Wichita, Kansas - Kansas Speaker of the House, Mike O'Neal, says the story about his forwarding emails is over. An activist group on the east coast begs to differ.
"Faithful America" is collecting signatures to get O'Neal to step down.
"Over 17-thousand people of faith have signed this petition," says Michael Sherrard with Faithful America. "And we are now calling on speaker O'Neal to resign."
While only about a thousand of those signatures are from Kansans, Faithful America is not alone in calling out speaker O'Neal for forwarding emails.
A few weeks ago O'Neal forwarded an email that showed a picture of First Lady Michelle Obama on a bad hair day. The picture was next to a picture of the Grinch. O'Neal apologized for forwarding that email to other house republicans.
But at least one Republican has made a reply, and it's not good.
"I feel that the Speaker’s violations will make it extremely difficult to arrive at legislation that is in the best interest of our constituents when it is so compromised from the start,” wrote Republican Owen Donohoe of Shawnee.
With the heat still on, O'Neal was speaking in Wichita on Friday at the Pachyderm Club.
"No comment," said O'Neal. "That story has run its course. I will be forwarding no more emails."
The group Faithful America says it will continue collecting signatures, even though no Kansas lawmakers are calling for O'Neal to step down.
"His behavior," says Sherrard, "Shows such a serious lack of judgment and a deep violation of the public trust, that I simply don't think we can trust him to remain in public office."
O'Neal says it's time to talk about education, the budget, and tax breaks for Kansans.
