Print edition: 
As the election approaches and the race narrows in the Kansas 4th District Republican primary, Sen. Jean Schodorf is the latest candidate to come under attack from an Ohio-based activist group supporting Republican National Committeeman Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo campaign manager Rodger Woods said the campaign has nothing to do with the advertisement that began running Wednesday on a Wichita country-music radio station.
The radio spot by "Common Sense Issues Kansas" dramatizes a man going into a Wildlife and Parks office seeking a "hunting license" because he is "trying to bag a RINO."
RINO is an acronym for "Republican in name only," a term used primarily as a pejorative for GOP members who are perceived to diverge from conservative orthodoxy, especially on abortion and taxes.
Or as the ad puts it, "They call themselves Republicans, but they spend like liberals."
The ad goes on to assert that Schodorf "refuses" to sign a pledge against taxpayer funding of abortion — a pledge she says she never even heard of and that turned out to be a creation of the group that placed the ad.
"I've never heard an ad like that," said Schodorf.
She said she thinks the part about getting a hunting license to bag a RINO is unacceptably graphic and violent.
"It's going over the top," she said.
Woods said he doesn't know what effect the ad will have on the campaign.
"The voters will decide whether it's something they find useful or not," he said. "Third-party groups have the right to say what they will. It's not something we can control or can influence... it is what it is."
The ad also assails candidate Wink Hartman, saying he "even wanted to give taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood."
Hartman, who opposes abortion in all circumstances as well as most forms of birth control, made a statement supportive of Planned Parenthood during a Wichita City Commission race 29 years ago. He has said that at the time he did not know of the group's advocacy for abortion rights.
The other two candidates in the race are Jim Anderson and Paij Rutschman.
Ohio group's history
Common Sense Issues is an Ohio-based nonprofit political group that, according to its Web site, opposes abortion, taxes, gay marriage and "radical Islam," among other issues.
In the 2008 election, the group was accused of campaign activities such as "push polling," in which callers pretend to conduct a survey but actually follow a script designed to steer voters toward a particular candidate.
The group's phone was unanswered Wednesday evening and no one returned a call seeking comment.
Documents the group filed with the Federal Election Commission in recent weeks showed it has spent $71,600 this year on its effort to support Pompeo.
About $70,000 of that was advertising attacking Hartman, although some money went to "call campaign — voter education," the federal records show.
Common Sense Issues is chartered as a nonprofit group under Sec. 501(c)4 of the federal tax code.
Such groups are allowed to spend unlimited money advocating for or against candidates for office.
While they are required to disclose their spending, they don't have to disclose the source of their funding.
Schodorf a recent target of group
Schodorf, earlier considered to be an underdog in the race, was a recent addition to Common Sense Issues' list, with the federal records showing spending of $1,443 in opposition to her.
The records also show that the group has been active, albeit at a much lower level of spending, in the 1st District Congressional race, supporting Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, and opposing Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia, and Salina real estate executive Tracey Mann.
The abortion pledge referenced in the anti-Schodorf, anti-Hartman ad is actually a creation of Common Sense Issues itself.
Its Web site, www.defundabortion.org, shows an interactive map listing candidates in eight states who have supposedly signed the pledge.
In Kansas, it lists as signatories Pompeo, Huelskamp and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, who is running for Senate.
Woods said campaigns are often approached by groups seeking candidates' support for their causes and petitions.
Pompeo opposes abortion except to save the life of a woman, and Woods said Pompeo has signed Common Sense Issues' pledge.
