Republican state Sen. Kellie Warren’s attorney general campaign is threatening to sue rival Kris Kobach over an ad that claims the senator gave a $500 contribution to a Democratic candidate.
A Georgia law firm representing the Warren campaign sent a letter to Kobach, demanding that the ad be taken off the air.
Warren’s campaign said the ad is false, noting that Warren’s husband – not the senator – made the donation to former Unified Government Mayor David Alvey.
Initially, the $500 was reported erroneously by the Alvey campaign as being made by both Patrick Warren and Kellie Warren, according to the letter sent by the law firm.
However, the Alvey campaign’s error was promptly caught, and an amended report was filed with the Wyandotte County Election Commissioner’s Office on Aug. 5, 2021, according to the demand letter.
Lawyers for Warren gave Kobach until 3 p.m. Monday to comply with the request or a lawsuit would be filed.
The Kobach campaign said it would not comment on the letter.
The letter comes with the primary election a little more than a week away and internal campaign polls showing Kobach leading Warren and former federal prosecutor Tony Mattivi in the primary for attorney general.
Kobach has been battling hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by outside groups that have been trying to defeat him, including Americans for Prosperity.
Warren, meanwhile, has been winning endorsements from the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall.
Kobach counts among his supporters evangelical author James Dobson as well as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Warren’s campaign is accusing Kobach of distorting her record.
“While Kansas voters have unfortunately been forced to expect exaggerations and distortions from your numerous failed political campaigns, your reckless disregard for the truth has unequivocally crossed the line from misleading the electorate to being entirely false,” Loree Anne Paradise wrote on behalf of the campaign.
“Your campaign’s widely disseminated ad twice reiterates a harmful and false
statement about Kellie Warren’s political contribution history.
“The ad’s false accusation that Kellie Warren supported a Democrat clearly results in harm to her reputation as a candidate in the Republican primary, and the Kobach campaign’s
intent to cause such harm is apparent from the face of the ad.”
