Estes joins call for O’Donnell, Clendenin and Capps to step down over political plot
U.S. Rep. Ron Estes has joined the growing call for three Republican office holders to resign after a secret recording caught them plotting to blame GOP leaders for a false attack ad they made smearing Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple in last year’s election.
Estes is the highest-ranking Republican so far to call for the resignation of Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell, Wichita City Council member James Clendenin and state Rep. Michael Capps.
“What I heard on the recording represents the very worst of politics and shows they have abused the positions entrusted to them by Kansas voters,” Estes said in a post on Facebook on Monday night. “Kansans deserve better, and I’m calling on all three of them to resign.”
The three politicians have not responded to requests for comment from The Eagle.
The two-term congressman is the latest and arguably biggest name in a growing list of prominent Wichitans demanding the resignations of O’Donnell, Clendenin and Capps.
That list includes three county commissioners — Republicans David Dennis and Jim Howell and Democrat Lacey Cruse. Also, the officers of the Sedgwick County Republican Party and the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce, an influential force in local politics.
District Attorney Marc Bennett has launched an investigation that could result in ouster proceedings to remove the office holders.
O’Donnell is the only one of the three on the ballot in the Nov. 3 general election.
Capps was defeated in the Republican primary in August and will leave the Legislature when his term expires in January.
Clendenin has served on the City Council since 2011 and because of term limits, he won’t be able to run for re-election next year.
The resignation demands follow Friday’s reveal of an audio recording made by Matthew Colborn, the young video entrepreneur who made the “Protect Wichita Girls” video targeting Whipple in his 2019 race against incumbent Mayor Jeff Longwell.
The video lifted accusations from a Kansas City Star/Wichita Eagle story about alleged sexual harassment of interns by Republican senators at the Kansas Capitol, and wrongly transferred those accusations to Whipple, a House Democrat.
The ad, launched from behind the shield of an anonymous New Mexico shell company, was quickly proven false by Eagle reporting and Whipple filed a civil lawsuit to find out who was behind it.
Seeking to protect themselves, O’Donnell, Capps and Clendenin plotted to falsely accuse Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman Dalton Glasscock of masterminding the project, according to an audio recording of a meeting.
Colborn, at that point Capps’ campaign manager and a trusted member of the group, secretly recorded their meeting. His lawyer released the recording on Friday after Whipple’s lawyer dropped Colborn as a defendant in Whipple’s defamation lawsuit.
O’Donnell’s attorney filed a response in the lawsuit denying that O’Donnell had direct involvement in the ad and requesting a jury trial.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 10:46 AM.
