At government expense, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach frequently flies in the state-owned executive aircraft to promote voter ID efforts outside of Kansas and to speak at Republican political events across the state, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The state is mired in a budget crunch, forcing legislators to slash funding for highway projects and struggling public schools to curtail bus services for students, but Kobach has spent thousands of dollars to fly more than 4,350 miles in the state’s nine-passenger Raytheon King Air 350.
Using open records requests to obtain daily logs along with emails and other materials to piece together an accounting of the plane’s usage from Jan. 1, 2015, to March 24 of this year, the AP found several flights by Kobach that appeared to either offer no benefit to Kansas residents or have little connection to official duties. On some trips, Kobach scheduled state business to coincide with Republican Party functions, and his family often flew with him….
Kobach defended his use of the plane by saying that he’s doing it less than former Republican Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh, who also flew with family members and logged about 8,700 miles over two years. He added that filling empty seats doesn’t increase the agency’s costs.