules and ensure that our chamber maintains its integrity and adherence to the established guidelines,” he said in the email to Republican legislators.
Carpenter said in the email “numerous caucus members have expressed their concerns” and wanted to lodge a complaint that would lead to the creation of a special committee of six lawmakers — three Republicans and three Democrats — to conduct an investigation.
“Unfortunately, due to the chamber being out of session, we are faced with several difficulties in pursuing this particular solution,” he wrote.
“After careful consideration and consultation with the revisors, it has been determined that the most effective course of action at this time is to send a formal letter to Rep. Carr,” Carpenter wrote.
Carr said in an interview Monday that he was crafting a response to the letter, which he said was signed by Carpenter and House Speaker Dan Hawkins.
“If you take a swing at me, my suggestion is you do one or both of two things: Cover up and duck, because I’m swinging back,” he said.
The top Democrat in the House, Vic Miller, was made aware of the letter sent to Carr after Republicans had been notified.
Miller told the House speaker he disagreed with the contents of the letter, and he doesn’t believe Rep. Carr broke any rules during his floor speech, said Alexis Simmons, spokesperson for Miller.
“If rules had been broken, Rep. Carr would have been called on it at the time. There is a reason this comes a month after sine die — and it’s because there’s no basis for it,” Simmons said in a text message.
On the last night of the legislative session, Carr questioned how money for the Quindaro Ruins got into the budget when he was subsequently cautioned about criticizing the intentions of other lawmakers.
“I had to wonder, why now? What happened different this time around that now allowed for funding to be available for that particular project?” he asked that night.
“Then it was brought to my attention it may have been in exchange for a number of votes,” he said.
Carr was admonished on the floor that night not to “impugn the motives of representatives and why they might or might not be voting for something.”
Carr had raised questions on the House floor about how $250,000 came to be added to the budget for the Quindaro Ruins, once a station on the Underground Railroad that state Rep. Marvin Robinson advocated for long before he was elected to the Legislature last year.
Gov. Laura Kelly later vetoed the money for the project, which critics suggested was payback for Robinson’s vote to override the governor’s veto on a number of issues.
The Wichita lawmaker accused of Robinson of selling out his constituents for supporting bills favored by Republicans such as limiting food assistance and restricting the ability to vote.
His support gave the House the 84th vote needed to override the governor’s veto of a bill broadening the work and job-training requirements for older Kansans to qualify for food assistance.
Carr evoked the phrase “house Negro,” a pejorative term suggesting that someone would support the white slave owner at the expense of other slaves.
“I’m not saying that anyone has made those trades. I’m just saying these are trades that I personally wouldn’t make,” he said that night.
“I would never sacrifice my integrity, my character or those things that have adverse effects on my people for anything that someone may be able to offer me,” he said.
“What I wouldn’t trade would be a vote for something like the James Crow Esquire version of critical race theory, nor would I sacrifice the vote for Medicaid expansion because I know that certainly would help those people in my district,” he said.
“Nor would I sacrifice the vote of those SNAP benefits, food stamps that I know will affect those people in my community.
Again, Carr was told to keep his comments confined to the bill.
Carr said his comments were limited to the bill and why he was opposed to the budget.
“If I am speaking of something that may hit a nerve with you or that you may not like, maybe you should look within yourself for that,” he said that night.
“I’m only speaking as others have spoken for reasons that are on their hearts and their minds for why they are in support of or not in support of the legislation that’s at hand.”
He continued, “I would never trade my vote so that those people in my neighborhood, my constituents that I support, would never have the opportunity to look at me and think that I might be one of those house Negroes,” he said.
Carr later explained his comments in an opinion piece published by The Kansas City Star.
“When my fellow Democratic caucus member, state Rep. Marvin Robinson — someone supposedly upholding the shared values of the Democratic Party — voted against his constituents’ needs for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits or Medicaid expansion, and supported voting suppression measures, this was problematic,” Carr wrote in his piece.
“These types of issues aren’t new when it comes to our Black elected officials. That’s the elephant in the room that normally no one is willing to mention.
“We in the Black community know that there is a history of what we would term ‘sellout’ behavior. It’s time that we call a thing a thing, and we can’t afford to let it continue. The sacrificing of the many, in exchange for the fame or fortune of one.
“I spoke up.”
