Lobbyists funneled almost $40,000 into a pitched battled over a controversial faith-based adoption bill pitting religious freedom against the rights of LGBT parents.
Ranking among the biggest spenders last legislative session, the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s biggest advocacy group for LGBT rights, dropped $16,749 in April alone.
It was the second highest amount spent by any lobbying group this session.
Efforts to reach the Human Rights Campaign for comment on Thursday were unsuccessful.
“There was intense lobbying on both sides of this bill,” said Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas. “It was pretty high stakes on our side. The stakes were the right to have our families recognized as worthy of raising children.”
Witt said some of the money went to phone banking and newspaper ads opposing the bill. Toward the end of the session, the Human Rights Campaign leaders came to Topeka to speak out against the bill.
One ad in the Topeka Capital-Journal caused a group representing some brand-name tech firms to complain that the Human Rights Campaign didn’t have approval to use the business names in the ad.
Republican state Rep. Susan Humphries of Wichita – one of the bill’s lead sponsors – questioned why the Human Rights Campaign would show so much interest in a bill she estimates only affects about dozen adoption agencies in Kansas.
“It’s surprising that a national organization came to Kansas and spent that much money on a bill that had to do with allowing about 12 faith-based agencies to continue operating as they have before and exercise the 1st Amendment rights,” she said.
After idling in committee for weeks, the adoption bill was resurrected in the closing days of the legislative session, passing in the House with the minimum number of votes to get to the governor’s desk. It passed the Senate on a 24-15 vote. Gov. Jeff Colyer signed the bill into law May 18. It starts July 1.
In comparison to other years and issues, the amount spent on the adoption bill is slim.
For instance, groups such as the Kansas Association of Realtors and Americans for Prosperity spent more than $500,000 combined in 2013 when lawmakers grappled over state tax policy.
Other groups bringing political pressure to bear in the debate over the adoption bill included the 1st Amendment Partnership and the Kansas Catholic Conference.
The Kansas Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops at the Capitol, spent $12,400. Executive Director Michael Schuttloffel said most of that money went to a video posted on a website promoting adoption choice.
“It’s not exactly a ‘lobbying expense’ in my mind because it will be used in churches and online as an educational resource for years to come regardless of any legislation,” Schuttloffel said in an email.
“But because at the end it referred to the website that talks about the bill, (the ethics commission) thought we should declare it,” he said.
Headquartered in Washington, the 1st Amendment Partnership spent $10,000 to create a website advocating passage of the bill, which is intended to ensure that faith-based adoption providers will be allowed to deny placements based on their religious faith. Critics charged that it will allow groups to discriminate against LGBT parents.
The partnership spun off from the American Religious Freedom Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center about four years ago.
Tim Schultz, the organization’s president, grew up near Wichita, graduated from Kansas State University and worked as a staffer for former U.S. Sen Bob Dole. Former Republican state Rep. Lance Kinzer of Olathe serves as the organization’s director of policy and government relations.
Schultz and Kinzer were involved with 2014 bill that was intended to protect florists, bakers and others from being forced to help with same-sex weddings against their religious faith. The bill ultimately was scrapped after it was criticized for discriminating against same-sex couples.
Schultz has emphasized that his group took a more low-key approach on the adoption bill than the 201 bill. It did not draft the adoption bill, nor did it testify on the legislation, Schultz said. While the group helped the legislation, it was not behind the bill.
