When former U.S. Attorney Steve McAllister came out in support of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly for reelection last week, there was one thing missing from this subplot in the race for Kansas governor.
McAllister had been working behind the scenes to help get conservative state Sen. Dennis Pyle on the ballot, a move that potentially helps Kelly by siphoning votes away from Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt in the governor’s race.
McAllister, who is now in private practice and teaches law at the University of Kansas, told The Kansas City Star that he was supporting Kelly because of Schmidt’s support of a lawsuit that attempted to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Pyle last week said in a text message that McAllister had been working for him since early last month but didn’t comment any further.
McAllister did not respond to two emails asking about his relationship with Pyle and whether it posed a conflict since he was providing legal advice to an opponent of the governor.
He also didn’t respond to two voicemails left for him Friday seeking comment.
A week ago, McAllister -the state’s top federal prosecutor under former President Donald Trump – went public with his support for Kelly in a story published in The Kansas City Star.
McAllister, who had been the state’s top appellate lawyer under Schmidt, previously authored a friend-of-the-court brief on the governor’s behalf in a dispute over the state’s emergency management law heard by the state Supreme Court.
It was not known how McAllister came to provide services to Pyle nor was it known whether McAllister was paid for the legal help.
Records obtained under the Kansas Open Records Act reveal that McAllister represented Pyle in his effort to get on the ballot against Schmidt and Kelly, who Pyle describes as the two liberals in the race.
The records show that McAllister wrote to the secretary of state’s office, inquiring how long it would be before Pyle’s petitions would be certified so he could get on the ballot.
McAllister asked a state elections official why Pyle’s petition would not be certified within 10 days, which he said is required under state law in email sent Aug. 16, a couple weeks after Pyle first filed his petition on Aug. 1.
“The secretary of state’s office certainly complied with that deadline when independent Greg Orman sought to be on the gubernatorial ballot in the last election,” McAllister wrote.
“I am hoping and expecting there is not a double standard being applied here to my client, a lifelong, loyal, and public-spirited Kansan from the great town of Hiawatha.”
The secretary of state’s office said there was no deadline in state statute for certifying Pyle’s petition as an independent candidate, although the office said it wanted to complete the process by Sept. 1 — something that did occur.
The law for petitions for candidates running in a party says the petitions must be validated within 10 days of being submitted, according to the secretary of state’s office.
The law does not set a deadline for the petitions of independent candidates, according to the email from the secretary of state’s office sent to Pyle.
The secretary of state’s office said the lack of a deadline made sense since the petition had to be submitted the day before the primary election, and county election offices had to spend time following the primary on audits, county canvasses, and recounts.
Unlike in 2018 when the Orman turned in his petition, there were now post-election audits in every county, close-election audits in every county for the Republican primary for treasurer as well as recounts for the abortion amendment and a House race.
McAllister said in an email on Aug. 17 that Pyle’s petition had “far more than the requisite number of names to put him on the ballot,” so it should not be difficult to get the petitions certified well before Sept. 1.
“I have no doubt there are tasks to be done following a primary election,” McAllister wrote.
“But that is true for a candidate for governor as well who needs his candidacy to be certified in order to begin truly doing many tasks that a candidate takes on during a campaign,” he said.
“And it is unfortunate that time is being wasted on recounts on the constitutional amendment vote,” he wrote.
“In any event, we want to ensure that Senator Pyle is being treated fairly and equally and the politics are not entering the calculus.
“A double standard would not look good and we all want to be confident of the non-partisan nature of the Secretary of State’s Office,” he wrote.
The McAllister correspondence is similar to the news releases that Pyle sent out suggesting that Secretary of State Scott Schwab was dragging his feet on getting his petition certified.
“A lot of folks in Kansas are already suspicious that Secretary Schwab is responsible for giving us dishonest elections,” Pyle said in a news release on Aug. 22.
“Keeping me off the ballot and disrupting the campaign by purposely holding up the certification of my petition has only made their suspicions stronger.”
It was the latest evidence of how allies of Kelly have tried to help Pyle get on the ballot.
Pyle’s petition drive got a boost from Democrats such as state Rep. Vic Miller of Topeka as well as the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.
Miller said in an interview that he and others helping him had collected 1,120 signatures for Pyle’s petition, a number the senator has questioned.
Ty Dragoo, chair of the transportation workers union, estimated that the union gathered about 1,000 signatures from across the state for Pyle.
Dragoo said his effort was not coordinated with Miller. The union endorsed Kelly for governor over Schmidt. He said Pyle backed the union on issues.
A number of high-profile Democrats signed onto the petition, including state Sen. Jeff Pittman of Leavenworth, state Rep. Jarrod Ousley of Merriam, state Rep. Sydney Carlin of Manhattan and state Rep. Dan Osman of Overland Park.
Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda and former chair of the Kansas Democratic Party Joan Wagon also signed the petition, as did staffers in the House minority leader’s office.
