(Developing: Will be updated as warranted)
Democratic secretary of state candidate Brian McClendon has cut ties with a Wichita attorney who mocked gubernatorial candidate Laura Kelly’s professional career on social media.
McClendon’s campaign hired Scott Poor – a director for independent Greg Orman’s gubernatorial campaign – to file paperwork at the beginning of the year.
Poor’s role in the secretary of state candidate’s campaign was focused only on the initial legal administrative requirements at the time the campaign was formed.
McClendon’s campaign manager, Scott Allegrucci, said in a statement on Friday morning that it would not hire Poor for professional or administrative services in the future.
“Neither Mr. McClendon nor the campaign in any way agree with or support the statements made by Mr. Poor regarding Sen. Kelly,” campaign manager Scott Allegrucci said.
“Mr. McClendon has great respect for Sen. Kelly as a candidate for governor and as a result of her distinguished career in public service,” he said.
Poor posted comments on Kelly’s gubernatorial campaign Facebook page, ridiculing her career that included work for 19 years as the executive director of the Kansas Recreation and Park Association.
She also worked as a recreational therapist, a job that involved using recreation to help children with mental illness.
Kelly has been in the state Senate since 2005 and now serves as the ranking member of the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee as well as the Public Health and Welfare Committee.
“Have you ever had a real job,” Scott Poor wrote on Kelly’s website, according to an account by the Wichita Eagle.
He went on to deride her work as recreational therapist, asking if “Laura was certified to work with the monkey bars as well as the teeter totter?”
Poor could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Initially, the Orman campaign said Poor didn’t speak for the candidate and would not talk about the qualifications of the candidates until after the primary election.
On Tuesday, the campaign didn’t respond to an inquiry from the Sunflower State Journal asking for additional comment.
However on Thursday, an Orman spokesman told the Topeka Capital-Journal that the candidate didn’t agree with Poor’s comments.
The Orman campaign’s comments came the same day that a new campaign was launched to encourage voters to withdraw their signatures from a petition to get Orman on the ballot.
Orman needs to round up 5,000 signatures of registered voters by noon on Aug. 6 to get on the ballot as an independent in the governor’s race.
