Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, the chairman of the Sedgwick County legislative delegation, has a commentary on today’s Opinion pages defending anti-gaming lawmakers such as himself who took campaign money for casinos. He argues that The Eagle oversimplified this issue, and that our editorial last week “reinforced the uninformed opinion of some that all politicians are crooks and that their participation in the political process has no real value.”
Baloney. The editorial said “there’s no evidence that any of these lawmakers changed their position on gaming, either for or against, because of the contributions.” And the issue really is simple. Area lawmakers have preached about the evils of gaming and the need to keep gaming money out of politics, yet they took campaign donations from northeast Kansas casinos that don’t want the competition of a Sedgwick County casino. What’s more, 19 of these lawmakers, including Journey, bullied the Sedgwick County Commission into not letting the public have its say on expanded gaming through a nonbinding vote.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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34 Comments
It is hard to make an argument that you did not commit a crime when your pocket are full of money. I really do not know nor care how much money was exchanged. To me that is unimportant, the fact that you took money from someone wanting you to vote a certain way and then just happen to voted the way they wanted you to. Can be spin till the earth stands still, you should have seen it was not the right thing to do from the start. To say now that one had nothing to do with the other is at best weak and on the face of it untrue.Once you took the money, what your position on the subject prior to taking the money become a non-issue.
Dear Phil,
Stick to the conceal/carry stuff.
writer, since when have politicians done the right thing. They do what the money tells them to and little else. If Journey doesn’t like the accusations then maybe he shouldn’t have accepted the money.
“Rather, it is more like the old saying, “politics makes strange bedfellows.” That is essentially the relationship between legislators, such as myself, who are philosophically opposed to expanding casino gaming, whether state-owned or privately owned in our community, and the financial interests of casinos operated on federal enclaves.” -Phil Journey
Well Phil, you aren’t all that opposed to gambling are you? If you were really opposed to it, whether state or privately owned, then you wouldn’t (shouldn’t) have accepted money from them. Let me clue you in to a little bit of reality: it looks bad.
OMG–Stop Phil…yer killin’ me. I am laughing so hard I cant breathe. You could learn a little here from Molly Ivans who says “the first rule of holes is STOP DIGGING”.Yeah Wichita, I noticed he made no comment about that meeting when bullies squashed a vote on the subject. I also notice the silence from Bonnie “people have a right to vote on important issues” Huy and company is deafening. Letting Phil do the dirty work (no pun intended) for all of you?
More howling laughter when Phil says “The Eagle looked at only one side…and failed to look at the proponents of expanded casinos in Kansas and their political activity.” Hee hee, we are waiting anytime he wants to post that info here.
After catching my breath, I hooted again when Phil said the editorial’s “smells bad” comments “reinforced the uninformed opinion of some that all politicians are crooks and that their participation in the political process has no real value.”
Uh yeah Phil. We are getting the “uniformed” message that all of you are crooks, at least the 19 of you “let the people vote” hypocrits. Your big money cowtow does make it hard for us regular people to participate. You know Shrub, your party leader said it best that his (and your) base is made up of the “haves and have mores”.
I dont think the Eagle did the “alienating and misinforming” you speak of. Looks to me like you were doing that just fine on your own.
Ya know, if more people in Kansas were still farming, they would have less of an urge to gamble. I have a 50-50 chance every day of being wiped out by the weather, the market or the “gummit”. That is more “thrill” than any casino could provide. :)
there is an old saying in politics that goes ‘if you are explaining then you are losing’. Phil would do well to have kept his mouth shut, but that is not his style. he wants to be the next president of the senate. can you imagine the strangeness of the bed fellows we could conjure up over that scenario?
Politics in Kansas is a dirty business, from small towns all the way to Topeka. I remember a small town where the mayor got into an argument with a neighbor over mowing. The mayor tried to introduce an ordanince to take a piece of his neighbor’s yard. He almost got it done, too. Kansas politics is based on money, cronyism, and the “good old boy” network. It has very little to do with what the people want or need. Phil Journey is a political hack in a nest of political hacks.
