The circle of campaign money

Now that I've established there are very few people who could have approved the use of Sen. Brownback's name to Catholic Advocate and that have also left since February 2008, let's also take a look at some of the connections between the parties involved.

First, searching for "Catholic Advocate" returns insidecatholic.com, which is apparently its website. The site also features articles from the Morley Institute, which were written by Deal Hudson. Hudson is also a $250 donor to Rob Wasinger and lists Morley Publishing Group as his employer.

It took a few reads, but I finally noticed the mailing house that Catholic Advocate used to mail the fund raising letter. HSP Direct.

HSP stands for Hogan, Schenk and Paul, the three executives in the company. Each gave the federal maximum $2,300 to Wasinger. And another search told me why they had been so generous.

HSP Direct has received over $200,000 worth of business from Sen. Brownback. The three partners also formed a PAC and donated $5,000 each. The only donation made by the PAC, according to opensecrets.org, was to Brownback.

So, by following the money trail, it seems it becomes harder and harder to believe that Wasinger wasn't the staffer who approved the embarrassing fund raising letter.

Some points to consider:

First, Democrats should be very happy they don't have a candidate yet that I can look into.

Second, it would seem that while Rob likes to talk about how effective he is in Washington and how many people he knows, he's only been able to find a very short list of people to donate to his campaign outside of his connections to Sen. Brownback's office. More on that later.

And finally, Rob's connection to Catholic Advocate and it's founder, Deal Hudson, make it all the more confusing for me why he was been silent on the Sebelius nomination. The whole point of Catholic Advocate is to target politicians who have such a "deep personal Catholic faith" but then vote against or veto every piece of pro-life legislation that comes their way. It would seem to me that Sebelius could be the poster child for Catholic Advocate.

So why does Rob insist on remaining silent?

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.

Wasinger brings in the bucks as campaign manager

Well, how about a good inaugural post just to let everyone know I'm still here and still writing about the first district race?

As Kansas Jackass noted, Rob was paid pretty well as chief of staff to Sen. Brownback. But there was something missing from that picture, and that's what he was paid to run Sen. Brownback's Presidential campaign.

According to opensecrets.org, Rob was paid various amounts between December 2006 and August 2007 totaling over $130,000. Quite a bit of cash, no?

Annualized, that works out to over $170,000.

That also works out to about $59.31 per vote that he was able to wrangle for the Ames, Iowa straw poll.

Nothing wrong with it. If I could get the gig, I would. Just interesting in light of discussing his congressional salary.

I'd be interested to know what Huelskamp made last year as a legislator. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it wasn't $170,000.

Jill Stanek endorses Huelskamp

As a commenter has already told me, I need get after it.

Jill Stanek is a formidable pro-life leader and blogger from Illinois. Today she gave a glowing endorsement of Tim Huelskamp for Congress.

I'm proud to announce my endorsement of KS State Senator Tim Huelskamp for U.S. Congress (KS-1). Tim is a top-notch conservative leader who has proven himself to be a devout Christian, father, and husband. This is a highly competitive open seat that is receiving national attention.

Since 1996, Tim has been THE pro-life leader in the KS State Senate. Here are just a few of the things that impress me:

• Tim led the effort to defund Planned Parenthood THIS YEAR.
• Tim was just endorsed by Kansans for Life!
• Tim is the author of the Kansas Marriage Amendment.
• Tim is the author of the nation's first Taxpayer Transparency Act.
• Tim has been endorsed by the Concerned Woman for America PAC.

With Tim's proven leadership in the KS State Senate, I can only imagine what he will be able to accomplish as a member of Congress for the critical issues most important to us. There are candidates who will say that they are pro- life, but Tim has the record to prove it. In fact, Tim is has made clear his opposition to the nomination of nomination of KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Already, this race has been named one of the Top 10 Hottest Races in the Country by the newspaper The Hill. It is going to be very competitive, and Tim is going to need OUR help to get his conservative message out.

Please join me in supporting Tim Huelskamp for Congress.

This particular endorsement is interesting for it's "blogger" angle. Stanek isn't just a pro-life leader but also a fairly regular blogger. It's interesting to see someone involved in the down and dirty fighting taking sides with Huelskamp.

Welcome to Right Kansas

As you may already know, I had to give up the Huelskamp Herald for a different name. So, right Kansas it is! And welcome!

I've imported the previous posts.

Thanks for visiting.

A bit of egg on my face

Visit rightkansas.blogspot.com...

Well, I guess I have some egg on my face. Of course, I'm anonymous, so I guess I'll deal with it, right?

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I got this email.

To whom it may concern,

I am contacting you regarding your blog, Huelskampherald.blogspot.com, and I am asking that you change the name.

The name implies an affiliation with the Huelskamp campaign, which is incorrect, and so I ask that you select an alternate name to avoid any confusion. Your understanding in this matter is expected and appreciated.

Sincerely,

Brian A. Weber
Kansans for Huelskamp.

Yikes!

So, I'll be doing my best to import this blog to a new one, Right Kansas. We'll see how that goes. I'll send an email and see if I can leave HH up for a while. We'll see...

BTW, no hard feelings. I understand why Huelskamp has asked this and I'm happy to comply. So, unfortunately for everyone else in this race, I'll still be around, just at a different address!