Sherman Smith
09/12/22
(Kansas Reflector) The concerns raised by End Citizens United, a group that opposes the influence of money in politics, center on 96 contracts for outside counsel that the Kansas Attorney General’s Office has awarded since Schmidt took office in 2011. Those contracts went to 49 law firms — 20 of which donated to Schmidt’s campaigns for attorney general or governor. “When you have politicians take campaign money from firms and then turn around and give them lucrative government contracts, it makes it almost impossible for regular people to not feel that the system is rigged and that corruption is at play,” said Tina Olechowski, spokeswoman for End Citizens United. “It is why voters lose faith and trust in government and why it’s so important for officials to be transparent and not have these kinds of conflicts of interests.”