Top Stories Wichita

BY FRED MANN

The Wichita Eagle

Todd Tiahrt was first elected to Congress in 1994.

Jerry Moran was first elected in 1996.

Since then, between them, they have raised more than $18 million in campaign contributions.

Those contributions give some insight into their bases of support.

Both front-runners for the U.S. Senate seat have been nurtured by big businesses, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, a finance watchdog organization that compiles figures from Federal Election Commission filings.

But their top contributors also reflect the differences between the rural and urban districts they represent. Agricultural interests more heavily support Moran; aerospace companies and Koch Industries have heavily backed Tiahrt.

The contributors also reflect a split in the Republican party between ideological conservatives represented by Tiahrt and Koch, and the old-time rural GOP of Moran’s home turf, said Joe Aistrup, a political science professor at Kansas State
University.

“You see a breakdown in background and interests,” he said. “Technically speaking, Moran talks more moderate, but carries a conservative stick, where Todd Tiahrt walks, talks and beats a conservative stick.”

The winner of the GOP primary race on Aug. 3 is widely expected to win Sam Brownback’s Senate seat in the November general election.

And he will have a challenge if he chooses to try to reduce deficit spending in Washington, D.C., a cause both champion, because he’ll be expanding his base of support — including contributors — to the entire state, said Bob
Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University.

“Both will be going from a district to a statewide representative,” he said. “Part of the job is looking out for the best interests of your state.

“Whoever gets elected is going to go to Washington and hit that age-old conundrum: ‘Spending for my state is great, but it’s wasteful in other places.’

“It’s one of the reasons we have a deficit.”

Moran’s backers

Moran’s top career corporate contributor is an out-of-state company, Ciciora Custom Homes of Oak Brook, Ill., which has given him $69,400.

Company executive John Ciciora is married to a daughter of a long-time Moran supporter from Salina, Stewart Horejsi.

Horejsi (pronounced Horish) is former president of Brown Industries in Salina and among the top shareholders in Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway.

Members of the Ciciora and Horejsi families are among the top individual contributors to Moran’s career.

“We think Jerry’s a really great guy so we’re happy to support him and his effort,” said Susan Ciciora, Horejsi’s daughter.

Koch is the second-highest corporate contributor to Moran’s career at $61,800, followed by the American Farm Bureau ($55,999), the Farm Credit Council ($55,300) and the American Bankers Association, ($54,000).

The organizations themselves didn’t donate. The money came from their political action committees, individual members, employees, or owners, and the immediate families of those individuals.

Tiahrt’s backers

Koch Industries has given five times more money to Tiahrt than Moran. It ranks at the top of the corporate contributors to Tiahrt since 1994 with $318,653.

Boeing ($115,915), Raytheon ($81,095), Cessna parent Textron Inc. ($80,750), and the National Rifle Association ($77,350) round out Tiahrt’s top five.

Tiahrt also has drawn support from the defense industry. As a member of a subcommittee that controls Pentagon spending, he became one of the subjects of an ethics probe over earmarks to campaign contributors. The House Ethics
Committee cleared him, but the case was forwarded to the Justice Department by the Office of Congressional Ethics.

Koch’s political action committee has supported both candidates because “they have demonstrated an understanding of business and economic issues that are important to our state and nation,” said Koch spokeswoman Melissa Cohlmia.

Tiahrt, she said, “has been a consistent champion for principles Koch companies stand for such as fiscal responsibility, limited government and the free market.”

Six companies and associations are among the top 20 contributors to both candidates: Koch, AT&T, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the National Auto Dealers Association, the American Bankers Association and the American
Medical Association.

Reach Fred Mann at 316-268-6310 or fmann@wichitaeagle.com.

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BY JEANNINE KORANDA

Eagle Topeka bureau

TOPEKA — A candidate’s push to ensure that only U.S. citizens vote in Kansas is adding some conflict and attention to the campaign for secretary of state, usually an unnoticed race.

Candidate Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who helped author Arizona’s new immigration law, says “the problem with voter fraud is a growing one in Kansas and one that requires a law enforcement
approach to solve.

“Previous secretaries of state have not taken steps to solve the issue,” said Kobach, a former chairman of the state Republican Party.

Current Secretary of State Chris Biggs, a Democrat, and his immediate predecessor, Republican Ron Thornburgh, have said voter fraud is so rare that it is not a significant threat to the integrity of elections.

Biggs, who is seeking his party’s nomination in the Aug. 3 Democratic primary, said “voter fraud is not a major problem in this state and it certainly does not have a connection to illegal immigration in the way it is being portrayed” by
Kobach.

