News > State

  State  

Chief deputy says he wouldn't hire Kline

Associated Press

TOPEKA - Prosecutor Phill Kline's chief deputy, who is running for Shawnee County district attorney, is promising that if he's elected, Kline won't have a role in his office.

Eric Rucker's ties to Kline, the Johnson County district attorney, became an issue in Rucker's successful Republican primary race against two-term Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht. Rucker's Democratic challenger, Chad Taylor, also has raised the question.

Kline lost his Republican primary race in Johnson County, where he was seeking a full four-year term as district attorney, having been appointed to the job in December 2006. Kline is a former attorney general who has received national attention for investigating abortion clinics.

Rucker was chief deputy attorney general for four years when Kline was attorney general, and then joined Kline's staff in Johnson County.

But Rucker told the Topeka Capital Journal that if he's elected Shawnee County district attorney, he won't offer Kline a job or sign any contracts with him, and won't have Kline as an unpaid adviser.

He also said voters should look at his record of public service, not judge his qualifications based on his past employers.

"Regardless of who I've worked for throughout my 27 years of being a lawyer, I believe I've defined my own public service," Rucker said. "I don't think that those that I have worked for have defined my contribution to Kansas."

Kline didn't return a telephone message Thursday, nor did his spokesman in Johnson County.

Kline recently bought a house in Johnson County, but records show that he and his wife still own a house north of Topeka.

Taylor said Kline and Rucker have worked as a "one-two combination" for nearly six years and that he would expect them to continue.

"I would find that very hard to believe, that the time for political paybacks wouldn't be coming from Mr. Kline," he said.

But Rucker noted that he has worked for and with other prominent officials throughout his career. For example, he worked in the Secretary of State's Office with Bill Graves, who later was elected to that job and governor.

Rucker was deputy assistant secretary of state in 1981-85, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party in 1985-87, a Shawnee County commissioner in 1987-93 and Dickinson County attorney in 1993-2003. He also was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for state treasurer in 1990.

Buzz it up