Phill Kline
TOPEKA, Kan. - The attorney for outgoing Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, facing a $5,000 fine from the state's Government Ethics Commission, says he doesn't believe Kline committed any wrongdoing. "I don't think the allegation has any merit, because I don't believe there is any violation of the campaign finance law," Tuck Duncan, a Topeka attorney representing Kline, told the Associated Press. The GEC alleges that in September, Kline used or authorized the use of state computers to copy and forward e-mail addresses to "expressly advocate" his re-election. People who signed up for e-mail updates from Kline's office about a new state law allowing Kansans to carry concealed handguns also received e-mails from his campaign's Web site, according to Harris New Service. But Duncan said there was "no factual basis" to allege that e-mails specifically urging people to vote for Kline were sent from state computers. "In terms of the question of law, this is a really minor issue," Duncan told the AP. Kline will leave office Jan. 8 to switch jobs with the man who defeated him in November's attorney general's race, Paul Morrison, by taking over as district attorney of Johnson County. His appointment is controversial because Kline received just 35 percent of the vote in Johnson County last month.