{ "archive_path": "archive/1791576008.74085", "base_url": "www.ms.now/news/roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash", "basename": "roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash", "bookmarked_date": "2026-10-09 20:00", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.ms.now/news/roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.ms.now", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.ms.now/news/roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash.html" }, "domain": "www.ms.now", "extension": "", "hash": "8QG55QRJ65984097Z9R1", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.ms.now" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:05.515361+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791576008.74085", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:04.975486+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.ms.now/news/roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:06.063825+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791576008.74085", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:05.525254+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.ms.now/news/roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:35.317284+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791576008.74085", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:30.772462+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpiwy7s7j9", "https://www.ms.now/news/roger-marshall-blurring-line-taxpayer-dollars-campaign-cash" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-10-10T01:21:30.760071+00:00", "index_texts": [ "Editor\u2019s note: This story is a collaboration between Kansas Reflector and MS NOW.\n\n\n\nAs Sen. Roger Marshall fights for his political life in Kansas, a staffer for Democrat Adam Hamilton \u2014 Marshall\u2019s opponent \u2014 has been needling the Republican senator\u2019s staff with an unusual question: Are any of you getting paid?\n\n\n\n\n\nAccording to Marshall\u2019s most recent Federal Election Commission records filed in July, no one working for Marshall\u2019s campaign had received a paycheck in the past five years \u2014 a situation that campaign finance experts said was potentially unprecedented in the modern era of politics.\n\n\n\nBut according to Marshall\u2019s chief of staff, Brent Robertson, the campaign now does have some paid staff, though he declined to offer evidence or details, such as how many people were being paid or when their employment began.\n\n\n\nStill, campaign experts say the situation raises questions about the line between Marshall\u2019s campaign and his taxpayer-funded Senate office.\u00a0\n\n\n\nIn a joint investigation, Kansas Reflector and MS NOW obtained audio recordings, photos, videos, screenshots of text messages and calendar items from 2020 \u2014 when Marshall first ran for his Senate seat \u2014 that appear to show the senator and his top aide repeatedly using congressional staff and government resources in ways that experts say likely crossed the line between official business and campaigning.\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\nAccording to the Members\u2019 Congressional Handbook, if the \u201cprimary purpose\u201d of a trip is for a non-official event or purpose, \u201cthe office cannot schedule official activities around the non-official event/purpose to make the travel eligible for congressional offices to be reimbursed.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nBut the materials obtained by Kansas Reflector and MS NOW show the office repeatedly testing that principle during Marshall\u2019s 2020 campaign \u2014 and multiple former staffers recounted instances when the office seemed to function more as a campaign arm than a taxpayer-funded Senate office.\u00a0\n\n\n\nAfter promising to \u201cmeaningfully\u201d respond to a detailed list of questions if Kansas Reflector and MS NOW extended its deadline for comment, Ryan Dollar, a lawyer for the Marshall campaign, sent a statement that did not address the questions.\n\n\n\n\u201cThe Marshall campaign will not share, nor has any obligation to share campaign operations information with our opponent\u2019s reporters, and Kansans know that Senator Marshall and his team fully comply with both FEC rules and Senate ethics while fighting for Kansas,\u201d Dollar wrote, claiming the story came from \u201ca disgruntled employee.\u201d\n\n\n\nThere are real questions, however, whether Marshall and his team have fully complied with all FEC and congressional ethics rules.\n\n\n\nAt one point in the more than 200 texts reviewed, Robertson successfully arranges a single official meeting in Chicago and then instructs staff that the entire campaign trip would now be deemed \u201cOfficial,\u201d allowing them to book flights for Marshall using taxpayer funds.\n\n\n\n\n\nAccording to the 2020 calendar items, many of the trips Marshall expensed to his Members\u2019 Representational Allowance \u2014 the taxpayer-funded account used to operate congressional offices \u2014 included campaign events. The staff had a color-coded system to delineate what was an official meeting and what was campaign-related.\n\n\n\nDuring one trip to Oklahoma at the end of September 2020, according to notes one former staffer took, Marshall used his leadership PAC to pay for his flights. Robertson, however, booked hotels and paid for restaurant meals with the MRA.