Kris Kobach’s campaign for governor is off to an auspicious start.

Kobach, a Republican currently serving as Kansas’ secretary of state, on Tuesday tweeted a clip of his appearance on a Fox news show with the comment, “I’m running for governor to end the culture of corruption in Topeka.”

Kobach didn’t clarify what corruption he was referring to, but the comment didn’t sit well with legislators, including those in his own party.

“The Secretary of State has insinuated a culture of corruption, accusing the Legislature of being corrupt, which I think insults the integrity of this body and the legislative body,” House Speaker Pro Tem Scott Schwab, R-Olathe, said Friday during a meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council. “I get nervous when someone with prosecutorial authority accuses somebody of violating the law without a specific charge.”

Schwab asked the LCC to send a letter to Kobach, asking him to be specific about his corruption charges. Kobach’s staff said he would consider a response only after receiving the letter from the LCC.

Perhaps there is some yet unknown scandal to which Kobach is referring. More likely, Kobach is simply engaging in Trumpian hyperbole similar to “draining the swamp” in Washington.

What’s ironic is that Kobach’s promise to end the culture of corruption in Topeka came the same week he went to court to fight a fine levied against him for his own misdeed — intentionally misleading a federal court about documents in his possession.

A news photograph of Kobach with then President-elect Donald Trump last November showed Kobach carrying a document laying out Kobach’s strategic plan for the Department of Homeland Security, including changes to federal voting registration law. After Kobach refused to release the document, the ACLU went to court to force its release. In responding to the ACLU’s motion, Kobach misled the court about the content of the documents, ruled U.S. Magistrate Judge James O’Hara.

“The court agrees that the defendant’s deceptive conduct and lack of candor warrant the imposition of sanctions,” O’Hara wrote in ruling to fine Kobach $1,000.

On Thursday, Kobach asked O’Hara to lift the fine, arguing that his lack of candor in his motion was simply due to “last-minute editing.”

To recap, Kobach is photographed with documents he brought to a meeting with the president, he fights efforts by other groups to force their release, tries to mislead the courts about what’s in the documents, gets fined and then proclaims his lack of transparency and candor was just an editing error. At the same time, Kobach professes, he’s going to fix the culture of corruption at the statehouse.

If the next gubernatorial election were based on chutzpah, Kobach would win in a landslide.