Wichita ethics feud escalates as mayor and City Council member trade public potshots

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple and City Council member Jeff Blubaugh traded potshots over the weekend, escalating an already tense feud between the two men following an off-the-rails council ethics workshop that ended in accusations of wrongdoing and thrown papers.

The two city officials hurled insults at each other through a Facebook video and a talk radio show on Saturday and Sunday, with Whipple accusing Blubaugh of being “sexist” and Blubaugh calling Whipple “delusional.”

It was a continuation of an argument last week between Whipple and Blubaugh about whether a new ethics policy should include a provision that would punish Whipple for Facebook memes made and shared by his supporters and campaign workers.

The proposal would put limits on gifts, create a city board to handle complaints and decide penalties, and clarify conflicts of interest when voting on matters involving friends and family.

Blubaugh questioned whether it was ethical for Whipple supporters to post memes making fun of him and other Republicans. He also accused Whipple and his wife’s political action committee — Wichita’s Future PAC — of paying for the memes.

The ethics workshop ended abruptly after Whipple tossed a printout collage of memes and social media screenshots back to Blubaugh, sending the papers flying into Blubaugh’s lap.

Whipple, in a Facebook live video on Saturday morning, accused Blubaugh of making sexist comments about his wife and said the City Council member also falsely accused her of breaking Kansas campaign finance laws.

“Any time you attack my wife as if she’s an accessory to me and don’t acknowledge her as an independent person who actually has a lot of really good accomplishments, I take that as sexist,” Whipple said.

Blubaugh responded by going on a talk radio show Sunday night and calling Whipple “delusional” and “completely unprofessional.”

“I asked a question about your wife’s PAC,” Blubaugh said. “In no way is that a sexist comment.”

Blubaugh also condemned Whipple’s behavior at the ethics workshop.

“I’ve got to answer to my wife and my kids,” Blubaugh said. “My 6 year old is asking me, ‘Daddy, why is the mayor throwing papers at you on TV.’ I mean, it’s so unprofessional.”

The extraordinary exchange underscores the politically charged atmosphere of Wichita politics in the wake the 2019 election, which included an investigation into former Mayor Jeff Longwell for unreported gifts from contractors after he steered a $500 million contract to them and a dark-money smear campaign that falsely accused Whipple of sexual harassment.

Two Longwell allies — former Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell and former City Council member James Clendenin — resigned late last year after their involvement in the Whipple hit-piece was uncovered and Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett announced his plans to oust both officials. A third Wichita Republican official tied to the dark-money campaign, former Rep. Michael Capps, was removed from office by voters.

Upon election, Whipple promised to clean up City Hall and deliver ethics reform that placed limits on the gifts City Council members could receive. He also filed a defamation lawsuit against O’Donnell, Clendenin and Capps.

Whipple said Blubaugh’s trying to preserve the status quo.

“Frankly, I’m OK with an attack on me or an attack on me trying to have an actual ethics reform,” Whipple said in his Saturday video. “Like, if I was part of the good ol’ boys system, I also would be pushing back on the idea that the gravy train is going to stop. Sure. OK. I get that. But leave my wife out of it.”

Blubaugh said Whipple is politicizing a nonpartisan City Council. Whipple is a Democrat; Blubaugh is a Republican. The candidate’s party is not identified in City Council elections.

“We’re not trying to bring big city politics to here,” Blubaugh said. “I’ve worked fine with Mayor Brewer, worked fine with Mayor Longwell. We just don’t have partisan issues, so to try to create them is just setting Wichita back.”

PAC questions

Wichita’s Future PAC, founded on thousands of dollars in donations collected from Whipple’s inauguration gala in January 2020, has opened Whipple to criticism in light of his calls to end influence peddling at City Hall.

Political Action Committees are organizations that typically raise money privately to influence elections or legislation and have far higher contribution limits than political candidates, who are limited to $500 per donor.

To attend Whipple’s inauguration party, several organizations and individuals with interests in city business donated far more than $500 to Wichita’s Future PAC.

The Wichita police and fire unions each gave $2,500. The Building & Construction Trades Council gave $1,500. The Wichita/Hutchinson Labor Federation gave $1,000.

Wichita billionaire and Las Vegas casino magnate Phil Ruffin, who in 2016 bought a downtown Hyatt hotel from the city in 2016, gave $2,500. Lee Cross Jr., an Overland Park lawyer, gave $1,545. Through an LLC, developer Jeff Lange gave $1,500. McCownGordon Construction donated $1,500. Eddy’s Toyota, owned by Brandon Steven, chipped in another $1,500. ABC Recycling, owned by Michael Marks, added another $1,000.

