The overwhelming majority of Senator Marci Francisco’s campaign funds over the past 4 years have come from special interest groups and political action committees (PACs), and the funds raised for her reelection campaign this year are no exception. Most of these PACs do not come from Lawrence, as expected, but some of her biggest donations aren’t even coming from Kansas!
Most notably, she received $1,500 for her primary campaign from the power and light company of Florida – the same company Douglas County contracted for a proposed wind turbine development that residents shot down earlier this year! (See this video by the Lawrence Beat for a refresher on the controversy.) How can Senator Francisco still claim to represent the people of Douglas County when she is taking donations from companies that want to skirt the will of the people?
Stay tuned for part 3, where we will examine her voting record on taxes.
Transcript
Hello, I’m David Miller. I’m running for the Kansas Senate in the 2nd District here in Lawrence.
This is the second in our part on “Marci’s Money.”
We’re reviewing the Senator’s record regarding campaign finance and some of her legislative record.
And I might just note that when you’re campaigning against a 20-year incumbent – someone who has been in the senate for five terms,
The real issue is, has the incumbent represented you or has the incumbent not represented you?
That’s why I’m bringing you this special report.
I wanted- in the first installment I reviewed her campaign finance reports for years 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Today, I wanted to look at some of the figures that were reported to the Governmental Ethics Commission for 2024.
And in the first seven months of 2024, she took in $34,749 in contributions.
She did receive, in this report, several contributions from individuals with Lawrence addresses,
But the amount of money that came in from Lawrence addresses compared to the amount of money that came from PACs is very, very small.
I was particularly interested to look at some of the contributions that she had received in 2024…
Something called the Kansas Agribusiness Council gave her $1,000…
A pipefitters’ political fund gave her $1,000…
Once again, Delta Dental of Kansas, who we had seen on the earlier reports, gave her $1,000…
The Farm Bureau Vote Fund gave her $1,000…
The Kansas Beer Wholesalers gave her $1,000…
The Independent Telecom PAC gave her $1,000…
And several others. So she has received tremendous amounts of money.
She also had something very curious on her report,
She said that she got a “refund” – I don’t know what that means – for some $6,300-plus.
And she received $1,000 from a couple of lobbyists at the same address in Topeka.
So the point is, is that in all these reports,
It’s very clear that she has received tremendous amounts of money from various and sundry political action committees.
But I thought the one that was most interesting in her campaign against Representative Haswood,
…was this report which came in when there was only two or three days left in the campaign for the primary.
This is a special report that has to be prepared and submitted if you receive a contribution in excess of $300 real late in the campaign period.
And in this report, the Senator received from NextEra Energy Resources of Juno Beach, Florida: $500.
And she also received from NextEra Energy Transmission Southwest at the same address: $1,000.
Those on 29th and 30th of July.
I looked on the Internet to see what “NextEra Energy” is,
And it’s the state of Florida- in the state of Florida, it’s the power and light company.
Why is the Florida power and light company sending $1,500 at the last minute to Senator Francisco?
I think it’s a question that should be asked and answered, and that’s why I’m doing this series on Marci’s money.
Thank you again for listening. I’m David Miller, my website is davidgmiller.com.
This is, of course, sponsored by Kansans for David G Miller, Michelle Eagleman treasurer.