KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? A judge denied the request from a former candidate for Congress to dismiss charges accusing him of using $300,000 in campaign funds to cover a check for the down payment on a $1.2 million home.

Adam Taff is charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of violating the Federal Elections Campaign Act. U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum said in a six-page memorandum and order Wednesday that he could not conclude prosecutors were unable to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Taff, a moderate Republican, lost last year’s primary for the GOP nomination in the 3rd District to the conservative Kris Kobach in a tight race. Two years earlier, he was the Republican nominee, losing to Democratic Rep. Dennis Moore.

The case involves a home in Lake Quivira that belonged to John D. Myers, of Leawood, founder of National Mortgage Co. Inc. At the time, Taff worked for the company and Myers was its chairman. Myers, also charged in the case, pleaded not guilty to wire fraud, but he has a change-of-plea hearing scheduled for Friday.

According to the indictment, Taff withdrew campaign funds in January 2004 and had a $300,000 check made out to Myers and his wife.

The two men are accused of taking the check to a title company and representing it as a down payment from Taff for the house. The closing agent altered a copy of the check to make it appear payable to the title company, the indictment says, and prepared two statements showing there had been a payment from Taff to the Myerses.

Taff, who has pleaded not guilty, then took the check back to his bank and returned the funds to his campaign accounts, the indictment says.

Because Taff had loaned his campaign about $125,000, he is accused of converting only $175,000 for his personal use.

Taff’s attorney, James Eisenbrandt, had argued that Taff never intended to use campaign funds as a down payment, and thus there was not personal use as defined by the law.

But Lungstrum held that a jury could find that without the campaign funds, Taff would not have been able to persuade the lender to make the loan.