TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Washington-area group with ties to veteran Republican operatives is spending at least $246,000 on radio and television advertisements in Kansas praising Governor Sam Brownback in the final weeks before the state's primary election. The Alliance for Freedom ads are scheduled to run statewide on radio and cable and broadcast television through the August 5 primary. They support a proposed coal-fired power plant in southwest Kansas and criticize the federal Environmental Protection Agency. But the ads also praise Brownback for supporting the coal plant and fighting the EPA. Tax records available online show the alliance formed in 2010, and it lists GOP consultant Barry Bennett as president and an Alexandria, Virginia, address. He has a consulting firm with Mary Cheney, a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.