National group says Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline is breaking the law

This story got lost in the shuffle, but is still worth noting. The head of a national watchdog group says Attorney General Phill Kline did break the law when he used email addresses collected by his state office to ask for campaign donations.

People submitted their email addresses in order to be kept up to date on changes in the law and programs that are part of the Attorney General's official duties. Kline used the addresses to send an email asking for donations to his re-election campaign. Harris News Service reports:

Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen in Washington, D.C., said the practice gives an unfair advantage to incumbents over their challengers, who wouldn't have access to such lists of e-mail addresses.

She also said her group was "shocked" that the state's Governmental Ethics Commission considers such e-mails permissible under state law.