Throughout the short campaign so far, Rob Wasinger has attempted to portray himself as a Kansan who was simply returning to his roots.It's been a delicate balancing act because he still owns a nearly $1 million home in Virginia that he hasn't been able to unload. To further compound the situation, his wife had listed the home on her website, which was quickly noticed here in Kansas. As of today, the site has been taken down.
Further, just this past March, Wasinger signed off as a Catholic for McCain listing Virginia as his home state. All this combines to make it rather difficult for Wasinger to look like anything but a carpetbagger.
However, I discovered today that he may be even more "locationally challenged" than previously thought.
It began over a week ago when I got word that a house in Cottonwood Falls was to be renovated for, "a former Brownback staffer who has nine children." No question who they were talking about.
Campaign finance records filed January 30, 2009 indicated a travel expense reimbursement to Robert K. Wasinger. This was one of two expenditures in his report to addresses in Kansas even though earlier today he stated that all of his campaign funds would be spent in the first district.
The December 11 reimbursement lists 309 Oak Street in Cottonwood Falls for an address. I didn't quite understand why a Cottonwood Falls address would appear in his report. A voter registration search showed no voters registered at that address.
Today a repeat visit of his campaign filings showed an amended report from February 1, just two days after his quarter report. It was for a change of address to the same Cottonwood Falls address.
In a December 30 story in the Hutchinson News by Mary Clarkin, Wasinger claimed to be living in Hays with his Aunt. Why list your address on December 11 as Cottonwood Falls and then tell a reporter you live in Hays, only to change you address a month later back to Cottonwood Falls? Where exactly are you from Rob? Where exactly do you plan on living in a couple of months?
The Clarkin story also said that, "...he has bought a residence there and his wife and their nine children will relocate from Virginia." Why tell a reporter you live in Hays and bought a house in Hays and then change your address to Cottonwood Falls? Why all the lies?
I don't exactly understand all the deception, other than Secretary of State records show Rob has only voted in Kansas once this past November. He lists his aunt's Hays address on his voter registration record. Perhaps as the voter registration deadline neared for the November election the Wasinger family had been unable to buy a house in the district and thus he talked his aunt into loaning her address to avoid the embarrassment of being a candidate in a state where he'd never voted. This, of course, is just conjecture on my part because quite honestly I don't understand why you'd list multiple addresses or why you'd tell a reporter you're moving to Hays when you're not.
A friend in Cottonwood Falls took the above pictures. He has told me that the house at 309 Oak Street is currently vacant but has been gutted inside in what looks like preparation for a renovation.
A Register of Deeds records search will hopefully reveal more information, such as when the home was purchased.
14 comments:
I completely don't get this. Why lie?
Rob Wasinger: Here, There, Everywhere
Okay, let's see if Miss Anonymous gets this right:
- Rob Wasinger is born & raised in Kansas
- Sam Brownback, the junior Senator from Kansas, hires Wasinger, a fellow Kansan, to work for him in Washington DC.
- Wasinger moves his large family to DC so he can be involved with the raising of his children. You know, "family values" and all that.
- The above point begs the question: Should Brownback have hired someone from DC to be his Chief of Staff, or should he bring a fellow Kansan with him?
- Anyway, Brownback's time in the Senate is coming to a close. Wasinger decides not to stay in DC, where I'm sure he could have gotten a job as a lobbyist or some such work.
- Huelskamp's little fans launch this site against Wasinger, based on the fact that Wasinger was serving his boss (and by extension, the people of Kansas) in DC.
Wow.
Miss Anonymous is no fan of Brownback, or of Wasinger, or of Huelskamp. In fact, Miss Anonymous would like to see all three of their political careers come to an end as soon as possible.
But really, Huelskamp, are you going to fight THIS dirty, over something as ridiculous as someone doing the job they were hired to do?
Don't you have some POLICY issues you could attack Wasinger on? You know, something real, not some pile of bs blog smear?
Good grief.
Maybe if you stopped talking in the third person about yourself you'd understand more.
I don't get why everyone thinks this is a non issue. He clearly lied about his address. Why? The author isn't attacking him, he's just laying out the facts. If he's willing to say anything to get elected, what kind of Congressman will he make?
Nobody has a problem with him going to DC to do his job, but then why go to such trouble to get registered to vote in Kansas? Why tell a reporter you're moving somewhere when you know you're not? It's not about where he's been or going, but why he's lying about it.
But then again, I just really hate liars.
"Why tell a reporter you live in Hays and bought a house in Hays and then change your address to Cottonwood Falls? Why all the lies?"
Because, at the time, Hays is where he in fact intended to live. It is the place to which he would have brought his family had he found a house to fit a super-size family. He had to look elsewhere, and what he found to fit his family is in Cottonwood Falls.
There's hardly anything sinister about that, and it is a small, pedantic, hair-splitting mind that that harps on a a distinction without difference.
Thanks Russ for that explanation. You sound like you know Rob. Could you also share why he said all of his campaign funds would be spent in the first district after he filed a report where the only two expenditures to Kansas were to himself and his aunt?
Oh, the lies!
So it looks like the answer to the question, Don't you have policy issues to run on, is a big fat resounding NO.
It's clear that Huelskamp and his little fan club have nothing to offer. Just slime and smear.
Pity.
Oh now KJ, you got a kick out of reading the article, just admit it. :)
Here is why his candidacy is problematic.
By spending the last 12 years in DC, how could he possibly know the issues of importance to everyday Kansans? Unless he came back every weekend like Moran, which he didn't because then he'd be leaving his family in Virginia, he probably only heard the concerns of the letter writers or phone callers to the DC office. I don't think this would give a clear picture.
Things have changed a lot in Kansas in the last 12 years.
I'm all for new, young, GOP blood getting into the picture in Kansas, but as a first district resident, I want someone in DC who knows what I've been going through the last decade.
Let's walk through this. . .
Rob "moved" back and lived with his aunt, but has been seen numerous times in Virginia/D.C. since then.
Then Rob tells Clarkin he bought a home in Hays, and his family is joining him.
Then he buys an old, empty, gutted home in C. Falls?
How does this work? Will the home be "under renovation for the next 16 to 17 months, while the family lives in Virginia, then if he wins the nomination, his wife can rent or sell the house that's here in Kansas?
She better start studying for the KS Realtor license.
Tim, do you ever actually work? Or do you just spend your time stalking anyone that gets in your way?
Really, why are the taxpayers funding your job if you're just going around stalking people?
Ha, I wonder if Timmy is reimbursing whoever is stalking Rob and his family with taxpayer money too?
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