Kobach replies that no one is seriously investigating potential voting fraud, so there is no way of knowing how many instances exist.

He said one thing that makes him suspect illegal voting is that activists have been observed registering workers at western Kansas meatpacking plants. He said the industry has been known to employ illegal immigrants.

Every election generates complaints, but there are few actual voting-fraud cases on file.

“As of June 2009, our records indicate a total of seven cases that had been referred to local, state, or federal authorities in the past five years,” said secretary of state spokeswoman Abbie Hodgson. “Of those seven cases, only one was
prosecuted.”

In February 2008, the state’s Legislative Research Department compiled a list of dozens of complaints filed by the public over about the last decade.

The list includes assertions of parents voting on absentee ballots for their children, elderly nursing-home patients voting when they had dementia, spouses casting absentee ballots for spouses, and people voting in multiple counties in the same
election.

The one case prosecuted involved three people who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges that they voted in Kansas and Missouri in the 2004 election.

In some other cases, ballots were rejected but no charges were filed.

Kobach has said he would help prosecute voter fraud cases. He also wants requirements that voters show state-issued photo identification to cast a ballot and show proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Comparing the voter registry to the Department of Homeland Security’s list of immigrants would help determine if foreign nationals were illegally registering to vote, he said.

Wichita State University political science professor Ken Ciboski, a Republican, said Kobach has “created an issue here.”

“I’m not so sure it is an issue, but he wants it to be an issue and he wants people to think there is a big issue,” Ciboski said.

Other GOP views

Some of the other candidates also say voters should show state-issued photo ID, but they stop there.

Shawnee County Election Commissioner Elizabeth Ensley, a Republican candidate for secretary of state, said she has helped provide evidence in a dozen election law cases during her time in office, since 1992.

She does not view voter fraud as widespread as Kobach indicates but says election officials have to remain vigilant.

“Election officials always have to take every accusation seriously, they need to look into it and they need to protect voting. Because there will be somebody who tries to take advantage of the situation if we don’t,” she said.

Ensley supports the idea of voters showing photo identification to cast a ballot, but she acknowledges accommodations will need to be worked out for some voters.

“Because you cannot wheel a hospital bed into the motor vehicle department, for our older citizens, senior citizens and disabled we will need to work out something for them …” she said.

Ensley is not pushing for proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Republican primary candidate J.R. Claeys said he hadn’t seen proof of widespread voter fraud in Kansas.

“Saying things like it is pervasive or something that is happening in every election or every county, I can’t say that,” he said. “I can say that I think that things are happening, but I’m not going to say there is a whole bunch of fraud when I don’t
have proof of it.”

Claeys, who has worked as an international election observer, said he would help implement a voter identification law if it passed. He said he doesn’t want to create long lines or prevent eligible citizens from voting.

He supports voter identification as a way to help move the election process along more quickly.

Current law allows for a wide range of documents, including utility bills, to be used to establish eligibility to vote.

A uniform identification would make the process easier for poll workers, he said.

The Democratic side

In the Democratic race between Biggs and state Sen. Chris Steineger, voter fraud and voter identification have been much less of a focus.

Steineger said he would not push for voter identification but would support any law that was passed.

“I predict that within 10 years Americans will be required to use a voter ID to vote. It’s not something I like but it is something I think will happen,” he said.

He voted for a voter identification bill introduced in the 2007 legislative session. The bill passed the Senate, and an amended version appears to have passed the House, but the measure never became law.

Steineger said he did not remember the exact reason he voted for that bill.

Biggs said the system already has procedures in place to catch people who should not be registered to vote.

The state compares the voter registration rolls to the Department of Motor Vehicles’ lists to see if people listed as noncitizens on the driver’s license lists are on the voter rolls, he said.

“Some people participate in the registration process that are not citizens and we have a way of checking that,” he said. “To our knowledge we had one person vote in that check and balance that should not have.”

That case took place in March 2009 in Sedgwick County. The case was referred to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office, where it is still under investigation. No charges have been filed, but that doesn’t mean something couldn’t be
filed in the future, said spokeswoman Georgia Cole.

No other information about the case was available.

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BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

The city has opened three housing and property violation cases against a home owned by Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau in the past five years but agreed to defer fines and give her more time to bring the
house up to code.

The home on East Eighth Street was registered in 2007 with the city as a neglected building.

Of 38 houses considered neglected in a roughly three-block area around the home owned by Faust-Goudeau, only fines for her property were deferred by the city, according to

records acquired by The Eagle under the Kansas Open Records Act.

Most other owners of neglected homes in the neighborhood either paid fines — a total of $20,500 in all — or faced collections under the city’s neglected-building ordinance.

