Kansas freshman Rep. Watkins, plagued by missteps, mum about thousands in legal fees
Steve Watkins was a mystery to many Kansas Republicans when he emerged from obscurity to win a congressional seat in 2018. As he finishes his first year, the list of questions facing the freshman lawmaker keeps growing by the day.
Since eking out a 1-percentage point general election win — bailed out by a presidential visit and millions from national GOP groups — the Army veteran with graduate degrees from Harvard and MIT has bounced from one headache to the next. There has been staff turmoil, a voter fraud investigation based on questions about his residency, a foreclosure lawsuit and rumors that he was preparing to step down after a whisper campaign in Republican circles about his personal life.
Now, there is also evidence that Watkins could be grappling with an investigation by the Federal Elections Commission.
Watkins’ campaign filings show payments of $25,000 to Wiley Rein, one of Washington’s top campaign finance law firms, since December of 2018.
The spending is related to an FEC investigation, according to two sources who requested anonymity. Neither the congressman, nor his campaign will explain the reason for the high legal fees.
“Campaigns employ attorneys,” Watkins said this month when asked specifically if the payments were related to an enforcement matter from the Federal Election Commission.
Watkins’ first payment of $10,000 to the firm occurred last Dec. 31, just weeks after his election and the final day of the two-year 2018 campaign finance cycle.
He made four additional payments to the firm from June through September of this year, totaling $14,719. Watkins won’t have to disclose his spending for October through December until next month.
The legal expenses are strikingly high for a non-election year.
Kansas Republican Rep. Ron Estes spent $1,222 on legal services during the same period. Kansas Republican Rep. Roger Marshall and freshman Kansas Democratic Rep. Sharice Davids have paid nothing for legal fees so far this cycle.
Since October, Watkins’ campaign has rebuffed multiple requests to explain the spending. In a statement issued this week, a spokesman touted his voting record but did not address questions about the legal bills.
“While some choose to spend their days trying to discredit Congressman Watkins’ conservative record, he is fighting tirelessly in Washington to pass USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) and defend President Trump from the Democrats’ baseless impeachment witch hunt,” Bryan Piligra, the campaign’s spokesman, said in a statement.
As a policy the Federal Election Commission does not comment on potential or pending investigations started internally until it takes an enforcement action, a spokeswoman said. The commission currently lacks the four-member quorum, which means it cannot make any decisions about pending cases.
Watkins’ campaign received a letter in March from the FEC regarding a failure to disclose transfers from the Watkins Victory Committee in 2018. The campaign responded a month later, saying it had made “best efforts to obtain and disclose the full identification of all individuals who contribute in excess of $200 in an election cycle.”
Watkins’ spent heavily from his own pocket in 2018, loaning his campaign more than $475,000. He has forgiven nearly half of this loan without repaying himself.
His 2019 personal financial disclosure form showed that he liquidated shares in more than 40 stocks, which individually ranged in value from $1 to $15,000.
His office said this reflected the money that Watkins steered into the 2018 race.
The congressman’s father, Steve Watkins, Sr., a Topeka physician, also poured big money into the contest, placing more than $760,000 into a super PAC to support his son in a crowded seven-way primary.
It’s difficult to know what, if anything, may ultimately come of the possible FEC probe. At a minimum, however, it is one more reason for Kansas Republican leaders to wonder whether Watkins will ever find his footing as legal matters pile up during the final months of the year.
He “still has a lot of work to do to gain the trust” of party activists, said Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican chair who oversaw the party in 2018.
“There have been these little snafus that have got people looking a bit more about whether he’s the best candidate.”
‘Completely out of character’
GOP doubts about Watkins’ legitimacy swirled from the beginning.
He grew up in Topeka, but spent most of his adult life in Alaska, where he still owns two properties, and Massachusetts, where his wife resides. He was more than a political novice. He’d never even voted— in Kansas or any state —before declaring his candidacy for Congress.
His partisan affiliation seemed fluid at best. He met with Democratic officials in Shawnee County about a potential run for Kansas’ 2nd congressional district before declaring his candidacy as a Republican months later.
The Democrats who met with Watkins said at the time he presented himself as a socially liberal mainstream Democrat. People who knew Watkins before his congressional had the same impressions.
Jen Ryan, a New York-based actress and executive assistant, matched with Watkins on Tinder in 2014. He was living in Alaska at the time and unmarried.
