The Rest of the Story

Several summers ago I worked in a congressional district office during an election season. Being an unpaid intern, my job mainly consisted of typical intern work: answering phones, taking messages, calling agencies and waiting on hold, and occasionally moving a file cabinet or two. Because I worked in the district office, almost no part of my job had any connection with the campaign.

Some people might not know this, but federal laws prohibit campaign work from happening in the official offices of congressmen. The work of a campaign and a congressional office must be strictly separate. Because of this, whenever anybody called our office that summer asking for information about the campaign, all we could do was give them the number of the campaign office, and if somebody tried to drop off a donation for the campaign, it had to be directed towards the campaign office.

Like all congressional offices, some activities manage to permeate this strict division. On several occasions, when people dropped off donations to the office I worked in, I (being the intern) was directed to take them to the campaign office. This walk would always serve as a physical representation of the required separation as I had to walk a couple blocks down the street, around a corner, and into a completely different building where the campaign offices were located.

This was a lot of separation.

I’m sharing this story because I believe the OCE report on Mr. Tiahrt’s activities begs us to ask questions about the separation between Mr. Tiahrt’s campaigns (if not this year’s, but previous years that are already documented) and his official congressional staff. Again, I would like to direct attention to the report and pages 175 and 176 where it states:

36. The Board notes that the Legislative Affairs Director of Teledyne Controls, when interviewed by the OCE, stated that Jim Richardson, Representative Tiahrt’s MLA, was present at all fundraisers he attended

AND

40. Many of the emails submitted to the OCE concerning fundraising were authored by the Jeff Kahrs, Chief of Staff.

From the looks of it, Mr. Tiahrt’s official staff (in fact, his Chief of Staff) was engaging in business that should normally be confined to the campaign. While most Americans might not see this as a huge problem, it is again an instance of Mr. Tiahrt and his associates bending and breaking the rules in order to create an advantage for the Congressman.

As much as he might want Kansans to believe otherwise, Mr. Tiahrt is fully entrenched in all of the evils of the Washington establishment. He doesn’t appear to care about honesty, or about the needs and desires of our country, rather his primary concern seems to be for himself and advancing his political career.

The story never changes: Kansans deserve better.

Separately Yours,

Publius