Commentary: Kobach’s plan would cut law enforcement to fund political lawsuits

During a candidate forum for the Kansas attorney general’s race, Kris Kobach made a surprising proposal: cutting the attorney general’s budget and creating a new division within the office for political, agenda-driven lawsuits.

If enacted, Kobach’s proposal would take funding away from law enforcement and use it so the state can hire more politically connected lawyers.

I am a conservative. I have always been and always will be a fiscal conservative.

I know that every dime the government spends comes from and belongs to the taxpayers. That’s why as attorney general, I will never ask the Legislature to raise your taxes. I will do the best job keeping Kansas safe with whatever resources I am given.

But the attorney general’s office has limited resources. The attorney general is the chief law enforcement official for the state.

The vast majority of counties in this state don’t have the resources to prosecute rape and murder cases, let alone election fraud, terrorism, or public corruption.

The attorney general’s office must assist those counties by investigating and prosecuting those difficult and resource-intensive cases. My opponents don’t understand this because unlike me, neither of them has ever worked in the attorney general’s office.

In addition to working in the attorney general’s office, I served my country as a federal prosecutor.

I deployed to Baghdad as a civilian and prosecuted America’s enemies. I deployed to Guantanamo Bay, where I prosecuted the al Qaeda terrorist responsible for the USS Cole bombing. I ran operations that thwarted and prosecuted both domestic and international terrorists right here in Kansas.

The whole time, I worked alongside law enforcement from all walks of life. I stand with law enforcement because they are the thin blue line between us and the horrors I’ve seen during my nearly three decades as a prosecutor.

I know that prosecutors, sheriffs, and police chiefs across our state are under-resourced and under siege.

Murder is at an all-time high in Kansas. Violent crime is surging. Law enforcement needs more support, not less.

Make no mistake, Kobach is proposing that we move resources away from the law enforcement mission of the attorney general’s office. If he wants to downsize the office while simultaneously creating a new division for political stunts, he’ll have to make cuts — deep cuts — to the rest of the office.

To be clear, the next attorney general will have to continue pushing back against the Biden administration’s overreach. But when I’m your attorney general, that litigation will be focused and precise. It will be strategic and designed to achieve the maximum benefit for Kansans, and it will be handled by me and the skilled attorneys in the AG’s Office – not by overpaid out-of-state cronies brought in to pursue political agendas.

And most importantly, I will not allow that litigation to take resources away from our Kansas law enforcement officers.

Kobach’s proposal would do exactly that.

If you ask me, that sounds an awful lot like defunding the police.