A group of Olathe residents is asking a judge to move forward with their effort to have Republican state Rep. Adam Thomas removed from office.
The residents from House District 26 filed a motion this week asking a Johnson County judge not to dismiss their contest of Thomas’ election to the Kansas House last year.
They challenged Thomas’ election late last year, saying he didn’t live within the district when he filed to run for the Kansas House in May 2018. He had been charged with election perjury stemming from questions about his residency.
Thomas won his race against Democrat Deann Mitchell despite facing an election perjury charge for allegedly misrepresenting where he lived when he filed to run for the Legislature.
Thomas has since received diversion on the perjury charge, which will be dropped if he fully complies with the conditions of his diversion agreement, court records show.
Thomas’ lawyer, Mike Kuckelman, has argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed because it sat idle without meeting the deadlines set out by state law.
He argued that state law required a hearing to be held on the lawsuit within 20 days of when it was filed, last Dec. 10. He said the hearing should have been held no later than Dec. 30.
However, the residents argued that Thomas’ didn’t meet the deadline set by state law.
Their motion notes that Thomas was not served with notice of the election contest until Dec. 19 and he did not respond within the five days required by state law.
After receiving an extension of time from the court clerk, Thomas did not respond until Jan. 22, well after the 20-day time limit for holding a hearing on the case.
Thomas’ “answer was filed well beyond the 20-day deadline for a hearing that he strongly agues in his motion must be applied,” the residents argued.
“He failed to follow the deadlines set forth in (state law) but he now wants strict enforcement of the timelines.”
The lawyer for the residents, Mark Johnson, also argued that the case was held up because the proper process for assigning a judge to the case was not followed.
Johnson contends that the court clerk was supposed to notify the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, who in turn would send a list of possible district court judges to the lawyers on each side. The lawyers would ultimately settle on a judge.
Johnson said it did not appear that the court clerk notified the chief justice of the election contest as required by state law. As a result, a list of judges was not provided until Jan 14.
“For dismissal to be appropriate, the entire procedure specified in the statute must be followed,” Johnson argued. “That simply did not happen here.”
The judge in this case only holds a hearing to collect testimony and other information that is submitted to the speaker of the Kansas House.
From there, the speaker would appoint a committee – equally represented by Democrats and Republicans – to consider the material collected by the court.
The special committee would make a report to the full House no later than 10 days after it is appointed. The House would then decide whether Thomas would remain in office.
