Chris Steineger won’t confirm whether he hired disgraced Missouri lawmaker Mike Sager (updated)

Update (7:33 a.m. May 17): Last week, Kansas state Sen. Chris Steineger refused to confirm whether he’d hired disgraced Missouri lawmaker Mike Sager as his campaign finance director.

Sager’s history would have been an odd choice to oversee Steineger’s money in his campaign to become Kansas’ chief election official. In January 2007, Sager  pleaded guilty to filing a false campaign report. He had been charged with writing $22,500 in checks from his campaign accounts to himself as well as making up a $50,000 personal loan.

Steineger did hire Sager. The KCK Democrat refused to speak with The Pitch last Thursday about Sager, dispatching a spokeswoman to dodge questions.

But in Steve Kraske‘s Kansas City Star Sunday column, Steineger admitted hiring ex-lawmaker Sager. Kraske wrote:

Steineger said he didn’t know about Sager’s past when he hired him, but dumped him a month ago when he found out.