Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer’s campaign is getting a boost from an out-of-state group with ties to a suburban Cincinnati law firm that has taken up conservative causes nationwide.
The nonprofit, A Public Voice, has dumped tens of thousands of dollars into the race in the past couple of months with television ads favorable to Colyer while also going on the offensive against Republican rival, Secretary of State Kris Kobach, public records show.
Why the group is interested in the Kansas governor’s race — and more specifically Colyer over Kobach — is unknown because individuals affiliated with the group could not be reached for comment.
Records show that A Public Voice — headquartered in Thornville, Ohio, just east of Columbus — has spent at least $300,000 running ads in the Wichita and Topeka television markets.
The entrance of the outside group stands to help Colyer, who raised about $275,000 more than Kobach last year and is working to build name recognition against a candidate whose brand is well established.
A Kobach spokeswoman said the campaign doesn’t believe the outside expenditures will influence the race.
“Most of the Republican base recognizes those are senseless, misleading attacks,” Danedri Herbert said.
“I am sure A Public Voice had an intent to do great harm and great damage, but they’re clearly people from out of state and they don’t know Kansans and they don’t know Kris Kobach.”
The Colyer campaign declined to comment.
Six years ago, A Public Voice was named Protect Your Vote Ohio, which, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, was created to oppose a plan by Democrats and unions to change the way the state draws election districts for Congress and the legislature. Now, the group gives money to campaigns around the nation.
Because A Public Voice is registered as a nonprofit social welfare group under Internal Revenue Service rules, its donors don’t have to be disclosed.
Some ad purchase records from April through June in the Kansas governor’s race list Brian Kinnett as president of A Public Voice with a Washington, D.C., post office box address. Others show Mark Becker as president with a Thornville, Ohio, address.
Both Kinnett and Becker are listed on A Public Voice’s 2016 tax forms — the most recent available — as officers with the nonprofit. In that filing, dated Nov. 15, 2017, Kinnett is listed as president, Becker as treasurer. Efforts to reach Kinnett for comment were unsuccessful. A message left for the group was not returned.
There’s another figure who appears to have a role with the organization.
Records reveal that A Public Voice is associated with Cincinnati lawyer David Langdon, who has been involved in a number of conservative causes including same-sex marriage, abortion, religious freedom and the tea party.
The firm’s website describes Langdon Law as a “national practice focused exclusively on political, election, nonprofit, and constitutional law” with clients in more than 25 states.
“We will guide you through complicated election laws and campaign finance regulations, litigate election and ballot access cases, and defend your constitutional rights.”
However, Langdon’s role with A Public Voice is murky. He couldn’t be reached for comment for this story.
Langdon is credited with writing Ohio’s 2004 constitutional amendment that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. He also represented the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List in a U.S. Supreme Court case over an Ohio law that made false campaign speech illegal.
Langdon has done work for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group based in Scottsdale, Ariz., that advocates for religious freedom.
The group describes itself as “an alliance-building legal organization” that brings together “attorneys, ministry leaders, pastors and like-minded organizations in a common purpose, a shared commitment to defending religious liberty, the sanctity of life and marriage and family.”
Langdon has donated more than 3,500 billable hours to the group’s clients and litigated nearly 50 cases over a three-week stretch when activists brought legal action to stop the same-sex marriage amendment in Ohio, according to a profile published on the Alliance Defending Freedom website.
Also, Langdon represented a tea party group in a 2013 lawsuit against the IRS, charging that the agency singled out the group for intense scrutiny when it applied for a tax exemption.
A Public Voice’s incorporation papers show a connection to Langdon. Kinnett recorded a digital signature on those papers filed by Josh Bolinger, who teams with Langdon at his West Chester, Ohio, law firm outside Cincinnati.
Only two lawyers are listed on the law firm’s website: Langdon as the founder and Bolinger. The firm is listed as A Public Voice’s registered agent.
Federal tax records also show a connection between Langdon and A Public Voice.
In 2014, for instance, A Public Voice gave $401,000 to the super PAC Hometown Freedom Action Network, for which Langdon was then listed as treasurer as well as custodian of records, according to federal election documents. At that time, Hometown Freedom Action shared the same address as Langdon’s law firm.
However, as of 2015, records show a new treasurer, although Langdon is still listed as the custodian of records. The group had a different address but still listed the same post office box as A Public Voice with the email address domain FECLangdonLaw.com.
The records filed with A Public Voice’s television ad buys in Kansas show they are coming from two sources.
Records show the ads were purchased in the name of A Public Voice by an offshoot of Kansas City’s Axiom Strategies and a Washington, D.C., ad firm that has made spots for U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, among others.
Both A Public Voice and Hometown Freedom Action have given thousands of dollars to aid various campaigns around the nation.
Federal tax forms show that A Public Voice raised almost $1.2 million in 2016. It gave $840,000 to the Columbus-based Government Integrity Fund, which contributed to a super PAC that helped the re-election campaigns of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and then-U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, both Republican.
Also that year, it gave $90,00 to Americans United for Values, which lists Kinnett as treasurer. Americans United for Values made $126,900 in independent expenditures against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz when he ran for president in 2016. Politico recounted the ad the group made against Cruz leading up to the Iowa caucuses.
Two years earlier, A Public Voice gave $1.3 million to Grow Connecticut, a super PAC that opposed the re-election of Democratic Gov. Dannel Malloy, federal tax records show.
The other group to which A Public Voice has contributed — Hometown Freedom Action Network — spent thousands trying to defeat former Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota and Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse in Nebraska. During 2013-2014, it spent $346,000 opposing Franken and $90,000 opposing Sasse.
The Center for Public Integrity reported in 2015 that at least 11 groups linked to Langdon or his law firm had spent an estimated $22 million on federal and state elections across the country.
