POLITICS: The Kansas Kickbacks

He seemed so sincere that in a state poll taken last May, his fellow Kansans rated him the most trustworthy public figure—just ahead of Walter Cronkite.

With that kind of image, Democrat Robert Docking, 48, was elected to an unprecedented four straight terms as Governor in a traditionally Republican state. A shrewd yet kindly-looking man with warm brown eyes, Bob Docking was such a formidable vote getter that for a time he was unable to decide whether to try for a fifth term this fall or run for the Senate against Incumbent Robert Dole, who had the bad luck to be the Republican national chairman when Watergate broke.

Last week Docking's once-promising future was clouded by a series of indictments handed down by a Shawnee County grand jury under the direction of State Attorney General Vern Miller, a Democrat himself. The indictments charged that Richard L. Malloy, Docking's former appointments secretary, and George R. (Dick) Docking, the Governor's brother and a prominent Kansas City attorney, had participated in a 1972 kickback deal. The architectural firm of Marshall & Brown-Sidorowicz was said to have received a fat $500,000 contract in return for handing over $30,000 to help cover Docking's television advertising expenses during his 1972 campaign.

The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident. In terms unfortunately reminiscent of those used by another politician under fire, he claimed that he had been too busy running the state to bother with such trivial matters as raising campaign funds.

Before deciding whether to run for any office next fall, Docking is planning to study the polls closely during the weeks ahead. The first quick survey was favorable: 81% of those polled for WIBW radio and TV said that they had not changed their minds about the man who could put Walter Cronkite in the shade when it came to projecting a sense of honesty.