Kansas Senate Chamber
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has passed a bill abolishing political action committees formed by legislative leaders in both parties after a bitter partisan debate.
Republicans used their supermajority to push the bill through the chamber Thursday on a 31-6 vote, sending the measure to the House.
Democrats opposed the measure, seeing it as an attempt by GOP majorities to hamstring the minority party’s fundraising efforts in a Republican-leaning state. GOP senators said the bill is a good-government measure.
Senate Democrats and House Democrats have leadership PACs.
There’s a Senate Republican PAC, but it’s controlled by GOP moderates, who once led the Senate but were ousted from power in 2012. House Republicans have no PAC.
A 2000 law prohibited legislators from forming new PACs, but it didn’t abolish existing ones.