Michael Capps (photo, left), 45, who served a single term in the Kansas legislator (2019-2021), will go to prison for stealing $475,000 of Covid relief funds (read story here).
Capps was convicted of falsifying Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP) and Small Business Administration (SBA) loan applications, among other things by claiming employees that didn’t exist (see story here).
Long before this happened he already had a checkered history that got him in trouble with the state child welfare agency, led to his being ostracized by his own party, and got him sued by a former employer. He also participated in a vicious smear campaign against a Wichita mayoral candidate. (Read details here.)
I can’t explain people like this. Where does such egregious lack of character come from? What I can say, though, is the Kansas Republican Party blew a chance to keep him out of politics, when questions were raised about whether he used a fake address to qualify for the ballot. Instead, Republican officials shut down that inquiry.