Kansas Republicans have faced a pretty brutal election cycle. The discovery that candidate Michael Capps (R-Wichita) and sitting legislator was accused of improper behavior to young children. Then it was the arrest on election perjury of Adam Thomas in Olathe.
Now, after initial denials, another Republican has to admit that, yes, they had broken the law and been arrested for it. The admission, however, didn’t come easy, according to the Wichita Eagle:
Wichita House candidate Jim Price was arrested in May on his birthday because police suspected him of illegally possessing a gun and marijuana, law enforcement records show.
Price, who is running as a Republican against House Democratic Leader Jim Ward, initially said during an interview Tuesday that he had not been arrested on May 17. “No, not that I know of,” he replied.
Later in the interview, he refused to say whether police had arrested him.
Soon after the interview, his campaign Facebook page and website were no longer available.
This isn’t the first run-in with the law for Jim Price. In 2014, the Wichita Eagle turned up earlier run-ins with the law:
An east Wichita candidate for the state House has two criminal convictions on his record, one for participating in a 1990 gas station robbery and the other for interfering with law enforcement officers investigating his son’s small marijuana growing operation in 2012, according to court records.
The candidate, Jim Price, also has had unpaid debts and bad checks related to a failed construction business. Many of those debts were discharged when he filed for bankruptcy in 2004, although he has had at least two judgments against him since then.
After begging for Michael Capps to abandon the ballot, and wondering what Adam Thomas, now charged in a felony case, was doing, Kansas Republicans donors have to wonder: do you feel safe in a room with these guys?