The American Civil Liberties Union is defending a flyer it mailed comparing the civil rights records of the leading Republican candidates for Kansas governor, calling it voter education.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach pointed to the flyer in seeking to portray Gov. Jeff Colyer as the ACLU’s “man” during a Tuesday fundraiser.
The flyer states that Colyer supported a bipartisan education package which protected funding for students with disabilities and backed efforts to make public records more available while Kobach did not. It stated that neither candidate to protect discrimination against people who live an LGBT lifestyle.
Colyer’s campaign distanced itself from the civil rights group, calling it a dirty trick to help Kobach and ensure that Democrats and the ACLU have an easier opponent to defeat in the general election just as they’ve defeated Kobach in the courtroom.
The ACLU has won several lawsuits against Kobach over voting rights.
Kobach is mounting a threat from the far right to unseat Colyer in a Republican primary in which the candidates seek to burnish their conservative credentials.