Former Kansas senator says FBI actively investigating Brownback ally

A former Republican member of the Kansas Senate said Thursday that an FBI investigation into a close ally of Gov. Sam Brownback remained active and that voters should take into account allegations of malfeasance as they weighed options in the November election.

Former Sen. Dick Kelsey, who was defeated in a 2012 bid for re- election, said during a news conference in Topeka that he spoke multiple times with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about former Brownback chief of staff David Kensinger, who works as a lobbyist and adviser to the GOP governor's re-election campaign.

"The FBI called me. The investigation is very real," Kelsey said. "It's not a political thing with them at all. They do not want government that is corrupt. I am confident it's not finished."

The Topeka Capital-Journal first reported the existence of the FBI inquiry in April. Sources told The Capital-Journal that Kensinger was a central target of an investigation that focused on influence-peddling operations in Kansas government. Among issues of interest to the FBI were behind-the-scenes deals related to Brownback's privatization of the state's $3 billionMedicaid program.

The governor's reform program, branded KanCare, handed contracts to three for-profit insurance companies charged with responsibility to provide Medicaid services to 380,000 disabled and poor Kansans. Kensinger was the governor's chief of staff during formative stages of KanCare, but quit two months before contracts were signed with AmeriGroup Kansas, United Healthcare of the Midwest and Sunflower State Health Plan.

Kelsey, who had been a vocal critic of the KanCare reform, said Kensinger received financial compensation from all three contractors. He said the FBI was aware of that "fact," but offered no documentary proof of the allegation.

Kensinger didn't respond to a message for comment, but a spokesman for the Brownback campaign described the news conference with Kelsey as a "political sideshow" that was a "step down from even the usual Democrat political nonsense."

"Unsupported wild accusations by people who clearly think they are losing a campaign of ideas is not news," said Brownback spokesman John Milburn. "We did learn two things today. These false smears are driven by political motivations and Democrats have no positive ideas to offer voters."

The news conference one block from the Capitol was called by Kelsey and Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, to urge Brownback to distance himself from Kensinger, who serves as an unpaid aide to the governor's campaign and remains president of the governor's political action committee.

"Governor Brownback has blatantly rewarded his closest allies with lobbying business, high-powered appointments and favorable legislation," Hensley said. "But David Kensinger took things too far. The governor's continued close working relationship with him is damaging the confidence Kansans have in their government. It's time for the Brownback campaign to cut ties with him."

Hensley and Kelsey endorsed the election of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Paul Davis, who has held a slim advantage over Brownback in more than a dozen polls. The third candidate in the race is Libertarian Keen Umbehr.

In the news conference, Hensley also was critical of Tim Keck, chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer and an attorney in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, for submitting a Kansas Open Records Act request for documents linking Davis to the law enforcement raid 16 years ago on a Coffeyville strip club.

Keck had requested records from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office before a newspaper published a story that described Davis as in the midst of a lap dance when officers entered the business on a drug raid.

The involvement of Keck in the affair raised questions about possible misuse of state government personnel in the governor's re- election campaign, Hensley said. Ninety-five percent of Keck's $100,000 salary is paid by KDHE, he said.

"He should have never, in my opinion, been assigned responsibility for an open records request for the purposes of playing dirty politics," the senator said.