Ryan, a self-described liberal atheist, said Watkins presented himself as having similar views.
The two consensually traded intimate photographs and regularly talked via Skype and email, but never met in person. Watkins moved onto another relationship, but the two kept up an online friendship, Ryan said.
She said she was “gobsmacked” when Watkins launched a campaign as a Republican.
“It seemed like it was so completely out of character of the past years I spent talking to Steve,” Ryan said.
She reached out to Watkins in November of 2017 when he launched his congressional campaign. He reassured her in a Facebook message that he was a political moderate, according to screenshots shared with The Star.
“I am very moderate. I have come out a little to the right in order to make it through the primary. I’m the most moderate of any other Republican candidates and it’s a safe Republican seat,” Watkins wrote to her in a November 2017 message.
Watkins would not respond to questions about his message to Ryan when approached after the U.S. House’s final vote of the year Thursday.
The following day his campaign issued a statement reasserting his conservative credentials. The campaign did not dispute — or even directly address — his message to Ryan. It emphasized his status as one of President Donald Trump’s campaign chairs in Kansas, a title shared by every Republican in the Kansas delegation.
“Congressman Watkins is doing the job he was elected and trusted do — voting with President Trump 95 percent of the time to deliver conservative results, historic economic growth, and a future of opportunity for his constituents in Kansas. And as Chairman of President Trump’s re-election campaign, Congressman Watkins will help deliver Kansas for him in 2020 and secure another four years of results for the American people,” Piligra, the campaign’s spokesman, said in a statement.
Despite the questions about his authenticity, reinforced by a string of damaging stories that demonstrated he had exaggerated his professional background and his claims of heroism during an earthquake on Mount Everest, Watkins squeezed out a victory in 2018.
One county Republican chair told The Star at the time that if doubts about Watkins proved true, “We’ll replace him in two years.”
A sloppiness issue?
For a time, the congressman allayed the misgivings by consistently voting with GOP leadership and by surrounding himself with seasoned staffers who worked for former Republican Reps. Kevin Yoder and Lynn Jenkins.
But his chief of staff resigned in August, one of a string of departures. Weeks later, the congressman was forced to deny rumors that he was preparing to step down after a whisper campaign in Republican circles about his personal life.
Former Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer called for Watkins’ ouster in the late summer, prompting Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner to launch a primary challenge in September. Watkins’ former campaign manager joined LaTurner’s campaign as a consultant.
LaTurner’s campaign declined to comment for this story.
Three of Watkins’ 2018 opponents endorsed LaTurner, including former state Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, the state party’s former treasurer. Fitzgerald declined to discuss Watkins this month, saying he had already spoken his mind in 2018.
“He’s a rank opportunist. I don’t think he had any political interest before he decided to run,” Fitzgerald said at the time.
In November, Watkins settled a foreclosure lawsuit related to one of his Alaska properties.
He now faces a voter fraud investigation in Shawnee County after it was revealed that he had registered to vote at the address of a UPS Store in Topeka and may have voted in the wrong city council district.
State Rep. Brenda Dietrich, a Topeka Republican, said she’s hearing about the controversy from constituents.
“They’re talking about it,” Dietrich said. “But more of a ‘Can you believe it?’ kind of thing. An incredulous ‘Does he have a staffer that can fix this form or how does that happen in the first place?’ It’s more a sloppiness issue.”
State Rep. Fred Patton, a Topeka Republican, raised similar concerns that it could undermine Watkins’ ability to represent the district.
“There do appear to be lots of distractions,” Patton said. “It seems like weekly or monthly there’s stories in the media about something really unrelated to his job duties and hopefully as he gets his feet under him we won’t see as much of that.”
During Wednesday’s impeachment debate, Watkins drew a parallel between himself and Trump, another Republican who had never held political office before heading to Washington.
“I was a political newcomer before this just like President Trump,” Watkins said. “Perhaps like me he was naive to think that this House, that in the people’s House, everyone was true and just. It’s not the case.”
But unlike Trump, who has managed to cement the loyalty of both the populist and establishment wings of the Republican Party, the biggest threat to Watkins’ keeping his office in 2020 is from other Republicans.
The Wichita Eagle’s Jonathan Shorman contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 22, 2019 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Kansas freshman Rep. Watkins, plagued by missteps, mum about thousands in legal fees."
