Democratic state Sen.-elect Patrick Schmidt of Topeka has agreed to pay a $500 fine as part of a consent order entered into with the state ethics commission after sending campaign mailers without a paid-for attribution.
The ethics commission approved the consent agreement, meaning that if the issue went to a hearing that “clear and convincing evidence” would be introduced to support a finding of a series of facts including that political mailers were sent without proper attribution.
Appearing virtually before the commission on Wednesday, Schmidt agreed to a finding that his campaign sent out two mailers in July that expressly advocated for his election to a state office, but the mailers lacked the paid-for attribution required.
Ethics officials said each mailer – without the attribution language – was sent to 7,399 households in Senate District 19 where he was in a three-person primary that included House minority leader Vic Miller.
Schmidt won the primary and was later elected to the Kansas Senate in the general election. He defeated Republican Tyler Wible with 65% of the vote.
Schmidt said he was happy to work out a solution with the ethics commission and reiterated that the issue arose from a printer’s mistake.
Schmidt had said previously that the printer inadvertently sliced off the bottom margin of the mailer with the attribution.
“We didn’t know,” he said at the time. “We just communicated with them as soon as we found that it happened and made sure it didn’t happen again.”
The original ethics complaint said that the agency received a notice on or about May 7 stating that Schmidt didn’t include the paid-for attribution on his website and newsletter.
The commission sent a letter to Schmidt on May 9.
The letter informed him that the paid-for attribution was required for all internet communications, telephone communications, mailed communications, and other media communications that expressly advocate for or against a candidate.
The letter further informed Schmidt that the commission is generally understanding of first-time attribution mistakes.
It said no complaint would be filed for the May 7 paid-for violation.
A violation can be fined up to $5,000 for a first offense, $10,000 for a second offense, or $15,000 for a third offense.