The superintendent of the city’s Office of Central Inspection says no one in his office gave Faust-Goudeau special treatment. And Faust-Goudeau, a legislator who is running for District 4 on the Sedgwick County Commission, says she did not
ask for special treatment.

She did appeal for more time, according to records.

Faust-Goudeau said she has been emotionally unable to deal with the house because her mother lived there before she died in 2001. The home had been in both their names, she said.

“I don’t look at it as a nuisance,” she said of the home. “In a way, I think I was just trying to keep something of my mother’s.”

Superintendent Kurt Schroeder said earlier this week that “we would like all these things to get fixed as soon as they can for everybody. We try to work with people when they have legitimate reasons” for not moving quickly to resolve
problems.

“There’s a time to be punitive, and a time to work with people,” he said.

He said Thursday that he couldn’t answer accurately why Faust-Goudeau’s fines were deferred while others in that neighborhood were not without looking at the circumstances surrounding each case.

“I can tell you there are many cases in the larger population of (neglected home) cases on which appeals have been made and extensions have been granted, with some penalty fees deferred or waived, depending on the extent of progress, the
condition of the property and the circumstances at the time,” he said.

Two cases still open

The city has had various housing or property condition cases open against the house at 2461 E. 8th since 2005. Two of the cases remain open. One is closed.

At one time, photographs in city files show, junk was strewn across the backyard and on the front porch. The grass hadn’t been cut, and vines or weeds were growing up the sides of the house.

The trash case — called an NNE, or neighborhood nuisance enforcement, case — was opened in 2008 and closed last month.

A case started June 28, 2005, that remains open made reference to electrical problems, missing siding and damage to guttering, windows and fences. The home sustained damage in a fire in April 2007 and was cited for not being secured in a
way not accessible to vagrants, children or others.

Two uniform criminal complaints have been filed regarding the property. One, dated Sept. 19, 2007, refers to 16 violations, including failure to maintain the foundation in sound condition and good repair, failure to maintain windows and
doors in sound, weather-tight condition, failure to secure the structure from unauthorized entry and failure to keep the premises clean and sanitary.

The city closed both the criminal complaints after windows were fixed and secured and the trash was taken care of.

In an e-mail last year to Schroeder about the case, city housing inspector Nolan Dealy said, “I know that there are some political issues that have kept this case in limbo since 2007. There has been minimal clean up since the NNE
(neighborhood nuisance enforcement) case was opened in October 2008. Even with the recent effort to start cleaning the property, the owner is not making any progress on starting repairs to the fire damaged structure.”

In another e-mail, Dealy said, “There are several other neighbors in this block of 8th St. that have NNE cases that are working to resolve their cases.”

Of the homes registered as neglected near the house owned by Faust-Goudeau, a $250 fine assessed on a house on East Mossman was waived because the structure was razed; a $250 fine on another house on East Mossman was waived
because progress was made; and a $250 fine assessed on a house on East Random was waived because the property owner cited no longer owned the home. Fines for the rest were paid or sent to collection.

The right to appeal

While the home owned by Faust-Goudeau was the only one that showed deferred fines, Schroeder said the city regularly works with homeowners cited for violations, giving them more time to come into
compliance.

Property owners also have a right to appeal. Faust-Goudeau did appeal, Schroeder said.

“The appeal process is fairly informal in that the requests can be made in writing, by phone or by coming up to our office and requesting to visit with an OCI supervisor or me,” he said. “Often, part of the process does involve meetings and/or
reviews of current property conditions at the site.”

The ordinance allows for a $250 fine every 90 days. The city assessed a $250 fine on April 30, 2009, and a $250 fine on Aug. 5, 2009.

On Sept. 4, 2009, Schroeder sent a letter to Faust-Goudeau that thanked her for meeting with him and an inspector the day before. During that meeting, they discussed remaining problems and a plan to address them.

In the letter, Schroeder outlined his understanding of the meeting and told Faust-Goudeau that “if we can agree to a satisfactory repair schedule within the next 30-60 days, the assessed penalty fees will be waived.”

Between September and last week, there are no records of other fines. The city on July 16 sent a certified letter to Faust-Goudeau saying she needed to pay $250.

The letter said that any “owner or operator who fails to register a neglected building, along with submitting a statement of intent and/or fails to follow a statement of intent” is liable for a $250 fine every 90 days the building remains
unregistered or a plan for compliance is not followed.

The letter said “registration penalty fees in the amount of $250 is now due.”

Proceeding with fines

Faust-Goudeau said Thursday that she plans to deal with the remaining problems and either sell or rent out the house.

