AP via Yahoo:

Kan. candidate fined for ethics violation
By JOHN HANNA, Associated Press Writer Thu Jun 22, 11:45 PM ET

TOPEKA, Kan. - A state senator who wants to be Kansas' top election official was fined $5,000 Thursday for illegally soliciting campaign contributions from lobbyists — her second fine for the offense in less than a year.
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Governmental Ethics Commission members said Sen. Kay O'Connor's latest transgression was less serious than one resulting in a $3,000 fine last year, but that she deserved a tougher sanction for committing a second offense.

O'Connor said she would consult with an attorney on whether to appeal.

State law prohibits candidates for statewide office from soliciting contributions from lobbyists while the Legislature is in session.

Her office sent fundraising letters to 15 to 20 lobbyists on April 20, a month before the session adjourned. She discovered the mistake herself and contacted lobbyists, telling them to ignore and destroy her letter, according to testimony Thursday.

In the earlier case, she argued letters sent to lobbyists didn't violate the law because she was trying to gauge support for her candidacy. She was fined in August.

"I'm sure that there's a mentality on the board that some felt they needed to spank me extremely hard because of the infraction before," O'Connor said. "There was no infraction before."

O'Connor is hoping to unseat Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh in the Republican primary Aug. 1. Besides supervising elections, the secretary of state appoints one of the Ethics Commission's nine members.