\n\n\n\nA trip to Dallas the next month, in October 2020, warranted Marshall using campaign funds to book flights, according to the notes. But he used taxpayer dollars for a meal, despite the only official event on his calendar being a Zoom meeting. In contrast, a screenshot of his color-coded calendar shows his attendance at a Cowboys v. Giants game, three meetings and a fundraising dinner all marked as political events.\n\n\n\nWhen staff objected at one point to booking what appeared to be a campaign trip using official government funds, Robertson told them they could blame him if they were ever deposed, according to a text message a former staffer sent their mother at the time.\n\n\n\nDuring one text exchange, after Robertson was asked whether the primary purpose of a trip was official or campaign, the chief of staff wrote: \u201cPrimary purpose is what we say it is.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nDuring another exchange, a staffer asked for more details about a dinner at a steakhouse in Dodge City, Kansas.\u00a0\n\n\n\n\u201cWas any other staff eating at the Prime on Nine? They\u2019re questioning the $170 price tag for 2,\u201d the staffer asked Robertson.\n\n\n\n\u201cWho is they,\u201d Robertson asked. He ultimately declared \u201cthere\u2019s no statutory limit on what I can spend on meals.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cApprove it,\u201d he wrote.\n\n\n\nExperts noted there is a statutory limit on what government employees can spend on food, and it is \u201cnot to exceed the daily rate for meals\u201d that is established yearly by the General Services Administration. For Kansas in 2020, it was $55.\n\n\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\nIn another text exchange, Robertson claims he got clarification that the office only needs one official meeting to allow it to use taxpayer funds to travel for a slate of campaign events.\n\n\n\n\u201cWe have a lot more leash than even I thought. Go ahead and book Philly for Doc,\u201d Robertson wrote about a March 2020 trip to Philadelphia for Marshall, whom staffers refer to as \u201cDoc.\u201d \u201cThere is no ratio system at all.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cWill literally need one official meeting per trip,\u201d Robertson wrote.\n\n\n\nCampaign finance experts disputed Robertson\u2019s interpretation.\n\n\n\nCraig Holman, a campaign finance and government ethics expert at Public Citizen \u2014 a nonprofit consumer rights and good government group founded by Ralph Nader \u2014 said these accounts of Marshall and his office\u2019s \u201cblatant disregard\u201d for congressional ethics rules are \u201cboth breathtaking and seemingly very damning of Marshall\u2019s character.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cNot only do many of the travel events strongly suggest deliberate violations of the law, but even off-the-cuff remarks by staff show an intentionality of these infractions and efforts to cover them up from public view,\u201d Holman said.\n\n\n\n\u201cFederal law and congressional ethics rules are very clear that government resources pay for official travel related to congressional duties, and campaign funds and personal budgets must be used to pay for the campaign or personal components of congressional travel,\u201d Holman said, adding that Marshall appears to have used taxpayer dollars for \u201call aspects of campaign trips and personal travel.\u201d\n\n\n\nBrett Kappel, a lawyer at Harmon Curran who\u2019s an authority on campaign finance, said contrary to Robertson\u2019s assertion, \u201cstaff do not, actually, have a long leash\u201d on the use of official funds for campaign purposes.\n\n\n\n\u201cThere are a few, very limited, and very specific exceptions that permit the use of official resources for campaign purposes,\u201d Kappel said, quoting a House Ethics memo on campaign activity.\n\n\n\nThe text messages also reference Marshall\u2019s transportation to Florida, where his house in Sarasota has become a campaign issue.\n\n\n\n\n\nAt one point in the texts, Robertson instructs staff to fly Marshall \u201cfrom Kansas to Sarasota as a stopover in the future.\u201d\n\n\n\nWhere Marshall primarily lives has become an issue in his re-election campaign. During a debate last month at the Kansas State Fair, as Marshall talked about his $1.2 million Florida home, a combative crowd chanted, \u201cYou don\u2019t live here!\u201d\n\n\n\nThe texts show staff repeatedly navigating Marshall\u2019s unique travel demands. The Kansas City Star reported in August that Marshall took at least 14 official trips through Sarasota between 2021 and 2024, costing taxpayers $18,886, according to the Star\u2019s analysis of travel expenses reported by Marshall\u2019s office to the Secretary of the Senate.\n\n\n\n\nMarshall\u2019s office told MS NOW on Thursday for a separate story that Marshall had sold his Florida home. As of Friday, the Zillow listing for the house, which had a list price of $1.45 million, said \u201caccepting backups.\u201d\n\n\n\nRobertson has also been the subject of his own commuting controversy. A Politico investigation last year reported that he charged taxpayers $44,000 over the course of two years for expenses related to commuting from his home in Lynchburg, Virginia, to his workplace in Washington, D.C. Public records show the total is now more than $71,000.