Gov. Sam Brownback answers questions during a year-end, sit-down interview on Dec. 8, 2015, in his office at the Statehouse in Topeka.

Wichita ? A leading Democratic lawmaker said Monday he planned to file a complaint with a state ethics commission seeking an investigation into the use of donations by Gov. Sam Brownback’s campaign to pay legal fees to criminal defense firms last year.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, also plans to seek an advisory opinion from the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission on the legality of campaign funds as collateral for personal bank loans obtained by a candidate. Three loans from Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer totaling $1.5 million drew attention on the campaign trail because of their size and because the first two loans were repaid within days.

The move by the state’s top elected Democrat comes just days after Hensley sent a memo to Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor separately seeking a criminal investigation into whether Colyer broke any state laws related to those loans.

Democrats have long speculated the loans might have been timed to inflate campaign finance reports as the Republican governor in deep red Kansas faced the prospect of losing to the well-financed Democratic challenger, Paul Davis. A federal grand jury investigated the loans, and while that probe was going on, campaign donations were used to pay more than $167,000 in legal fees to five criminal defense firms. The U.S. attorney’s office said in June it and planned to bring no federal criminal charges related to the loans.

Eileen Hawley, spokeswoman for the governor’s office, said in an email on behalf of Colyer that the “campaign was conducted in compliance with all laws and regulations.”

Davis, a Lawrence attorney, said he had no part in Hensley’s efforts.

“There certainly are a lot of questions about why these loans occurred and the nature of the loans and why they were made multiple times during the campaign for what purpose,” Davis said. “And perhaps the governmental ethics commission will be able to answer those questions.”

The Associated Press broke the story about the federal investigation into the loans in January 2015, after obtaining through an open records request a copy of a grand jury subpoena sent to the executive director of ethics commission. But a finance report filed earlier this month detailing the legal fees amid the grand jury probe has raised fresh questions.

Carol Williams, the commission’s executive director, refused Monday to say whether a complaint had been filed.

If the legal fees were for the campaign, that would be a legitimate campaign expenditure, she said.

A 1993 ethics opinion cited a then-state representative who asked the commission for permission to use campaign money to pay lawyers defending him from allegations that he blackmailed another lawmaker to vote for a budget bill. The ethics panel told him the phrase “expenses of holding public office” didn’t cover “the use of campaign funds for defense purposes since crimes by their very nature are personal.”

Campaign finance filings indicate Colyer made his first $500,000 loan on Dec. 31, 2013, the last day covered by a finance report due in early January 2014. It was repaid on Jan. 2, 2014. Colyer then made a second $500,000 loan on July 23, 2014, the second-to-last day covered by a finance report due in late July of that year. That loan was repaid two days later, when a new reporting period started.

The third $500,000 loan from Colyer was made on Aug. 13, 2014, and a campaign finance disclosure filed in January 2015 indicated that $400,000 of that loan was repaid on Nov. 21, 2014. The latest report filed earlier this month indicated the last $100,000 was repaid in December.