The Spotlight's Red Glare

Two weeks ago, the Pitch reported on the legal troubles faced by Kansas Rep. Patricia Kilpatrick. Specifically, several of her landlords had filed lawsuits seeking back rent, various businesses had sued seeking damages for unpaid bills, and Kilpatrick had passed bad checks and been arrested for shoplifting ("Deficit Spending," June 15).

News of the Overland Park Republican's problems traveled fast. The Kansas City Star followed up with its own report a week later, and Kilpatrick called in to the KMBZ 980 show of afternoon personality Jerry Agar to defend herself on June 20. Her June 22 hearing in front of the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission for campaign finance violations was jammed with so many reporters that it looked like Angelina Jolie had brought baby Shiloh to Topeka for a visit.

As it turned out, Kilpatrick's year in the Legislature wasn't merely instructive on how not to behave as a state representative. Kilpatrick had, after all, been a key figure in one of the Legislature's highest-profile accomplishments: passage of Jessica's Law, which cracks down on sex offenders, mandating 25-year sentences for first-time child predators and life terms for third strikers.

That means Kilpatrick has been on the scene in a spectacular media explosion involving Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Attorney General Phill Kline, Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, and Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison. Also there was Mark Lunsford, the father of the law's 9-year-old namesake, a Florida girl murdered by a sex offender.

If for no other reason than this being Fourth of July week, the Pitch figured a celebration of the political fireworks was in order.

First, a history lesson.

Kilpatrick was the sole sponsor of Jessica's Law in Kansas. In February, she stood with Kline and Lunsford at the Capitol, urging legislators to pass her bill. On May 8, they did, voting overwhelmingly in favor.

On May 9, Kline's office issued a press release saluting the Legislature and encouraging the governor to sign the law. Kline made sure that he received his share of the kudos, heaping praise on himself for helping create the Cyber Crimes Task Force and lauding the work of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and local law- enforcement agencies.

"We have sent a clear message that Kansas will not be a safe haven for predators," Kline said in the statement. "Jessica's Law reinforces that stance by providing one of the toughest laws in the nation in terms of protecting our children."

Kline's confidence that Jessica's Law was "one of the toughest laws in the nation" seemed to grow a bit shaky, however, after O'Reilly butted into the debate on the May 23 episode of The O'Reilly Factor.

O'Reilly took issue with a provision that gives judges freedom in sentencing the offenders, ripping Sebelius for supposedly championing a weak bill. O'Reilly called Kansas' version of Jessica's Law "a hoax" and "a three-card monte," according to a transcript.

"The governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius — she does a big dog-and-pony show saying how tough she is to pass this law, and it is a farce," O'Reilly told his viewers. "And everybody in the country and Kansas should know it. And this woman is not being honest and not looking out for the kids."

O'Reilly had his civics — and his timeline — wrong. Sebelius can make recommendations to the Legislature but can only sign or veto laws if the Legislature puts them on her desk. And the "dog-and-pony show" had yet to happen.

Less than 24 hours after O'Reilly's premature rant, Sebelius signed Jessica's Law at the Johnson County Courthouse.

Joining her for the ceremonious photo op were Kline, Morrison and Kilpatrick.

Contacted by the Pitch, Sebelius' press secretary Nicole Corcoran defended the governor's role in passing Jessica's Law — and blamed the Legislature for inserting a provision that gives judges discretion in sentencing. "Vetoing the bill because of it [the provision] was certainly not an option the governor would take," Corcoran wrote in an e-mail.

Corcoran told the Pitch that neither O'Reilly nor his staff had contacted the governor's office prior to his initial attack. But they did afterward — and O'Reilly's focus shifted from the governor to the Legislature when Kline appeared on the June 6 Factor.

On the show, O'Reilly quizzed Kline about how Kansas, with a Republican-dominated Legislature, could possibly pass a version of Jessica's Law that gives judges the ability to impose shorter sentences.

Kline blamed a House committee of "moderate liberal Republicans and Democrats," saying they "gutted" the bill.

"There's reason to be concerned," Kline added, amping up the sex-offender fear factor. "And we need to do more in Kansas."

O'Reilly still couldn't figure out what had happened. He wanted to know why the bill was "gutted."

Kline fingered legislators, claiming that they were afraid mandatory minimum sentencing would overcrowd prisons, and that they preferred treatment for sex offenders instead of lengthy sentences.

"The bill that we actually passed is a dramatic improvement over current Kansas law, which has been weak," Kline conceded.

After his appearance with O'Reilly, Kline issued a much different press release than the one he had sent out in early May. This time, instead of encouraging the governor, Kline was calling her out.