\n\n\n\n\n\nStanley Brand, an attorney who served as House general counsel under Speaker Tip O\u2019Neill, told Politico he had \u201cnever\u201d heard of a similar arrangement, though Marshall\u2019s office said the expensing was \u201cin full accordance and approval of Senate ethics, rules, and guidelines.\u201d\n\n\n\nA 2020 meeting Kansas Reflector and MS NOW were able to review, however, offered an example of Marshall himself potentially violating those ethics, rules and guidelines.\n\n\n\nMARSHALL\u2019S \u2018PEP TALK\u2019\n\n\n\nOn Oct. 13, 2020, Marshall texted senior staff on his official and campaign side to set up a \u201cpep talk\u201d with \u201ceveryone.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cYes everybody,\u201d Marshall wrote.\n\n\n\n\n\nGovernment ethics experts said that meeting appears to have violated federal ethics rules that prohibit the use of \u201cofficial resources\u201d for campaign purposes.\n\n\n\nBoth congressional and campaign staff \u2014 many using taxpayer-funded equipment like cellphones and computers \u2014 were summoned to the \u201cMANDATORY ALL-STAFF CALL,\u201d as it appeared in their official email calendars. And video of the Oct. 14, 2020, Zoom call shows Marshall and his congressional aides discussing the status of his campaign.\n\n\n\nThroughout the call, Marshall talks about a campaign sign shortage and what door-knockers are hearing on the ground. He also asks his campaign manager for \u201ctalking points\u201d and \u201chelpful hints\u201d for dealing with voters who were concerned about healthcare.\n\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\n\nSome staff felt the Zoom call was such a clear-cut violation of ethics rules that they were compelled to document their concerns.\u00a0\n\n\n\n\u201cSending this message as a reference that we objected to this illegal (activity) and that I raised it with our superiors and noted that it is not permissible per the above ethics statute,\u201d Marshall\u2019s legislative director at the time, Michael Brooks, texted another congressional staffer.\n\n\n\n\n\nBrooks didn\u2019t respond to inquiries for this story.\n\n\n\nHolman said the Oct. 13 meeting \u201cclearly crosses the line into illegal behavior.\u201d\u00a0\n\n\n\n\u201cMembers of Congress and all of their staff are thoroughly briefed against mixing office time and official resources with campaign duties,\u201d he said. \u201cAll staff are given step-by-step instructions on how to honor the wall between official duties and campaign activities.\u201d\u00a0\n\n\n\n\u201cThat would be why Marshall\u2019s staff was acutely aware that the staff \u2018pep talk\u2019 about the campaign on official time was not legally permissible,\u201d Holman continued. \u201cBoth Marshall and the staff may be held liable for that violation.\u201d\n\n\n\nMarshall is currently in a close Senate race with Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton, who leads the nation\u2019s largest United Methodist congregation. Recent polling has shown the race essentially tied, turning a reliably red Senate seat into a competitive contest. And while Hamilton\u2019s campaign has outraised Marshall in donations, national Republicans are pouring money into Kansas to protect Marshall. No Democrat from Kansas has won a Senate seat since 1932.\n\n\n\n\n\nMarshall has also faced intense scrutiny following a New York Times report about lawsuits filed against former patients over unpaid medical bills. His campaign has pushed back aggressively against the allegations, with a spokeswoman for Marshall saying he spent decades caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay.\n\n\n\n\u201cJudges issue warrants when people repeatedly miss court dates, not doctors,\u201d Payton Fuller, the communications director for Marshall\u2019s office, wrote in a statement.\n\n\n\nBut even that response underscores the unusual overlap between Marshall\u2019s official office and his campaign: Fuller is both a current congressional staffer \u2014 earning a taxpayer-funded salary \u2014 and an unpaid campaign volunteer spokeswoman. For that separate story involving Marshall\u2019s Florida property, MS NOW reached out to a generic press email for the campaign. Fuller wrote back, from her campaign email, as \u201ccommunications director for Senator Roger Marshall.\u201d\n\n\n\nAmid Marshall\u2019s close race, the idea that he wouldn\u2019t have any paid staff gave government ethics and campaign finance experts pause.\n\n\n\nOne expert noted that Marshall had somehow been operating a campaign with surprisingly few expenses. According to his FEC reports, Marshall only spent $206,869 on his campaign from the beginning of 2025 until August \u2014 the last reporting period.\n\n\n\n\n\n\u201cFor a Senate campaign, it is extremely uncommon for there not to be expenses for campaign staff and countless other normal campaign expenses,\u201d said Kedric Payne, the vice president and general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center.\n\n\n\nHe added that senators may be subject to criminal penalties if they or anyone in their office misuses official funds with their knowledge. 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