She said she had pre-paid some people to make repairs to the home, but those repairs were never made.

The time she spends in Topeka as a state legislator has made it difficult for her to stay on top of the house, she said. The Legislature usually meets for 90 days, from January through May.

She noted that she had had some roof work done and new windows put on the house after the fire.

She said she has been trying to keep the house in the family and said “it would get emotional for me when I dealt with it.”

In a July 13 interview, Schroeder said at one time the property was covered with junk and debris.

“There was a lot of it,” he said. “The whole front porch was filled. She got that taken care of.”

During the fire, a lot of the house’s windows were broken out. Some were replaced; others were repaired.

“She’s done some things but not everything,” Schroeder said. “The key issue remaining for her is the rear portion of the house. There are siding and rot issues on the back that have needed to be repaired.”

He said that a few weeks ago, he instructed an employee to proceed with fines.

Faust-Goudeau said on Thursday that she had received notice of the certified letter and was on her way to the post office to pick it up.

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

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BY STAN FINGER

The Wichita Eagle

Law enforcement crackdowns on speeding and driving under the influence could soon grow in size and scope in the Wichita area. The Kansas Department of Transportation will launch monthly meetings
for traffic officials from local law enforcement agencies in an attempt to foster better communication.

“We think it’s just going to enhance public safety by doing this,” said Dave Corp, law enforcement liaison for KDOT’s Bureau of Traffic Safety.

“Drunk driving is not just a Wichita Police Department or Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office problem,” he said. “It’s everybody’s problem.”

Similar meetings are already held by local detectives and police chiefs, law enforcement officials said.

But the lunch meetings — which should begin next month — won’t just be about comparing notes, Corp and others said. They figure to lead to shared resources and joint operations.

The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office is purchasing a mobile command trailer for use in DUI enforcement projects, and law enforcement agencies around the area will be able to use it as well.

“A big part of this… is that agencies will be able to combine resources to conduct more thorough special operations,” Park City Police Chief Bill Edwards said.

One day soon, Wichita police could conduct a speed enforcement project on Kellogg, with sheriff’s deputies and police officers from Goddard and Andover targeting those stretches of the freeway not inside Wichita city limits.

“Kellogg is a huge problem, as far as traffic safety goes,” Corp said. “This will allow us to set up corridor enforcement, where we can get Andover and Augusta and Goddard and anybody that has jurisdiction… to do some heavy traffic
enforcement as a group.”

Trying to control speeding and other traffic issues on Kellogg is like “trying to swat an elephant with a fly swatter,” Corp said. “They do a good job, but we’re thinking we can do an even better job” through the monthly “operation impact
meetings.”

Law enforcement officials in Wichita and Sedgwick County welcome the meetings, which will be patterned after a similar effort now used in the Kansas City metro area.

“It’s proven to be very effective” in Kansas City, Edwards said. “It’s got a real good chance of working well here. We have a lot of the same issues.”

Sedgwick County Sheriff Bob Hinshaw said he thinks the meetings could be valuable.

“Any time you can facilitate communication between agencies that have common goals I think you will see enhanced outcomes — whether you are sharing information or sharing resources and coordinating efforts.”

Because so many suburbs touch Wichita’s boundaries, Wichita police Lt. Joe Schroeder said the meetings can help each department work more efficiently.

“By having all of us on the same page, meeting together, discussing trends, it will allow us all to operate better, function better and work together better,” said Schroeder, who works on the accident follow-up unit.

The meetings will launch at a time when local law enforcement agencies are grappling with troubling traffic issues.

There have been 17 traffic fatalities in Wichita this year — up nearly 50 percent over the same time a year ago.

And the nine DUI-related traffic fatalities in the city through the end of June nearly matches the totals for the first halves of the previous three years combined.

Capt. Troy Livingston, commander of Wichita’s Patrol South Bureau, said those statistics can’t be ignored.

“Obviously,” he said, “traffic enforcement is a big deal.”

The surge in fatalities and DUI-related deaths come despite a marked downturn in accidents as a whole, Schroeder said.

Injury accidents are down 22 percent so far this year, DUI-related accidents are down 38 percent, and motorcycle crashes are down 31 percent.

Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com.

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BY DION LEFLER

The Wichita Eagle

Today, Willis “Wink” Hartman is considered one of Wichita’s most successful businesspeople.

But it wasn’t always that way.

Hartman has been a lot of things: a refinery worker, a vegetable salesman, a failed homebuilder.

Now, he owns his own oil company and a growing string of restaurants. He has an indoor football team and financed and built the $19 million sports and concert arena where it plays.

