By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — A Shawnee County District Court judge directed the state to pay $115,700 in attorney fees to a Kansas law firm representing clients who received subpoenas amid a state investigation targeting Republican-affiliated political organizations and individuals.
The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission engaged for several years in an inquiry centered on whether campaign violations occurred through coordination of election spending among individuals, political parties and political action committees. Specifically, KGEC asserted cash had been “earmarked” for certain recipients in violation of state law during the 2020 election cycle.
Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican, responded to the KGEC’s distribution of subpoenas by accusing the KGEC’s now-departed executive director of operating a “weaponized” state agency. During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers revised the definition of making a “contribution in the name of another” to affirm legality of certain campaign transactions common to Republican and Democratic operatives.
In August 2024, a Shawnee County Judge Teresa Watson found the previous statute on “giving in the name of another” was unconstitutionally applied to David Matthew Billingsley, who served as treasurer for the Lift Up Kansas PAC. Billingsley became formally embroiled in the investigation after receiving a subpoena in 2022. He was represented by the Kriegshauser Ney law firm in Kansas.
The district court judge in Topeka also blocked KGEC’s ability to enforce its subpoenas in this investigation, but the commission appealed that decision.
Watson ordered KGEC to pay $85,000 in attorney fees assessed through October 2024, but negotiations led the KGEC to seek voluntary dismissal of its appeal.
“In an effort to maximize judicial economy and minimize additional briefing related to a supplemental motion for attorney fees in this matter,” Watson’s order says, “parties have requested the court award defendant an additional $30,000 in attorney fees.”
The new order, which took into account appellate work on the case, raised attorney fees to be paid by the state in this case to $115,000. The state must make payment within 30 days.
Meanwhile, a federal judge last week approved an order affirming the state owed $98,500 in attorney fees in response to a separate case in which Johnson County activists James Muir and Chengny Thao were directed to register their Fresh Vision OP as a PAC after spending money to endorse a mayoral candidate.
KGEC initiated the regulatory action against Fresh Vision, the Overland Park group working to influence the 2021 mayor’s race and development policy at City Hall.
Fresh Vision responded with a June 2024 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court against KGEC. The plaintiffs, represented by the Institute for Free Speech in Washington, D.C., and the Kriegshauser Ney firm, received a temporary restraining order against the commission. The federal court amended that to a permanent injunction in January.
The 2025 Legislature passed and Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill blocking the ethics commission from taking the regulatory approach with other advocacy groups as it did with Fresh Vision. New Kansas law made a distinction between “a” purpose of political organizations and “the” major purpose of such groups. The change meant grassroots organizations in Kansas, such as Fresh Vision, could occasionally engage in campaign speech without being regulated as a PAC.
U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Crabtree signed the order accepting the negotiated amount of $98,500 in attorney fees. The Institute for Free Speech and the Kansas law firm had sought $170,000 for their role in the federal case.
“This outcome serves as a reminder that the First Amendment mandates that groups like Fresh Vision be permitted to speak freely without being subject to onerous government regulations,” said Charles Miller, senior attorney with Institute for Free Speech.
The cluster of campaign finance reform laws adopted in 2025 included the renaming of KGEC as the Kansas Public Disclosure Commission on July 1.
