When Chiefs play, lobbyists pay to get Missouri and Kansas politicians into big games

When the Kansas City Chiefs took on the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship at Arrowhead Stadium last year, Mayor Quinton Lucas was excited.

“KC, get yo SWAGGER,” he tweeted before the game.

Lucas may have had another reason to feel pleased. The electric company Evergy provided him with tickets valued at $560.

Public officials in Missouri and Kansas have accepted more than $30,000 in football tickets and related gifts, like parking, since 2017 when the Patrick Mahomes era began – a period capped by Sunday’s Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. Lucas alone has received at least $4,000 in Chiefs-related gifts since taking office in 2019.

The vast majority of the tickets are either explicitly linked to Chiefs games or are almost certainly Chiefs-related spending, based on the size of the gifts and date of the spending, according to a review of publicly filed lobbyist spending reports by The Star.

The amounts include 2022 regular season gifts on the Missouri side, but not in Kansas, and don’t include spending related to the Chiefs’ just-concluded postseason run. Those gifts, if they occurred, will be reported in mandatory lobbyist spending reports in the months ahead.

Evergy, an electric utility that services much of the Kansas City metro, is responsible for much of the gift-giving. The company has often had business before the city in recent years and is currently studying whether to get involved in a city-led project to build a massive solar farm near Kansas City International Airport.

Spire, a natural gas utility that operates in Missouri but not Kansas, has also given a smaller but still substantial amount. The company provided Lucas with four Chiefs tickets and food worth $1,000 total for a November 2019 game, for instance.

Spire is currently negotiating the terms of its franchise agreement with the city. Renewal of the current 10-year contract would give the gas company the authority to operate within the city in exchange for fees to the city.

Other organizations and interest groups spent on football tickets only occasionally, according to reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

Missouri voters were troubled enough by lobbyist gifts that in 2018 they voted to ban most gifts to state lawmakers as part of the Clean Missouri initiative. However, other public officials like mayors and city council members weren’t included, leaving lobbyists free to continue showering them with tickets, meals and other largesse.

Some Missouri lawmakers say other public officials should follow the same standard they’re required to follow under Clean Missouri.

“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” said Missouri state Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican who accepted $300 in Chiefs tickets in 2017 and 2018 prior to the implementation of Clean Missouri in December 2018.

“And most certainly, if we, as state elected officials cannot accept lobbyist gifts, I think that’s good for our local officials as well.”

Lucas’ chief of staff, Morgan Said, said Kansas City’s charter prescribes the mayor as the official head of the city. “As such, the mayor endeavors to attend every event—large and small—of importance to the people of Kansas City,” Said said in a statement.

“Attendance at sporting, cultural, and educational events has never influenced the mayor’s policymaking,” said Said, who also described Lucas as a lifelong Chiefs fan.

Said noted that Lucas had recently sponsored and helped pass legislation to oppose Spire’s desired rate increases in Missouri and had voted in opposition to Spire and Evergy’s stated positions on the City’s Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan.

In Kansas, lobbyists have a freer hand to provide gifts to lawmakers, but each may provide only $100 worth of gifts to each lawmaker per year. The cap means in some instances lawmakers end up paying the remaining cost of the ticket out of pocket or reimbursing the lobbyist for the difference, multiple lawmakers said.

Between 2017 and 2021, lobbyists – working almost entirely on behalf of Evergy – spent at least $4,645 on football games for Kansas lawmakers, according to data from the Kansas Ethics Commission. The number of gifts are accelerating, too: in January 2022 the company reported paying $3,316 in football game or parking pass expenses for lawmakers.

The gifts are more difficult to track in Kansas or tie explicitly to the Chiefs. In reports posted by the Kansas Ethics Commission, the expenses are labeled only as “football game.” But the date of almost every gift corresponds to a Chiefs game.

The football tickets represent only a fraction of all lobbyist gifts – meals are much more common. And tickets to watch other sports teams, like the Royals and St. Louis Cardinals, also appear.

But as the Chiefs and their fans enjoy the glow of the team’s latest Super Bowl victory, the football tickets – handed out year after year to officials in both parties – offer an instructive look at how lobbyists use football to subtly ingratiate themselves with those in power.

The tickets are often worth hundreds of dollars and are frequently for late-season or postseason games where space is at a premium, such as the AFC championship. Spending reports by lobbyists for Spire often note that the tickets are suite-level, while disclosures by Evergy lobbyists don’t include that level of detail.

Critics say it’s just another way for lobbyists, and ultimately their clients, to accumulate influence over key decision-makers.

“Free tickets to Kansas City Chiefs games, which will be prime seats, given by businesses and Kansas City utility companies to public officials are no doubt intended to buy ‘friends’ among these officials,” said Craig Holman, who lobbies in Washington for stricter campaign finance and ethics rules on behalf of the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

“Given the high cost of these tickets, the businesses giving the gifts also believe them to be effective influence-peddling tools,” Holman said in an email.

But those who defend the practice, which include both politicians and companies, argue it creates opportunities to build connections.

In response to questions, Evergy spokeswoman Gina Penzig said: “Within the rules laid out by each state, Evergy like many businesses builds relationships with local leaders by inviting them to local events.”

Spire spokesperson Jason Merrill said in a statement that the company transparently reports expenses to the Missouri Ethics Commission each month. “Like many, we use these opportunities to connect with officials and stakeholders,” Merrill said.

Accepting lobbyist-paid tickets

Lucas has accepted lobbyist-paid tickets to at least eight Chiefs games since becoming mayor in August 2019. Other Kansas City council members and unelected officials have taken tickets, too, during that period.

