Michael O’Donnell questions Sarah Lopez’s residency. She questions his honesty
While one of the candidates for Sedgwick County Commission District 2 had investigators from the District Attorney’s Office in her home Friday, the other was being commanded to testify under oath regarding his role in a dark money smear campaign against Wichita’s mayor.
Democratic challenger Sarah Lopez is fighting off an objection to her candidacy filed by one of incumbent Commissioner Michael O’Donnell’s close friends and political allies, radio host John Whitmer. He filed an objection with the election office claiming Lopez doesn’t live in the 2nd District and is therefore ineligible to run against O’Donnell.
O’Donnell is grappling with allegations in a civil lawsuit that he participated in the Protect Wichita Girls online video campaign that used paid actresses to falsely accuse then-mayoral candidate Brandon Whipple of sexual harassment during the 2019 mayoral race.
On Friday morning, Lopez gave investigators a tour of her home in south Wichita and provided proof of residency, including her lease agreement, utility bills and voter’s registration. A panel of county officials will meet Monday to determine whether she’s eligible to be on the ballot.
Also Friday, O’Donnell was subpoenaed to be deposed in Whipple’s defamation and civil conspiracy lawsuit against the creators, organizers and fundraisers of the Protect Wichita Girls ad. The deposition subpoena, filed by Whipple’s lawyer, former U.S. Attorney Randy Rathbun, commands O’Donnell to answer questions on Sept. 1 about the ad.
The two incidents foreshadow what is expected to be the most aggressively contested local race on the November ballot.
O’Donnell’s campaign is trying to paint Lopez as an outsider who moved to southwest Sedgwick County just to run against him, while she’s laying groundwork to make the case to voters that O’Donnell’s too dishonest for the office he holds.
“This is just another example of how dishonest Michael (O’Donnell’s) is,” Lopez said. “It’s one thing after another and I think people are fed up.”
O’Donnell and City Council member James Clendenin have told Eagle reporters that they were the primary fundraisers for the anti-Whipple video, although they say they thought the money would be used on billboard advertisements that never posted.
The two officials solicited donations from construction contractors and real estate developers and asked them to write checks to the Fourth and Long Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)3 charity founded and controlled by state Rep. Michael Capps.
That type of charity is forbidden from using or collecting money for political activities.
Matthew Colborn, the producer of the video, at one time claimed O’Donnell wrote the script for the video, but later changed his story. After not responding to requests from Whipple’s lawyer, Colborn has been compelled by a judge to hand over all emails, text messages and other forms of communications with O’Donnell.
O’Donnell did not return a call Friday afternoon about the subpoena.
Lopez said she has lived in District 2 seven out of the past 10 years and has deep ties to the area. After a short stint in Kechi, where she was a Democratic precinct committeewoman, she moved back to the 2nd District in February and later announced she would run for the commission seat.
“This objection is baseless and meritless,” Lopez’s campaign said in a written statement Thursday. “Michael is so scared of going head-to-head, he’s called in the JV team in a lame attempt to kick Sarah off the ballot. If John Whitmer is doing Michael’s bidding, it’s because nobody else will.”
Lopez offers proof
The objection to Lopez’s residency came weeks after O’Donnell first raised questions about her motives for moving into the 2nd District, claiming she moved there just to run against him.
After winning a three-person Republican primary, O’Donnell on election night honed in on Lopez’s recent move.
“The general election is going to be far easier than this primary was because I ran against two wonderful ladies who love our community and have raised families in our community and have actual ties,” he said. “Once everyone finds out Sarah Lopez is still having her mail forwarded from her last address, I don’t think they’re going to be impressed.”
Whitmer, a Republican precinct committeeman, said he was asked by others on the committee to inquire about Lopez’s residency.
“As far as I could tell, she was still a registered (Democratic) precinct committeewoman in Kechi,” he said.
Replied Lopez: “Yeah, that’s not true. When I moved from Kechi back to (commission) District 2, I was removed from that position.”
Lopez’s name did not show up in a check of the Sedgwick County Election Office’s list of Democratic precinct committeewomen.
So far, one of O’Donnell’s main campaign themes is that Lopez moved to District 2 just to run against him.
