Jim Brownback, the governor’s younger brother, is one of the family’s largest recipients of federal farm subsidies

Jim Brownback, the heretofore anonymous younger brother of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, made his way into Sunflower State consciousness with a weekend news account of his dangerous behavior directed at neighbors.

The younger Brownback was the subject of a page-turning investigative report by the Topeka Capital-Journal‘s ace reporter, Tim Carpenter. The 5,000-word story is worth a read. It describes how Jim Brownback, one of four children of Robert and Nancy Brownback, apparently terrorizes neighbors in rural Linn County, Kansas, with beer- and gun-fueled rampages. Jim Brownback has also been arrested for not paying child support from his first marriage.

Jim Brownback is said to have invoked his brother’s political clout to deter scrutiny for his behavior. But the story finds no evidence of the governor intervening on Jim Brownback’s behalf.

Jim Brownback carried out this alleged behavior from his Linn County, Kansas, farm, which is supported with federal farm subsidies.

Between 1995 and 2012, Jim Brownback received $376,172 in farm subsidies from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to a database maintained by the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization .

Of that amount, $256,196 paid for commodity subsidies (mostly sorghum, soybeans, corn and livestock), with the rest coming in the form of disaster subsidies.

Jim Brownback isn’t the only recipient of farm subsidies. Sam Brownback, whose policies as a senator and governor advocate for smaller government, is listed as taking $48,852 in federal farm subsidies. Most were conservation subsidy payments. 

Alan Brownback, one of Sam and Jim’s brothers, accepted $5,848 in farm subsidies.