Hartman acknowledges mistakes along the way, with two DUI offenses and a 1987 bankruptcy when his home-building business went sour.

In September 2009, early in the Republican primary campaign for the 4th District congressional seat, Hartman sent The Eagle a letter to publish. It foreshadowed some of the issues that his opponents would likely raise — almost all of
which have since been raised.

“I have been once divorced, I’ve twice made the bad decision to drive under the influence, and not every business decision I’ve made has turned to gold,” Hartman said in his letter to the editor. “Making mistakes is an unavoidable part of life.
What is important, though, is how you recover from your mistakes.”

His politics

Hartman’s politics are standard conservative Republican fare: low taxes, small government, light regulation on business, opposition to abortion.

He is hoping that voters see the breadth of his experience — and his ultimate success as a job-creating businessman — as a reason to elect him.

Hartman has spent about $1.2 million so far on the race — almost all of it his own money.

He says that self-funding means he can steer clear of lobbyists and other Washington special interests.

With the state unemployment rate at 6.3 percent — lower than other parts of the country but high by Kansas standards — Hartman said his top priority is getting Kansans back to work.

He said south-central Kansas has a skilled workforce now, but needs more jobs “before those skills and those people move elsewhere.”

And Hartman says that while all of the candidates have a position on creating jobs, he’s actually created a lot more of them over the years.

“I have a completely different skill set (than opponents), creating jobs and building businesses in different fields,” he said. “I have the ability to put people at the table and get them to see my vision.”

Rather than government stimulus, he thinks reducing government spending and regulation is the key to jump-starting the economy.

“Government does not truly create jobs except in the government structure,” he said. “We need ongoing jobs that the private sector does a better job (of creating).”

Opinion on Gulf spill

A longtime oilman, Hartman has closely watched events unfold in the BP oil spill off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.

“I think the BP situation is probably one of the saddest things in my lifetime I’ve seen,” he said.

He said he thinks moratoriums on drilling and increased regulation would be off the mark. The primary problem, he said, is that existing regulations weren’t followed.

Hartman said every oil rig already has a big book of safety regulations and procedures to follow, but the federal government was lax in enforcing the rules on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon rig.

He also said he thinks that the federal response to the spill has been slow and haphazard.

“Somebody (in the federal government) should have taken control immediately,” he said. “(President) Obama should have been on site in 48 to 72 hours.”

Working his way up

Hartman’s grandfather started the successful Hartman Oil Co. and passed it down to Hartman’s father.

Although Hartman was born to wealth, he said he was expected to work his way up. His early jobs were pumping gas and working in the Derby Refinery.

From there, he moved to sales, with Xerox Corp. and Del Monte Foods.

It was an ill-fated foray into building that brought Hartman to bankruptcy in 1987. He said he was working with a partner to build homes in Wichita’s Tallgrass area when the bottom fell out of the market. Hartman Homes was one of several
building companies to go under, he said.

That experience was part of what shaped Hartman’s opposition to the last three years worth of bailouts in the banking and automobile industries.

“I wasn’t ‘too big to fail,’ ” he said. “I didn’t have anyone standing behind me.”

The turnaround came when Hartman bought out his father’s interest in the family oil business in 1990, making him the sole owner.

He embarked on a series of acquisitions that tripled production and expanded into oil services and trucking.

Diverse businesses

Hartman has been diversifying his business interests in the Wichita area for about the last five years.

He established the upscale Chester’s Chophouse restaurant at the Waterfront and Jimmy’s Egg, a chain of coffee shops soon to establish its fifth location.

Hartman has incorporated his restaurants into the campaign with “Wake Up With Wink” sessions. Friday mornings he goes to one Jimmy’s Egg or another to field questions from voters.

Three years after the Wichita Stealth folded, Hartman brought indoor arena football back to the community in 2007 when he started the Wichita Wild. A year later, he broke ground for the 5,000-seat Hartman Arena, which has emerged as a
concert and entertainment venue as well as a home for the Wild since its 2009 opening.

Controversy came to the campaign when Hartman’s chief rival for the GOP nomination, Republican National Committeeman Mike Pompeo, questioned his loyalty to Kansas and his truthfulness in asserting himself as a lifelong Kansan.

Hartman owns homes in Kansas and Florida. Over the years, he changed his driver’s license and voting registration and took a homestead tax exemption on his house in Florida.

Hartman denied he ever abandoned his home state.

He characterizes the $4 million Florida seaside home as his vacation home, and showed The Eagle forms indicating he has filed and paid his income taxes as a Kansas resident.

Reach Dion Lefler at 316-268-6527.

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