"Last Minute" PAC Filings for November Election
Nearly $279K raised and $348K in independent expenditures in "Last Minute" PAC campaign finance reports
Regular Political Action Committee (PAC) campaign finance reports were due on Oct. 28 covering activity through Oct. 24.
But any contribution to a PAC of $300 or more, or any independent expenditure of $300 or more, for the period Oct. 25 through Nov. 3 had to be part of a “last minute” filing before the Nov. 5 election.
Considerable money was reported this year in “last minute” reports. How might these reports reflect what happened in the overall Kansas senate and house races?
Here’s a summary of the contributions and independent expenditures reported in “last minute” PAC reports this year:
Let’s break out the independent expenditures to candidates.
Independent Expenditures on Candidates
Per election Kansas Political Action Committees can give up to $1000 to a senate candidate, but only $500 to a house candidate.
But PACs have no limits on their independent expenditures to support or oppose candidates.
Kansas Senate
The Middle of the Road PAC spent $89,518 in last minute expenditures in losing five senate contests, while Keep Kansas Red PAC spent $7353 to win all five.
Huge amounts of money were spent earlier in these contests by these and other PACs, which will be the subject of a future article.
The Senate 5 race was very close in unofficial results but the Sunflower State Journal reports “Klemp emerges victorious in narrow District 5 race.”
Other senate contests above were in Johnson County where official final results are available online.
The State of Kansas certified statewide election results on Monday but has not posted them online as of this writing.
Kansas House
Official election results were used in the contests in Johnson County, while the statewide unofficial results were used to make the won/lost calls above.
In three contests PACs spent money for and against candidates. In two of those cases the Lift Up Kansas PAC spent money both to support the winning candidate and to oppose the losing opponent.
In House district 102 incumbent Jason Probst saw two PACs spend money supporting his opponent and one PAC spending on a negative ad against him.
Negative ads worked in all three cases. Republicans prevailed in 17 of the 18 contests.
Only Democrat Nikki McDonald won a “last minute” battle. But she won Johnson County House District 49 by a mere 148 votes.
Johnson County
Three Johnson County Commissioner candidates benefited from “last minute” independent expenditures by the Amberwave PAC.
JoCo Board Chair of County Commissioners Mike Kelly is the spokesperson for this PAC even though he is not the PAC chair or treasurer.
These “last minute” expenditures were to help the slate of Democratic candidates running for county commission seats.
In the regular PAC report filed on Oct. 28 Amberwave reported spending over $30,000 on each of the three Democratic candidates, which dwarfed the “last minute” expenditure.
Amberwave was successful in two of the three races they focused on in 2024:
This “last minute” expenditure helped defeated Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara. Incumbent Republican County Commissioner O’Hara blamed her loss on the Amberwave expenditures to help her opponent, Julie Brewer.
Amberwave helped defeat incumbent Republican Sheriff Calvin Hayden in the Aug. primary and Republican candidate for Sheriff Doug Bedford.
Amberwave’s was only unsuccessful in defeating incumbent Steve Howe, who was re-elected Johnson County District Attorney.
PAC Performance
Republicans PACs faired well in their “last minute” expenditure performance based on election results.
The Lift Up Kansas PAC and the Right Future for Kansas PAC won 100% (6 of 6 and 5 of 5) of the contests they made independent expenditures in, while Keep Kansas Red PAC was close behind with 85% (12 of 14). The Kansas Chamber PAC won 83% (5 of 6).
Yes We Kansas PAC won 14% (1 of 7) of its contests, while the Gov. Laura Kelly’s Middle of the Road PAC did not win a contest (0 of 9).
Gov. Kelly is not the chair or treasurer of Middle of the Road PAC, but she is its spokesperson.
