Stamp it out

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 19, 2008

Sen. Anthony Hensley apparently was among the few legislators who weren't aware earlier this year that the revenue forecast for our state government was becoming increasingly gloomy and budget difficulties were visible on the horizon.

What other explanation could there be for the senator's decision to spend thousands of dollars to communicate with voters in Senate districts outside his own at the taxpayers' expense?

We'd like to think Hensley, the Senate minority leader from Topeka, just wasn't aware of the need for restraint when he spent more than $52,000 sending 161,000 taxpayer-funded postcards and newsletters to voters in eight Senate districts controlled by Democrats. But that would require a leap of faith we just aren't willing to make.

We also can't buy any argument the mailings weren't politically motivated, even though the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission has acknowledged they didn't violate any existing campaign finance law.

The postcards suggested voters contact their legislators with any concerns they had and didn't advocate voting for or against any candidate. They did, however, serve to get the candidates' pictures and contact information into the hands of voters during an election year.

Hensley contends getting such information to the voters was a legitimate function in his role of minority leader. Somehow, the functions of his leadership role -- and that of House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, of Greensburg -- must differ from those of the Republicans in leadership positions.

Hensley has spent $52,283 and McKinney $9,967 this year on their "franking" privileges, the practice of sending mail to voters at government expense.

Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, of Independence, has used his franking privilege to the tune of $4,421 this year and is the biggest spender among Republicans in the Legislature. House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, of Stilwell, was second among Republicans at $2,103. Senate President Stephen Morris, of Hugoton, spent $447, and House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, of Ingalls, spent only $220.

Morris said the mass mailings by Hensley and McKinney were unprecedented and that, while they didn't violate the law or the Legislature's rules, "... it arguably could have violated the spirit of the law."

Morris can be kind if he chooses. We don't think it's arguable at all that the spirit of the law was mangled when those thousands of postcards and newsletters were shoved into the mailbox.

We generally smell politics at work whenever an issue appears to flow along party lines, but we think Morris and Neufeld made the right move when they instructed the director of Legislative Administrative Services to reject subsequent requests for the type of bulk mailings sent by Hensley and McKinney.

We'd suggest they take it a step further by introducing a bill that would place a monetary cap on the franking privileges of those in leadership positions -- perhaps something just slightly more than the current $975 and $2,927 limits on House members and senators, respectively.