Topeka ? A senator who wants to be Kansas’ top election official was fined $5,000 Thursday, the second time in less than a year that she has been punished for illegally soliciting campaign contributions from lobbyists.

Governmental Ethics Commission members said Sen. Kay O’Connor’s latest transgression was less serious than one resulting in a $3,000 fine last year, but that she deserved a tougher sanction for committing a second offense.

O’Connor called the fine “extremely excessive” and said she would consult with an attorney on whether to appeal the fine in Shawnee County District Court.

“I’ve got to tell you I’m not a happy camper,” said O’Connor, who did not attend the commission’s meeting. “It’s just so political. It’s so obvious to me that they’re excessively punishing me.”

State law prohibits candidates for statewide office from soliciting contributions from lobbyists while the Legislature is in session.

O’Connor, R-Olathe, is running for secretary of state. Her office sent fundraising letters by mistake to 15 to 20 lobbyists on April 20, a month before the session adjourned.

Last year, O’Connor said a letter she sent to lobbyists before the session ended didn’t violate the law because she was trying to gauge support for her candidacy.

“I’m sure that there’s a mentality on the board that some felt they needed to spank me extremely hard because of the infraction before,” O’Connor said. “There was no infraction before.”

She and the commission’s staff agreed on a decree in which she acknowledged this year’s solicitation violated the law, but that it wasn’t “intentional, willful or malicious.” Still, the commission imposed the maximum fine possible.

“I just think, principally, on the basis of the same offense twice within a year, you’ve got to send a message out there,” said commission member Tim Emert, of Independence, a lawyer and former Senate majority leader.

O’Connor is hoping to unseat Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh in the Republican primary Aug. 1. Besides supervising elections, the secretary of state appoints one of the Ethics Commission’s nine members.

When she was fined in August, O’Connor suggested the action was political, reflecting Thornburgh’s influence. On Thursday, Thornburgh’s appointee, Elon Torrence, of Topeka, a retired Associated Press newsman, abstained from voting on her case.

Also declining to participate was Robert H. Miller, of Topeka, a retired Kansas Supreme Court chief justice. Former Rep. John Solbach, a Lawrence lawyer, abstained after proposing a $3,000 fine, leaving the final vote at 5-0.

O’Connor pointed out that one of the commission’s seats is vacant, noting that Kansas law says the commission “shall” have nine members. A ninth member might have persuaded others to impose a lesser sanction, she said.

“I’ve been denied justice,” she said.

She said legislators should consider amending the campaign finance law so that candidates don’t break if it they include disclaimers on their fundraising letters.

O’Connor is the third official in three months to be fined for violating the law against soliciting lobbyists. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius paid a $1,500 fine in April and Atty. Gen. Phill Kline paid the same amount in March.

O’Connor said the sanctions against Sebelius and Kline showed that the fine levied against her is excessive.

But Emert said O’Connor’s transgression was more serious, because she solicited lobbyists from a list of 1,000 potential donors, whereas Sebelius and Kline’s lists had thousands of names and thus were harder to keep “clean.”

According to testimony Thursday, O’Connor discovered her mistake herself and contacted lobbyists, telling them to ignore and destroy her letter. Also, the decree noted, she had told her staff not to send fundraising requests to lobbyists.

“In my mind, this is far less egregious here than the first one was,” Solbach said. “There are more mitigating circumstances here.”