Kline’s tactics unsettle ex-AG

Bob Stephan says the blend of campaigning and church visits led him to resign as an aide.

19 Oct 2006 // Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline’s strategy of campaigning in churches has driven off a high-profile supporter: former Attorney General Bob Stephan.

Stephan said he resigned recently as a special assistant to Kline because of a leaked campaign memo detailing Kline’s church strategy and because of Kline’s visit to a Topeka church and its subsequent donation to a company owned by Kline’s wife.

Kline denied any wrongdoing and said the accusations about his campaign are the result of election-year politics. He said he sought guidance from state ethics officials about his activities and was told he was following the law.

“It’s silliness,” he said. “It’s just politics.”

Kline, who often preaches at churches throughout the state, said that congregations often make what he called “love offerings” to SWT Communications, operated by his wife, Deborah Kline. The company produces radio programs and church events and retreats. Kline’s preaching is often featured during the events, he said. The Topeka church — The Light of the World Christian Center — paid his wife’s company $1,339 after Kline preached there in July.

Kline said he sees nothing wrong with accepting money for providing a service to churches. He said it’s no different from other elected officials’ receiving income on the side, like rental payments or speaking fees.

“We’ve had this corporation for a decade,” he said. “I’ve been speaking to churches for years.”

Stephan, a fellow Republican, said he often spoke in churches during his 16 years as attorney general. But, he said, he believes in a strict separation between church activities and political campaigns and that Kline had crossed the line — though he did not accuse Kline of violating any law.

The Aug. 8 memo, leaked to reporters last month, described Kline’s strategy for visiting churches and getting donations from church members.

Stephan said he was somewhat taken aback by a campaign strategy that revolved around church appearances.

“To map out that five money people needed to be at the church and to arrange a fund-raiser immediately afterward seemed pretty unbelievable,” he said.

On Wednesday, a Washington watchdog group — criticized by some as left-leaning — called on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the conduct of Kline and the churches for potential violations of federal tax law. The IRS grants churches tax-exempt status but requires them to refrain from political endorsements.

Stephan said he also was bothered by the offering taken up at churches for the company owned by Kline’s wife. He said he asked for a written accounting of the money and was told by Kline’s staff that he wouldn’t get one.

“And I said ‘That’s the end of that,’” Stephan said of his decision to quit.

A pastor at Light of the World church said Kline never mentioned politics or his re-election bid during the July sermon. The Rev. Darian Rains said Kline was an impressive preacher.

SWT Communications has donated money to Kline’s political campaigns. The company contributed $1,181 on June 1 — a month before Kline’s sermon at Light of the World church — and $1,128 in 1998, when Kline was in the state Legislature, according to Kansas campaign finance records.

Carol Williams, executive director of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission, said Kline’s collecting money from churches for his wife’s company doesn’t violate any of the state’s campaign finance laws as long as the money doesn’t flow to Kline’s re-election campaign.

Ronald Garet, a professor of law and religion at the University of Southern California who studies the separation of church and state, said churches are under increasing scrutiny for mixing politics and religion. And he said the blurring of the lines is going on at both ends of the political spectrum.

“If the Internal Revenue Service is going to be investigating contributions that churches are making to political campaigns or other forms of participation, it ought to be done in an evenhanded way,” he said.

Kline’s strategy of holding campaign rallies with congregants outside the traditional worship service may not violate the law, he said, but it’s a subtle difference.

The director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the leaked memo showed Kline’s intention to ask churches to violate the law.

“He’s the top law enforcement agent in the state, and he’s encouraging churches to break the law,” Melanie Sloan said. “This case is such an egregious example.”

Kline has said the strategy outlined in his memo is legal and that he’s only trying to connect with people of faith.

Sloan dismissed accusations from Kline that her group was playing politics. She said that the IRS had investigated left-leaning churches that strayed into politics and that her group wanted the same level of scrutiny applied to conservative churches.

“If we had the same information about a liberal church, believe me, we’d report it,” she said.

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Background

An anonymous source leaked a campaign memo last month from Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline outlining “church efforts.”

It called for arranging speaking engagements at churches and setting up receptions nearby.

Kline also suggested getting the pastor to invite five “money people whom he knows can help.”

The Kline campaign confirmed the authenticity of the memo, adding that churches have always played an important role in the attorney general’s campaign and in his personal life.