Throughout this series, I’ve shown how Senator Marci Francisco has all the hallmarks of a corrupt career politician who ignores her constituents while enriching herself. And her latest campaign finance report released earlier this week somehow manages to reveal even worse corruption. Not only has she continued to accept thousands from special interests, political action committees (PACs), and big out-of-state corporations, she is now accepting donations that exceed what campaign finance law allows, as well as refunding individual donors in favor of special interest money!
The distinction couldn’t be any clearer. Marci Francisco is running to represent corporations, PACs, the establishment, and herself. I am running to represent you – the people of Lawrence.
Transcript
Hello, my name is David Miller, and this is an added segment to our series called “Marci’s Money.”
Over the course of the campaign, I have recorded four videos discussing the senator’s campaign finance reports,
As well as some legislative activity.
In this edition, I want to bring you up to date on the most recent campaign finance report filed earlier this week.
(I’m recording this video on Friday morning.)
In the prior sessions of Marci’s Money,
Last session, I discussed the fact that she and other legislative leaders managed to manipulate the process to get a 93% pay increase approved.
They did it in such a way, as you will hear in that video, that there wasn’t a straight up vote on the increase.
They simply created a special body and gave them the power to give them a big pay increase.
Pretty disgusting, frankly.
And in the prior session, I discuss the tax cut bill which passed on the special session in 2024.
The Senator didn’t vote for that tax cut.
So she got a 93% pay increase, but she wasn’t in favor of us getting a tax cut.
In the first two episodes of Marci’s Money, I discussed her campaign finance reports from the past four years.
I’ve dealt only with what she’s collected from PACs and special interests in this one 4-year term.
Of course, in prior terms she amassed tens of thousands of dollars of special interest and PAC money anyway.
And I noted in the earlier reports that an overwhelming percentage of her money came from PACs.
Well, the final report is now in, and really, nothing changed.
In fact, from my perspective it got even worse.
Looking at her campaign finance report, I see that she received money from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, $500.
A lot of Kansans pay a lot of premiums to Blue Cross Blue Shield,
It’s kind of surprising that we’re paying money so they can make campaign contributions to politicians.
AT&T, the giant telecommunications organization, gave her $500 from their corporate funds, $500 from their tax funds…
(from their tax on us funds)
There’s also quite a bit of money coming from out-of-state energy concerns.
I see there’s something called Energy Transfer from Austin, Texas – they gave her $500…
Sinclair gave her $500…
Pretty typical organizations like the Kansas Bankers’ Association gave her $500…
The Kansas Realtors gave her $800…
The Kansas Beer wholesalers gave her $1000 – the maximum…
And they had also given her $1,000 earlier in the year…
And most interesting: Delta Dental of Kansas gave her $1,000.
That brought to $3,000 the amount of money that Delta Dental of Kansas had given Senator Francisco.
That’s a violation of the law. The law says that you can give $1,000 in each campaign cycle.
The Primary is a cycle, the General is a cycle. So in two cycles, the limit would be $2,000.
They gave her $3,000, which she had in her campaign account to help defeat Senator Haswood.
When she was safely renominated, why- she managed to give that extra thousand back to Delta Dental,
But she had the money from them when she needed it.
Also interesting to me is somebody named Phil Ruffin from Wichita, contributed another $1,000 to the Senator.
As you may recall, he is the Las Vegas casino operator, and he has had several business deals involving somebody named Donald Trump.
She also received more money from Next Era Resources, which is a which is a Florida-based power and light company.
I really wonder why a Florida-based power and light company is putting thousands and thousands of dollars into a Kansas Senator.
The point is, she has amassed nearly $100,000 in contributions in this 4-year term,
And nearly 90% of it came from PACs and special interests.
As a matter of fact, she had so much money in this campaign, that she went back to people who had contributed to her in July,
And she made substantial refunds – nearly $4,000 in refunds!
These people gave her this money to campaign, and now she’s turning around and giving it back to them?
It’s really, really suspicious.
As I said at the outset, the issue is, who does she represent?
Does she represent us? Does she deserve another term in the Kansas Senate?
I think, clearly there are questions that should be asked and answered.
I’m sorry that the local media seems to pay no attention to these matters,
But I’ve done my best to bring them to your attention and to let you know what’s going on.
It has been a tremendous privilege to go and meet people at their front door all over the Kansas 2nd district here in Lawrence.
I think I’ve been at at least 7,000 doors since July,
And I have had many, many wonderful conversations – some disturbing conversations – but people have been very nice, very supportive,
And I’m very thankful to God and to them that i had the opportunity to make this race.
I’m David Miller, thank you for listening and watching this last video for the campaign.
I’m looking forward to having a great time hereafter.
This is David Miller,
My campaign website is davidgmiller.com,
And this of course is sponsored by Kansans for David G. Miller, Michelle Eagleman treasurer.
Thank you.