Who let the letter out?

Kansas politicos will remember not to long ago when Sen. Sam Brownback got a bit of unwanted publicity regarding lending his name to the Catholic Advocate. Something stuck in the back of my mind when I was reading about that story. It was this email that came out of Brownback's office.

"I think we've gotten to the bottom of the confusion over the mail piece. Neither the Senator nor I had seen the letter or were aware of it. I figured out that you did get permission to use his name on the piece from a former campaign staffer in February of last year."

That really sticks out doesn't it? February of last year. Why specify a month like that?

Well, no matter. The time line provided lends itself to narrowing down which staffer approved using Sen. Brownback's name to Catholic Advocate. Of course, keep in mind we're not looking for just any staffer. We're looking for someone who would have had the power to authorize such use of the Senator's name.

So, with a quick scan of Legistorm, I can see that 12 staffers have left Sen. Brownback between February and the end of September of 2008. That is the latest information available, so there is unfortunately a time lapse from Sept 08 til Feb. 09 when the flap hit.

In any case, of those twelve, all but two were either legislative aides, interns or regular staff. Not people I'd say that would have the power to approve the use of the Senator's name.

The two left were...I'm sure you can guess one of them...Rob Wasinger...and the other was General Counsel Sean Woo.

I doubt a lawyer would unilateraly approve the use of Sen. Brownback's name for a fund raising letter. Of course, it's always possible. And I'll reiterate that Legistorm only has info until September of 2008.

In any case, it's strong evidence to support what I've thought all along; that Wasinger was the staffer who approved the fund raising letter and caused such grief to befall the Senators office.

Of course, there's more to the story, but I'll save that for another day.