Sedgwick Co. GOP explains call for Rep. Capps to resign

The Sedgwick County Republican Party called on state lawmaker Rep. Michael Capps (R-Wichita) to resign Friday for his role in an attack ad against Brandon Whipple, a candidate for Mayor of Wichita.

"As a Republican Party, we will not tolerate these kind of acts," wrote party leaders in a Facebook post published Friday afternoon, "Our leaders need to lead by example."

According to records FactFinder 12 found online, Capps' company Krivacy, LLC previously owned the domain name protectwichitagirls.com. The site, which is no longer owned by Krivacy, LLC, is in reference to the false YouTube video which tied Whipple to allegations of sexual misconduct in the statehouse.

looked into the allegations and found no factual basis for the claims.

The connections between the video and Capps go beyond a website.

Capps' campaign manager, Michael Colborn, is also named in a

by Whipple's lawyer as the man who produced the video.

Friday afternoon, Sedgwick County Republican Party Executive Director Ben Sauceda about the call for Capps to resign. Sauceday says the party's concerned about dirty politics that could keep voters from going to the polls.

"We're not the first local party to call on his resignation, and he hasn't before, so I don't expect anything to be different this time. But we do want to send a clear message that as a local Republican party, again, this type of false, gutter politics that has taken place in our city over the last few weeks won't be tolerated from a party level."

If Capps were to resign, precinct members of the state's 85th district (including Benton in Butler County and parts of northeast Wichita, Bel Aire and Kechi in Sedgwick County) would select someone to fill his seat on an interim basis until the November 2020 general election.

FactFinder 12 has been working all week to get a hold of Capps by phone, in person and via email. Capps has not responded to our repeated requests for comment.