By far the largest donor was Evergy, the state’s electricity utility company, which gave $5,000.

In total, Wichita’s Future PAC received $38,732.29 in January and February 2020.

Chelsea Whipple said the PAC was not created to help get Brandon Whipple re-elected or to sell access to the newly elected mayor.

“My intention is not to use any funds for anybody to gain access, and I highly take offense to that insinuation,” she said.

Instead, she said, she wants to use the money to pay for town hall meetings, policy research and voter-registration drives — to help people who don’t normally have access to elected officials navigate local, state and federal government officials.

“I love to engage everyday people,” Chelsea Whipple said. “People who want to know how government works, how they can get their voice heard — who’s responsible for what area of government, that kind of thing.”

Because it’s a PAC, Chelsea Whipple’s organization falls under the Kansas Campaign Finance Act and is not allowed to coordinate communications with candidates. It is also required to disclose its donors.

“We could have set up a nonprofit charity or an LLC, a sole proprietorship,” she said. “But we had just gotten attacked by an LLC, who was able to hide everything, and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to make sure that people could see every dime that comes and goes, so there would be nothing behind-the-scenes about it — that drives me crazy.”

Chelsea Whipple also said the PAC has never paid for any memes or political advertisements. Blubaugh has said he suspects former Whipple campaign worker Chris Pumpelly and political consultants at Ad Astra Group were paid to create several political memes poking fun at Republican candidates.

“That insinuation is ridiculous and disrespectful,” Chelsea Whipple said. “Wichita’s Future PAC was not set up to attack Republicans. That’s a completely false narrative, and it has never been done.”

Wichita’s Future PAC did pay Pumpelly and Ad Astra, campaign finance disclosures show. But there’s no mention of political ads or memes. For organizing and planning the inauguration party, Pumpelly was paid $3,152. Ad Astra Group received $5,000 in consulting fees last year for setting up a website that went live for the first time Monday and $3,000 for policy research on other PACs.

Chelsea Whipple said Wichita’s Future PAC did not accomplish much in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But she said she plans to do more in 2021.

Political games or policy debate?

Blubaugh and Whipple have each accused the other of playing political games with the city’s ethics policy.

Blubaugh, the longest serving member of the City Council, said on the John Whitmer Show Sunday night that Whipple is trying to score political points and bringing partisan fights to a nonpartisan city council.

The spat stems from a proposal to change the code of ethics for City Council members. Whipple wants limits on gifts and to create a city board to handle complaints.

Blubaugh told The Eagle he’s not opposed to updating the city’s code of ethics, but he wants to see significant changes beyond a cyberbullying provision that was included in the draft under consideration last week. Those changes:

▪ Prohibition of candidate-associated PACs accepting money from interested parties, such as the police and fire unions.

▪ Prohibition of paying political operatives out of a PAC to attack opponents.

▪ Appointment of the ethics commission chair by someone other than the mayor.

Blubaugh said another problem with the policy is that it was written by Whipple.

Whipple said the policy has been in the works for more than a year and at least four other council members, including Blubaugh, had input on the proposal during one-on-one meetings with City Manager Robert Layton.

Whipple said he is in favor of changing the city’s campaign finance laws but they should be considered separately from a new ethics policy. The primary change he wants to see in campaign finance law is to prohibit LLCs from contributing to candidates, an issue Blubaugh voted to allow in late 2015, along with Longwell, Clendenin and Pete Meitzner, who is now chair of the Sedgwick County Commission.

Whipple said the changes Blubaugh wants to add to the policy are either already covered by state campaign finance laws or are “blatantly unconstitutional” and would threaten the legitimacy of the rest of the ethics ordinance if included.

“It seems to me that (Blubaugh) is just trying to protect the feelings of his friends whose unethical behavior is the reason we need a new ethics policy in the first place,” Whipple said. “I can’t tell if he’s just trying to score political points or what.”

Whipple invited any city council members opposed to a new ethics policy to step down. That call came in response to a commenter on his Facebook live video, who wrote: “You exhaust your council members. Making them sit through your personal agendas so you can hear yourself talk. I’m sad for them.”

Replied Whipple: “You know, they can quit. If they don’t want to talk about ethics reform after we’ve seen members get pushed out after the DA did legitimate investigations that showed the possibility of criminal intent, I’d rather (have) people who want to be there to bring justice and accountability to City Hall than those who think it’s a bad use of their time.

“We can get people who want to do the job,” he continued. “If my personal agenda is to bring ethics to City Hall, fine. If people don’t like it, they can run against me and say ‘Hey we want to make sure that we have city hall with less ethical boundaries and barrier for city officials.’ If people want to run on that platform, we’ll see them do it.”

This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 10:17 AM.