Tag: attorney general

Democrat Chris Mann on ballot against GOP nominee Kris Kobach

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Democrat Chris Mann looks at the job of Kansas attorney general through the lens of personal experience as a law enforcement officer, crime victim, prosecutor and defense lawyer.

Mann, competing against Republican nominee Kris Kobach in the November election, said he wouldn’t have approached this foray into elective politics in the same way had a drunkem driver not shattered a lifelong dream to follow in the career footsteps of his police officer father.

It was 3:30 a.m. Jan. 11, 2002. Mann, who joined the Lawrence police force before graduating from University of Kansas, pulled a vehicle over for a broken taillight.

An intoxicated driver slammed into his parked cruiser at 50 mph. The force of that collision threw Mann into the back of the SUV he’d pulled over — crime scene photos show an impression of his body on that vehicle — and deposited him 30 feet away on the side of the road. He was fortunate to survive. Physical therapy couldn’t conquer the lingering pain in his body. It was devastating to step away from the police department.

“It was a great job,” Mann said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “It was a job I really enjoyed doing. I felt like it was a calling.”

With an intact goal of being involved in public service, or “turning my pain into purpose,” Mann enrolled in law school at Washburn University in Topeka. His first job out of law school was as a prosecutor in Wyandotte County with a caseload that ranged from traffic tickets to homicides. That was followed by work on white-collar criminal cases as special assistant attorney general at the Kansas Securities Commission.

Mann, married to a surgeon and with two children, opened a law firm that has centered on representing victims of drunken drivers as they navigated the civil and criminal justice system.

“It’s that experience, and that experience in the law, that I want to bring to the state of Kansas, to the people of Kansas, to make sure that that office is run the way it should be,” he said.

Not all politics

Mann, who has never before sought elected office, said he was campaigning for attorney general to improve public safety and to protect the rights of people.

“I have said from day one that I think this office should be about public safety and not politics,” he said.

“The office itself needs to be there to help the people of Kansas. And that means that you can’t be distracted by a political agenda or personal political beliefs. You have to be there to do the work every day, to make people’s lives better in the state, to protect their rights, to protect the Constitution, and to make sure that folks feel comfortable in their communities.”

He said it was unfortunate Kobach was intent on establishing a special unit in the attorney general’s office dedicated to filing lawsuits against President Joe Biden.

“I just don’t think this office should be focused on one man’s political agenda. The office is far too important for that. This is the top law enforcement office in the state,” Mann said.

Kobach was twice elected secretary of state in his career, but lost campaigns for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

“I’m running for this office to help the people of Kansas,” Mann said. “My opponent is running for the office just to run for another office because he’s a politician.”

Mann also was critical of the decision by Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the GOP nominee for governor, to join a lawsuit originating in Texas intended at delve into 2020 election results in key states won by President Joe Biden.

Mann said there was no justification for suits filed by an attorney general based on partisan political calculations or to otherwise chase the spotlight.

“The attorney general should be very selective about the lawsuits that are filed,” he said.

On abortion

Candidates for state and federal office in Kansas have faced questions on abortion after the August vote overwhelmingly rejecting a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have denied women the right to abortion in Kansas.

“The people of Kansas have clearly spoken in this August 2 primary, and they want there to be a right for women to make their own private medical decisions. I can tell you that I’m not going to use the limited resources of the attorney general’s office to attack anyone’s constitutional rights,” Mann said.

While working in Wyandotte County, Mann joined Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He contributed to the effort to pass a state law requiring use of ignition interlock devices by anyone convicted of a DUI. He eventually became chairman of MADD’s national board of directors.

“I got to travel the country doing this work, talking to industry leaders, folks from the NFL, law enforcement throughout the country and other victims,” he said. “What I really focused on was sharing my story, asking those folks to also turn their pain into purpose and to help their communities to keep their roads safe.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/06/kansas-attorney-general-candidate-emerges-from-tragedy-with-refined-sense-of-public-service/

Kris Kobach is trying to make a political comeback as the Kansas attorney general, but his Republican opponents say he’s vulnerable to lose to a Democrat in the general election — again.

by Dylan Lysen, KCUR and Kansas News Service

Lawrence, Kansas — The candidates running against Kris Kobach in the August primary for attorney general argue that it’s the Republicans’ race to lose — and that only he could lose it.

Yet the former Kansas secretary of state and cable news show regular comes to the race as perhaps the best-known conservative in the state, riding a reputation that energizes Republican die-hards and leaves no mystery about what he’d do in office: battle Democrats on voter fraud, on immigration and on anything else that President Joe Biden touches.

The primary tests whether a state senator backed by the party’s conservative establishment, Kelie Warren, or a former federal prosecutor with decades of experience, Tony Mattivi, can overcome the well-established Kobach brand.

That trademark style includes a relentless focus on hot-button national issues and the federal government as nemesis.

Kobach said during a recent debate in Pittsburg, Kansas, that he plans to continue that approach if he’s elected by repeatedly suing President Joe Biden for federal overreach.

He’s already sued Biden’s administration twice as a private attorney on behalf of groups challenging COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“I’ll wake up every morning having my breakfast thinking about what our next lawsuit against Joe Biden is going to be,” Kobach said.

