Editor's note: Secretary of State Kris Kobach has dismissed this objection. An updated story will be posted shortly.
Thursday morning, Dr. Roger Marshall filed an Objection to the Candidacy of Timothy A. Huelskamp with the Kansas State Elections Board, based on alleged Kansas residency issues.
The objection points out that Rep. Huelskamp is “the only candidate for national office in the state not to disclose a residence, or even a ZIP code.”
Dr. Marshall is a Great Bend physician who is running against the Republic congressman in the upcoming primary.
Dr. Marshall’s complaint can be read online at
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B231LPEjPPG0ZmZKOXMxRm9qcFE/view
His complaint also noted that the Register of Deeds in Meade County does not list a single property in his name. Fowler, the city in which Huelskamp claims on the ballot to live in, is in Meade County. The objection also states that the address claimed on the congressman’s 2015 Federal Elections Commission document does not, in fact, belong to Huelskamp.
The Huelskamp campaign responded by calling on Dr. Marshall to “admit the claim he filed with the Secretary of State’s office is desperate and frivolous.”
“CEO Roger Marshall knows his campaign is going badly, and this is another desperate attempt to save his failing campaign,” said Jimmy Keady with Kansans for Huelskamp. “Claiming Tim doesn’t live in Kansas is as truthful as CEO Marshall’s claim that he is a 5th generation farmer.”
The Great Bend Tribune contacted the Secretary of State’s Office, where a spokesman confirmed the complaint had been filed shortly before noon. The office is reviewing the objection and will rule on whether or not it is valid. That ruling is not expected before Friday and could be next week.
The Secretary of State’s office lists the official primary candidates as Huelskamp and Marshall. However, the list won’t be certified until June 15.
The Kansas Secretary of State’s Candidate List for the 2016 Primary, available at: http://www.kssos.org/elections/elections_upcoming_candidate_display.asp,
Huelskamp’s “Candidate’s Declaration of Intention” form filed May 27 lists his residence as Fowler. It does not give an address.
The address Huelskamp provided in his 2015 FEC filings, 601 Church St., Fowler, is invalid, according to the complaint.
“Tim Huelskamp’s candidacy filings with both the Kansas Secretary of State and the Federal Elections Commission have either a false or no residency,” Marshall said in a news release. “Like most career politicians, he is hiding something, or he is lying. Either of which, in this case, disqualify him from being on the ballot.”
However, the Huelskamp campaign disagrees.
“Desperate Roger Marshall knows that Tim returns home to Kansas at the end of every week and spends the vast majority of his days in Kansas,” Keady said. “His kids are enrolled in school and play sports in Kansas. The family attends church in Kansas. He is properly registered to vote in Kansas and is a properly filed candidate for office.”
Keady continued, “Roger Marshall must be spending time trying to fabricate a charge against Congressman Huelskamp to distract from his own statements about his heart being drawn to Washington, and the fact he recently purchased a home in California. Tim Huelskamp’s heart is at home in Kansas. Unlike Roger Marshall, it’s the only place where he owns property.”
