Overland Park.  A State Committee meeting of the Kansas Republican Party was held Saturday on the Sprint Campus.

The main business item was approval of a new state party platform.

The following video shows comments from several members of the platform committee:

Excerpts from the video:

John Bradford, Lansing: “Today we are going to vote on the party platform, which is a very conservative platform.”

Ed O’Brien, Tonganoxie: “There was a lot of input from across the state.”

Kathy Kist, Olathe: “It states a lot of principles very clearly that Republicans need to stand for in order to show, especially to Tea Party activists, that there’s a very big difference between a Democrat and a Republican. Right now we have a very pro-life, pro-America, pro-military, pro-small government, low taxes platform.”

Peggy Mast, Emporia (Committee Chair): “When I stood here before the state committee and stated that if I didn’t believe that we had as good of product as in the past, I personally would vote against it. I’m standing here today saying, I support this platform.”

Ryan Kriegshauser, Gardner: “I think that a lot of people are concerned about the economic situation that we’re in right now. Deregulating, allowing businesses to grow and prosper, and basically the government getting out of our way, is an important message to send out there and I think people will be receptive to it.”

Resolutions

The Republican central committee passed three resolutions, which were related to the platform.

We reported discussion of these resolutions live on Twitter @KansasWatchdog on Saturday:

3:22 PM @KansasWatchdog: KS GOP passes resolution on voice vote about repeal of 2010 federal healthcare takeover on basis of its unconstitutionality

3:23 PM @KansasWatchdog: KS GOP passes resolution to hold elected public servants accountable to the Constitution.

3:26 PM @KansasWatchdog: Third resolution is about printing platform in state party handbook. In Jan. there was confusion about statements printed in handbook.
3:41 PM @KansasWatchdog: 3rd Resolution passed after amendment to print using private funds.

FEC Audit and Debt

Kansas Republican Party Treasurer Steve Fitzgerald first announced an FEC audit problem at the state party meeting in Salina last June.

Fitzgerald did not mention the Federal Election Commission audit in his formal presentation, but we caught up with him after the meeting and asked him for an update.

The video below shows Fitzgerald’s response about the audit, along with his comments about the party’s debt from his report during the meeting:

Excerpts from Fitzgerald’s comments:

FEC Audit

• “[the audit] has been completed.   It’s up with the regulators [FEC].”
• “We have a very good clue as to what’s in the audit. It just hasn’t been approved.”
• “I can’t make any statement about it.”
• “It’s been with them [the FEC] for about six weeks or more.”
• ” I think they have bigger fish to fry.”

Debt

• “It’s appropriate that we eliminate all our debt.”
• “We will attempt to stay, in fact we’re supposed to stay, debt free from here on.”
• “If we’re going to lead in the political arena, we’re going to have lead by demonstrating what fiscal responsibility actually is.”

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Related:

• Kansas Republican Party State Platform (2010)
• Kansas Democratic Party State Platform (2006)

• Audio:  Rep. Dennis Moore’s wife may run for office, Kansas Watchdog, Feb. 28, 2010.
• Kansas Republican Party Treasurer Explains FEC Reporting Problems (video), Kansas Watchdog, Jan. 31, 2010.
• Federal Elections Commission auditing Kansas Republican Party, Lawrence Journal-World, Jan. 28, 2010.
• Federal Election Commission fines Kansas Republican Party $500, Kansas Watchdog, Dec. 24, 2009.

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Contact: Earl F Glynn, earl@kansaswatchdog.org, KansasWatchdog.org