Sedgwick County Republican Party calls on GOP Rep. Michael Capps to resign over video

The Sedgwick County Republican Party has called for a Republican member of the Kansas House of Representatives to resign following an Eagle story showing his connection to a false attack ad launched at Wichita mayoral candidate Brandon Whipple.

Dalton Glasscock, chairman of the Sedgwick County Republicans, said he and other members of party leadership met with Capps on Friday morning to inform him that the executive committee had voted unanimously to call on him to resign.

“When we left that conversation, he was very adamant he had no intention to resign,” Glasscock said. “Following that meeting, we were even more convinced we had made the right decision.”

On Friday afternoon, the party issued a public statement on its Facebook page calling for Capps to step down from his seat in the Legislature.

“Rep. Michael Capps, through various companies he owns, has been linked by investigative reports to be behind this attack,” says a statement from the entire leadership of the local Republican party.

“As a Republican Party, we will not tolerate these kind of acts,” the statement continued. “We are calling for a resignation of Michael Capps from public office. Our leaders need to lead by example.”

Whipple’s opponent, incumbent Mayor Jeff Longwell, said he supports the call for Capps’ resignation.

He also condemned the attack on Whipple, calling it “a disgusting way to campaign.”

Whipple said he doesn’t think anyone believes Longwell when he says he didn’t know about the video.

“I think it’s a convenient way to take the attention off Longwell to ask Capps to resign,” Whipple said. “Capps isn’t the mastermind behind this. There’s just really not much of a motive for Capps to be acting alone on this. It’s obvious there’s a bigger conspiracy and he is just one spoke on a larger wheel.”

Whipple is pursuing legal action against the makers of the video. He said he hopes the Republicans will demand resignations from others if the lawsuit reveals they were involved.

Capps could not be reached for comment Friday. He has previously denied involvement in the ad attack.

Contributions

The GOP is also asking all local Republican candidates and affiliated groups to join them in donating any contributions received from Capps to charity.

“This sends a strong signal that the Republican Party stands united against dirty politics,” the statement says.

Capps contributed $100 to Longwell’s campaign against challenger Whipple, who serves alongside Capps in the Kansas House.

Longwell said his campaign already returned Capps’ donation by sending him a check when it first surfaced that Capps might have something to do with the falsified ad attacking Whipple.

“We won’t have anything to do with anyone that is putting out slimy ads,” Longwell said.

Capps also contributed $100 to City Council member Becky Tuttle’s campaign.

Tuttle said she was discussing with her campaign whether to donate the money to charity on Friday morning after the Capps story published and before the Sedgwick County Republican Party announced its call for his resignation.

Later Friday, she said she will donate her contribution.

The ad at issue used college-age actresses, in silhouette, reading from a script of allegations about sexual harassment at the state Capitol. Those allegations, drawn from a 2017 news story in the Eagle and Kansas City Star, were not actually leveled against Whipple, who’s a Democrat, but against Republican state senators.

The ad first appeared on YouTube and Facebook on Oct. 16 under the heading of a group called “Protect Wichita Girls.”

One of the actresses in the video told The Eagle that she was paid $50 to read the script. She said the producer of the ad, Matthew Colborn, tricked her into participating by telling her the script was for a public service announcement against domestic violence.

Colborn shares an office with Capps and Wichita City Council member James Clendenin.

The attack campaign was bankrolled and coordinated by an anonymous and newly created New Mexico company called Protect Wichita’s Girls LLC. New Mexico law allows closely held companies to shield their real owners’ identities.

But The Eagle found links between the New Mexico company and a Capps-owned firm based in Wyoming called Krivacy LLC.

A search of Internet ownership history records showed that Krivacy had originally created and owned the rights to the web domain www.protectwichitagirls.com. On Tuesday, the domain was transfered to a web hosting service promising its clients anonymity.

Tuesday was also the day that The Eagle broke the story linking the video to Colborn, and Colborn to Capps and Clendenin.

Also Tuesday, Whipple’s lawyer, Randy Rathbun, filed a slander lawsuit on Whipple’s behalf naming Colborn as the producer of the video. That suit alleged the ad attack was arranged and promoted online by two Longwell supporters, John Does #1 and #2.

In addition to having owned the Protect Wichita Girls web address, Krivacy also shares the same mailing address with the New Mexico shell company, actually a mail forwarding service in Sheridan, Wyo.

Both companies contract with the Sheridan firm to act as their registered agent who can receive legal papers on behalf of the companies.

Previous issues

This is the second time in 14 months that Capps has been targeted with calls for his resignation from within his own party.

In September of last year, state party leaders — including then-Gov. Jeff Colyer — severed ties with Capps and called on him to step down over accusations by a state agency that he had emotionally abused boys while serving as a volunteer in the Court Appointed Special Advocate program.

Capps denied the allegations lodged by the Department for Children and Families, and the case was overturned by an appeals board on technical grounds.

Whipple said if Capps didn’t resign before, Republicans should know he won’t now, making the demand somewhat hollow.

“They know he’s not going anywhere,” Whipple said.

Republicans first appointed Capps to the 85th District House seat in July 2018 after then-Rep. Chuck Weber resigned to become a lobbyist.

Although the annual legislative session was over and there wasn’t much for Capps to do as a representative, the party’s action allowed him to run as an incumbent in the heavily Republican district, which includes sections of Wichita, Bel Aire, Kechi and Benton.

On a vote of the state Objections Board — three Republican state officeholders — Capps had earlier survived a challenge from Democrats who claimed he didn’t actually live at the home where he registered to run and was not really a resident of the district.

When an Eagle reporter went to that residence on Wednesday looking for Capps, the door was answered by a young man who said he was house sitting for Capps and had not recently seen him around.

Despite the 2018 call for Capps to step down during the campaign, he stayed in and won the election over Democrat Monica Marks by a 54-46 ratio.

This story was originally published November 1, 2019 at 2:09 PM with the headline "Sedgwick County Republican Party calls on GOP Rep. Michael Capps to resign over video."