Nice try Phil – but no cigar. You look like Cookie Monster with chocolate chips on your face claiming “I didn’t take the cookies I was just counting them!” Ya took the money and served their interests well.
You, Les Donovan, Joe McLeland and all the rest are hypocrites, plain and simple.
I am not a big fan of casinos; that sort of ‘entertainment’ simply isn’t my thing. But Phil’s efforts to prevent the voters from having a say is clearly designed to protect the monopoly of the casinos in NE Kansas – and he and his bunch are doing a very good job of it with the complicity of the Sedgwick County Commissioners.
One more note…isn’t it interesting that Dee Stuart wasn’t allowed to speak, but they spent an hour hearing about a plan from the cable industry that could potentially cost local governments in this area $75,000 a month?Kinda reminds me of the time in 1993 the chair of the House Judiciary Committee wouldn’t allow a hearing on a bill repealing a 1909 law that allowed the victim’s intoxication as a legal defense against rape…then held hearings on a bill legalizing the sale of “marital aids” with a doctor’s perscription.
I totally agree Journey, is a lying hypocrite, he pushes his concealed weapons agenda so he can have the choice to use a gun to kill someone, yet he want to deny women the right to have a choice. We have got to get rid of “Journey the Worm” in the next election.
What does concealed carry have to do with abortion?
Using “your” logic, I suppose you support concealed carry right? Otherwise you are a hypocrite too, no?
Now lets talk about all the liberal Pro Casino politicians that took legal donations.
You liberals are so one sided you have no credibility.
Give it up Cotie. This liberal bunch and their continuous lies about anything conservative make this a blog to forget.The dangerous ones are the so called editors, if fact many of the most agregous posts are theirs.
Codie said:”Now lets talk about all the liberal Pro Casino politicians that took legal donations.”
For the second time today, if any of you conservatives want to post this list he speaks of, we are waiting. .
Note to my State Representative:
Please continue to take all of the money that comes your way from gaming interests. I am confident your NO vote will stay in tact, and yet we can then use the money to keep other dems out of office come Nov.
Clair, no wonder all our jobs are being outsourced. Lazy twits like you are blogging on the internet when you should be working.
How about it, repugs? Show us a list of Kansas Democrats that are being paid off by gambling interests. Put your money where your mouth is.
Yeah X, they can post it right next to the names of all the dems who actually got money from Jack Abramoff. The FEC says none. I think the dems would take their chances on the publication.
Ksfarmgrrl, I keep hearing that tired old crap, but I’m not seeing any results. I know “misery loves company”…looks like this time, the repubs will just have to accept misery, lol.
With this administration, if it’s not one damn thing, it’s another.
XXX,
Is there a list of republicans “getting paid off?”
Lazy twits?? Its Sunday night.
Nathan,Journey wants the freedom of choice to carry a gun to kill someone, but he wants to deny women to have freedom of choice of what to do with their body that will have the same result, killing. That’s the issue, not my opinion of gun control.
Is Nathan a bot?
No mr, just a butt.
Oh, now we’re going to split hairs. Define “paid off”.Nathan, You’re not getting any brighter, are you? Your style (if you want to call it that) doesn’t work on the “regulars” anymore. But let’s go through the drill anyway.
Nathan, did I say anything about republicans being “paid off”?
Damnit ksfarmgrrl, you keep beating me to the good comments!
Damnit ksfarmgrrl, you keep beating me to the good comments!
Dammit, XXX do ya have to tell her twice?
ACK! the dreaded double post!
The bare bones of this is Journey speaks of constitutional rights of the second amendment, yet forgets this a government of the people by the people and for the people, he might catch on when the people vote him out.The power is from us to them, but they wish you to believe its the other way around.
Fed C: I don’t have a list of Dems who took gaming money but one person who did is Sen. Greta Goodwin
Hawkfan,around here when we make an accusation like that, we usually back it up with some proof. Got any?
if you want to know for yourself who got what from whom, then follow the simple instructions on the link below:
http://www.accesskansas.org/srv-campaignfinance/showForm.do
this is not rocket science you guys so quit bickering and see for yourself who get what from whom, when!
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