"Political nonprofit" Kansas Values Institute runs ads against Republican legislative candidates on streaming TV
Political ads on streaming TV appear to have no oversight
Updated Sept. 24 with information about KVI ads running in Riley County.
Nonprofit Kansas Values Institute cannot help itself. It’s another election year and KVI is compelled to spend nonprofit money to distort the position of conservative candidates.
Have you seen Kansas Values Institute political ads on streaming TV?
If so, please snap a picture on your phone and email to: KansasMeadowlark@gmail.com
Kansas Values Institute is running political ads on video streaming Samsung TV — and likely other video streaming platforms.
The Federal Communications Commission requires TV, radio and cable systems to maintain a “Public Inspection File” of broadcast political ads, but a representative of the FCC Licensing Support Center on Tuesday confirmed the FCC has no authority to collect such information from streaming video platforms.
So, KVI evades public disclosure of its political ads on streaming video platforms and only a few anecdotal cases are known.
KVI 2024 School Funding Ads
In the last week Kansas Values Institute ran a number of ads on streaming Samsung TV in Johnson County to take swipes at two Republican State Senate candidates on the issue of education funding:
T. J. Rose, Olathe in Senate District 35, and
Adam Thomas, Olathe in Senate District 23.
These are recycled school finance ads from the 2022 election cycle when KVI falsely claimed Republicans were not “fully funding Kansas Schools.”
In the 2022 gubernatorial contest Kansas Values Institute falsely claimed former Gov. San Brownback’s actions from the past “caused deep cuts to schools” in an attempt to link Republican gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt to past actions of Gov. Brownback.
Those false KVI claims were provably wrong using data from the Kansas Department of Education. But facts do not get in the way of KVI’s false claims and deceptive tactics.
Reader feedback
An observant Riley County reader sent a video clip of a KVI ad against State Rep. candidate Angel Roeser in District 67 using a similar anti-Brownback theme.
This ad was shown as part of the History Channel viewed on a streaming service.
District 67 in Riley County (parts of west Manhattan and parts of Ashland and Wildcat Townships) is an open seat with Republican Angel Roeser facing Democrat Kim Zito.
Roeser completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey in 2024, but Zito has not.
KVI 2024 Pro-Abortion Ads
After the August primary, KVI ran pro-abortion ads against Republican legislative candidates to motivate progressive voters:
Laura Williams, Olathe, in State Rep District 30 (incumbent), and
Adam Thomas, Olathe in Senate District 23.
Progressives use “reproductive freedom” as a synonym for abortion. Nationally, Democrats believe abortion will motivate voters in 2024 according to the AP regardless of other issues.
KVI is exploiting the abortion issue in their ads. KVI is denigrating pro-life candidates even when Kansas is currently a solid, pro-abortion state.
As recently as July the Kansas Supreme Court reaffirmed that the state constitution protects the right to abortion, striking down several abortion restrictions. The current Kansas Supreme Court will block any legislative changes to current state abortion laws.
After the Dobbs’ decision overturning Roe, Kansas became a destination for out-of-state abortions seekers: Kansas report for 2022 shows skyrocketing number of out-of-state abortion seekers, Kansas Reflector, June 23, 2023.
The number of abortion in Kansas is now so high Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is blocking release of state abortion numbers from 2023.
From the June 24, 2024 Kansans for Life note about the second anniversary of the Dobbs’ decision:
Gov. Laura Kelly is stalling the release of the annual state abortion numbers.
Gov. Laura Kelly’s personnel at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment are now signaling they plan to hold release of annual state statistics back several more months, meaning release of 2023 numbers may not happen until almost 2025, in spite of the new Abortion Reporting law, which was passed to hold the department accountable for timely release of data.
Gov. Kelly’s decision to not release the numbers shows the very reason the legislation was needed in the first place. Is she afraid of Kansans seeing abortions are skyrocketing while one of the largest abortion clinics was operating without medical oversight?
In the 2022 Value Them Both Kansas constitutional amendment referendum pro-life groups were “vastly outspent in Kansas" according to the Kansas Reflector:
In Kansas, the two groups most involved in the election were Kansans for Constitutional Freedom on the “no” side, and Value Them Both on the “yes” side. According to campaign finance records, Kansans for Constitutional Freedom raised a total of $10.5 million by the election date, while Value Them Both reported $6.6 million.
About Kansas Values Institute
Some aspects of KVI’s financial information from this 2024 election will be revealed in late 2025 or early 2026 when they file their IRS 990. KVI released its 2022 IRS 990 only in Feb. 2024.
Since 2011 KVI spent nearly $40 million of nonprofit money on Kansas politics and elections to distort the position of conservative candidates through “educational” political mailings or TV commercials.
In 2022 alone Kansas Values Institute spent a staggering $23 million that made the decisive difference in the Gov. Laura Kelly’s re-election over Republican challenger Derek Schmidt.
KVI spending $23 million and Gov. Kelly’s 22,258 vote winning margin works out to over $1000 of KVI spending per winning vote.
Kansas Values Institute is an IRS 501(c)(4) nonprofit and pushes legal limits. The IRS regulates the political campaign and lobbying activities of such an organization, but perhaps those regulations need to be revisited for a level electoral field in Kansas?
