Milton Wolf questions Brownback administration via Twitter over private e-mail use | The Wichita Eagle

Former Senate hopeful Milton Wolf has taken to Twitter to chide Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration for sharing a draft of the governor’s budget proposal with lobbyists three weeks before its public unveiling.

In a pair of tweets Saturday morning, Wolf, a Johnson County radiologist who unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in the Republican primary last August, dismissed the administration’s official explanation about why it used private e-mails to share budget plans. He compared what the governor’s office did with former IRS official Lois Lerner’s use of private e-mails to conduct official business.

U.S. House Republicans passed a bill in September to prohibit IRS officials from using personal e-mail accounts to conduct official business in response to the use of private e-mail by Lerner, an official who was accused of unfairly targeting Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny.

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Wolf also criticized the Brownback administration’s explanation for why it included David Kensinger and Mark Dugan, two former aides turned lobbyists, in budget talks.

Earlier in the week, Wolf expressed doubts about Brownback’s budget director Shawn Sullivan’s claim that he used his private e-mail address because he was home for the holiday.

Brownback defended the inclusion of lobbyists in budget talks.

“I said in the State of the State we consulted broadly. We consulted government officials, business and industry. I asked a lot of people, ‘What do you think we should do?’ And they were frank with their suggestions,” Brownback said Friday morning at the Capitol.