But Warren and Mattivi argue that Kobach’s recent election losses suggest he’s too much of a lightning rod to hold the seat for Republicans. (Attorney General Derek Schmidt is running for governor). After all, he lost the 2018 governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly.

Warren has the backing of the Kansas Republican establishment who mostly share Kobach’s ideology — she’s arguably every bit as conservative, just as fed up with woke liberals, as he is — who fear his political baggage makes him vulnerable to handing over the job to a Democrat for the first time since 2011.

Warren attacks Kobach for flubbing the defense of the state’s voter ID law in court in 2018. That cost Kansas almost $2 million in court fees and a federal judge ordered Kobach to take remedial law classes.

After losing to Kelly, Kobach lost the 2020 U.S. Senate primary partly because of the arguments he faces this year — that his name has become Republican doom on the general election ballot. Warren hasn’t taken a shot at statewide office before, but she’s never lost an election.

“I have been tested, and I win,” Warren said recently. “And the other candidate: conservative Republican but doesn’t win.”

Mattivi, meanwhile, says he wants to be an attorney general focused on doing the job to protect Kansans, not a politician.

Mattivi has never run for election before. Instead, he’s been a prosecutor at every level for the last 30 years, including serving the state in the attorney general’s office about 24 years ago.

“If you insist that your chief law enforcement official actually be a law enforcement official, I’m the only candidate in the race with those qualifications,” Mattivi said.

The winner will face Democrat Chris Mann, a former police officer, in the November general election.

Kris Kobach

Republican Kris Kobach is aiming to make a political comeback as Kansas attorney general after losing statewide elections in 2018 and 2020.

Kobach’s been close to former President Donald Trump. He led Trump’s short-lived hunt for voter fraud and consulted him on immigration law. He was also briefly considered for a spot in the Trump cabinet.

His focus on national issues resonates with many Kansans. Marisel Walston, chair for the Johnson County Republican Party, said Kobach’s stance on issues is very well known.

“I know in Johnson County he has a pretty large following and people like what they hear from him,” she said.

Kobach said he will continue to pursue voter fraud, despite little evidence supporting its existence. But this time he would be doing it as the top lawyer for the state.

That kind of approach to government and politics built Kobach’s national profile. The lawsuits also allowed Kobach to make money on the side while elevating his political brand, even when he was in office.

Michael Smith, a political scientist at Emporia State University, said Kobach operated that way while serving as the Kansas secretary of state. He says Kobach will do that again as attorney general.

“It would be a lot of hot-button issues, a lot of high-profile issues,” Smith said. “And the man would keep himself in the news a lot.”

Kellie Warren

Republican state Sen. Kellie Warren says she’s the best choice for Kansas attorney general because she’s a proven conservative who wins elections.

Although she’s likely the best chance to win over Kobach, Warren presents herself much in the same image as Kobach.

She said she, too, would sue the Democratic president for federal overreach. She considers Biden part of the far left that pushes the party’s agenda on immigration and things like critical race theory.

“It’s all very difficult for Kansans, and not our conservative American values,” Warren said. “I’ve been standing up fighting against the left since I first ran (for office) in 2018.”

Warren also has 25 years of experience as an attorney. But she began her political career in the Kansas Legislature because her Johnson County district was represented by someone she called a “woke” Republican. Two years later she ran for the Kansas Senate, again defeating a Republican incumbent.

In the Senate, Warren currently chairs the judiciary committee.

That put her in a key spot to push for an amendment to the Kansas Constitution — voters will decide the issue in the same Aug. 2 primary — stripping out protections of abortion rights.

She has been endorsed for attorney general by the Kansas Senate’s entire Republican leadership, and she has received financial contributions from big conservative donors, such as the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.

“We have to have a conservative Republican like me, who wins tough elections,” Warren said, “and then wins on conservative policies once elected.”

Tony Mattivi

Former federal prosecutor Tony Mattivi says the Kansas attorney general needs to be the state’s top law enforcement official, not a politician pushing an agenda.

Mattivi has 30 years as a prosecutor under his belt. He’s served as a prosecutor on the county, state and federal levels, leading cases from speeding tickets to domestic and international terrorism.

But he has practically no political brand to speak of, and he appears set on keeping it that way.

He said he wants to be an effective prosecutor who supports law enforcement in Kansas to fight rising crime rates. And he says Democrats want to defund the police.

While he said he will also fight federal overreach, he attacks both Kobach and Warren as politicians more concerned about personal ambition than public service. Warren, he notes, is running for office before finishing her first term in the Kansas Senate.

“I don’t believe (attorney general should be) a political springboard,” Mattivi said. “I will be on the job, every day, in the office and the courtroom managing our litigation.”

Splitting the votes

The state’s political consensus holds that the Republican candidate will win the position this fall. But Warren and Mattivi contend only Kobach could lose the general election to a Democrat, which he has done before.

However, Warren and Mattivi could ultimately split the opposition vote, handing the race to Kobach.

Smith said the race is a possible repeat of the 2018 Republican primary for governor when Kobach barely won over incumbent Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer, who was hurt by some votes going to two other candidates.

“That (third) candidate right now appears to be set up to be a potential spoiler that could allow Kobach to win,” Smith said.

Dylan Lysen reports on politics for the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanLysen or email him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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See more at https://www.kcur.org/2022-06-07/kobachs-political-rebound-as-kansas-attorney-general-faces-another-fight-over-electability