“If she did move into the district, she moved in sometime first quarter of 2020, but she’s not even renting a place there. She’s staying in someone’s basement, from what I understand,” O’Donnell said. “I heard somebody else is listed as the resident in that house, and she’s just living there.
“I’ve also heard that she doesn’t have any of the utilities in her name because she’s not living there and that her driver’s license has a different address. I’ve heard a lot of this stuff,” O’Donnell said.
Lopez acknowledged that she hasn’t updated her driver’s license. But she provided records to The Eagle showing she signed a lease on a duplex in District 2 in February. At that time, she transferred her utilities to that address and changed her voter’s registration to reflect the move. She also enrolled her children in the Haysville school district, which is also in the commission district.
She said she lives with her three children and her dog, but no roommates.
“That would be a little cramped if we were all staying in someone’s basement,” she said.
The two investigators from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office who toured Lopez’s home Friday will present their findings to the Sedgwick County Objections Board on Monday.
The objections board panel includes Sheriff Jeff Easter, District Attorney Marc Bennett and a representative from the elections office. They will determine whether Lopez’s name can stay on the ballot.
Questions over commitment
O’Donnell is using Lopez’s recent move to question her commitment to the district and Lopez is using Whitmer’s objection to question O’Donnell’s commitment to the COVID-19 pandemic. County commissioners serve in a dual role as the County Board of Health and have been tasked with the local response to the coronavirus.
“It’s disappointing that during a pandemic he (O’Donnell) has time for these lies and dirty political schemes,” Lopez said. “Now a single mom who works full time has to defend herself and her children against someone with a track record of corruption and political games.”
O’Donnell has consistently voted against public health restrictions and came under intense scrutiny for “hot mic” comments he and other commissioners made that were perceived as making light of the public health crisis.
O’Donnell says his COVID-19 votes reflect the principles on which he ran for office: individual freedom and responsibility. He said 2nd District voters agree with his stance, but they won’t with Lopez’s.
“I have a box of Honey Nut Cheerios in my kitchen that have been in District 2 longer than Sarah Lopez has been in District 2 — and they are not expired yet. That just tells you something about the commitment that Ms. Lopez has to southwest Sedgwick County. She moved in to run for office, there’s no debating that.”
O’Donnell, a former City Council member and state senator, moved into the district about five years ago to position himself to run for the seat on the commission then held by Democrat Tim Norton.
Lopez said she has lived in District 2 seven out of the past 10 years and has lived in a home with her three children near 47th and West since February.
“District 2 is my home,” she said. “My kids and I were baptized at St. Anne Catholic Church. My daughter has been a member of the Haysville swim team for the last six years, and each of my kids go to Haysville schools.
“So many important milestones of our lives have happened in this district, which is what makes this objection truly laughable,” she said.
O’Donnell’s and Whitmer’s residency challenges
Both O’Donnell and Whitmer have experienced challenges to their residency in past elections.
O’Donnell was removed from the ballot in a Wichita City Council race in 2007 due to nonresidency.
Then 22, he got enough votes in the primary to force a runoff election against incumbent Paul Gray.
But a panel of county officials ruled O’Donnell resided with his parents in Bel Aire, where he was registered to vote, rather than a former parsonage house at a church pastored by his father, which he’d claimed as his residency.
O’Donnell was elected to the council four years later in 2011, again running from the former parsonage house.
In 2012, he ran for and won a state Senate seat and in 2013, he bought himself a house at the northern end of his Senate district.
In 2015, he sold that house to a cousin and moved to a duplex in south Wichita, where he filed for County Commission and beat incumbent Norton.
O’Donnell said he bought a lot in 2017 and planned to build a new house in the district, but had to sell the property to pay his legal fees after he was indicted and acquitted on federal charges related to campaign finance.
Whitmer’s residency was challenged in 2014 while he was running to unseat then-Rep. Joe Edwards, R-Haysville, in a Republican primary.
Whitmer’s house on West Red Rock Street in Wichita was under construction at the time and Edwards claimed it couldn’t be his legal residence because a certificate of occupancy hadn’t been issued yet.
Whitmer was living in the unfinished home and the State Objections Board ruled he intended it to be his permanent residence.
Edwards lost that primary race to Whitmer and shortly afterwards died of a sudden heart attack.
This story was originally published August 21, 2020 at 4:40 PM.