Councilman Eric Bunch accepted two Chiefs suite tickets and a parking pass valued at $950 to watch the Chiefs take on the Texans in a January 2020 playoff game, according to Missouri Ethics Commission data. Councilman Lee Barnes has also taken tickets and parking passes valued at $965 over the past four years. Councilman Kevin McManus accepted $955 in tickets, food and parking passes for two games in 2021.

Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw accepted a gift from Spire of two suite tickets and a parking pass valued at $615 to an early season game last year. The Public Works department is overseeing the negotiations over extending Kansas City’s franchise agreement with Spire. The department is led by Michael Shaw, who is married to Councilwoman Parks-Shaw.

Shaw acknowledged attending a Chiefs’ game with his wife, but he said utility representatives never tried to influence him. “That just really doesn’t happen, contrary to what some people think,” he said.

The public works director said his department continues negotiations with Spire on the franchise agreement. While the city is pushing the gas company to agree to new climate resiliency measures, he said conversations have been productive.

“I feel like it’s more collaborative in nature,” he said. “It’s not negative. I think everyone’s giving a little bit.”

Parks-Shaw did not respond to The Star’s request for comments.

City Manager Brian Platt has accepted $835 in tickets, and other employees of Lucas or the council have received nearly $3,000 combined in tickets since 2019.

Lucas certainly isn’t the first Kansas City mayor to accept sports-related lobbyist gifts. His predecessor, Sly James, accepted thousands in tickets to the Chiefs, Royals and other events.

St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, who has been in office since April 2021, along with members of her staff have also accepted hundreds of dollars in Cardinals tickets, food and drink.

Lucas’ chief of staff said the mayor follows all applicable local, state and federal rules in connection with game attendance.

“As with the past two Super Bowls in which the Kansas City Chiefs have been present, no part of the mayor’s, any city official’s, or any city staff’s attendance at Super Bowl LVII or any preseason, regular season, or postseason game has been funded by the taxpayers of Kansas City,” Said said.

The lobbyist gifts reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission may not reflect the entire universe of tickets that Kansas City officials are accepting. The city’s municipal code requires officials to self-report all gifts greater than $200 from individuals or entities with “a substantial interest in any legislative or administrative action of the city” – with some exceptions, such as tickets to city facilities like the T-Mobile Center.

The reporting required by the code isn’t limited to registered lobbyists, unlike the disclosures to the Missouri Ethics Commission. In theory, that means more gifts may be reported to the city than to the commission. In practice, the city gift reports aren’t immediately accessible – The Star requested copies this week under the Missouri Sunshine Law but has yet to receive them.

Bunch said he appreciates the city’s ethics rules require somewhat more expansive reporting than what is required at the state level.

“But I think it’s also concerning that the responsibility to report is on the elected official or the city employee because while many of us, certainly I, do my part to report those, I think it opens up the possibility that people may not be willing to report,” Bunch said.

As for the gifts he has taken, Bunch said he tries to be as transparent as possible and follow the rules. He added that he generally doesn’t accept many gifts and isn’t influenced by them.

While lobbyists can no longer shower state officials with large gifts, the continued spending on local officials underscores the importance of policy decisions made at the municipal level.

Both Evergy and Spire have sought to influence the city’s recent Climate Protection & Resiliency Plan, which aims at transitioning Kansas City to carbon neutrality by 2040. The companies spent months attempting to influence the plan, with company officials objecting to commitments in the plan to move away from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.

The nonbinding plan, which aims to put the city in line with the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement, ultimately passed 11-1 in August.

While cities aren’t the primary regulators of utilities, they have increasingly sought to influence local governments, said Robin Ganahl, chair of the city’s climate protection steering committee. She recalled battles between cities and utilities in Southern California, where she previously lived, after cities sought to electrify buildings and ban natural gas in new ones.

Regarding the Chiefs tickets to local officials, Ganahal said she was unaware of any attempts from Evergy and Spire to personally influence committee members. While she was not surprised that the companies have bought Chiefs tickets for City Hall officials, she said it was worrisome.

“It’s a big concern,” she said. “I don’t know what else to say.”

‘Relationship builders’

In Kansas, most of Evergy’s spending on football-related gifts have gone toward legislative leaders and lawmakers focused on utilities. Since 2017, almost all of the gifts have been accepted by Republicans – many of them key leaders.

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, has accepted $1,070 in football game gifts and parking passes between 2017 and January 2022. State Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican who chairs the Senate Utilities Committee, has accepted $826 worth of football game gifts during the same time period.

Masterson said at every game he attended, other legislators were also present. That gave the events the same value as a committee meeting or an evening dinner provided by lobbyists, he said.

“Those are all relationship builders. It’s actually probably more value than sitting in some of these rooms,” Masterson said, referring to the Kansas Capitol, “because you’re actually able to have a candid conversation.”

Olson and Masterson both said they had attended the AFC Championship game at Arrowhead Stadium this year through tickets purchased by Evergy. Both said they reimbursed the company for the cost of the ticket.

“It’s more of a gesture,” Olson said. “I don’t ever recall being lobbied.”

Evergy is currently advocating for a bill in the Kansas Senate that would provide them and other existing energy companies in the state with a right of first refusal on any new energy transmission infrastructure projects. The measure would restrict the ability of potential new competitors to enter the market.

Anthony Nownes, a political science professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who has written a book about lobbying, said lobbying has become more professionalized across the country in recent decades. But where gifts are allowed, they occur, he said.

“It can be just about relationship building and also about access and power at the same time,” Nownes said.

The Star’s Kacen Bayless and Daniel Desrochers contributed reporting.