No more Moore could mean more Sebelius

It seemed a great thing for Wichita four years ago when John Moore, former senior vice president at Cessna Aircraft Co., became Kathleen Sebelius’ lieutenant governor and secretary of commerce. So what does it mean for Wichita should the Democrat win re-election, given that her running mate this time is Olathe attorney Mark Parkinson? Sebelius counters such concerns by saying that Parkinson grew up in Wichita and earned a degree from Wichita State University. And she acknowledged that she “made a kind of strategic mistake” with Moore initially in letting him be the point person for Wichita as she spent most of her time elsewhere. The resulting feedback from Wichita, she recently told The Eagle editorial board, was that “there really is no substitute for having the governor spend time here on a regular basis, meet with business leaders personally, pay attention. So it may be ironically a bit of an advantage to not have John be back here every weekend, because he became my spokesperson.”
Visit our Opinion Web page to watch a video clip of Sebelius talking about Moore.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

6 Comments

  1. heartlander
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 12:21 am | Permalink

    So the guv dropped Wichita in favor of Olathe. Inerestin political calculation.

  2. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 7:50 am | Permalink

    So Sebelius dumped someone close to her, betrayed him for political gain?

    Say it isnt so……

    hehehehehehehehehehhe

    Trademark move.

  3. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 7:51 am | Permalink

    Wonder who that finger in the wind is gonna tell her to dump AFTER the election?

  4. sotheysaid
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 8:48 am | Permalink

    What she did not tell you is that John Moore understood what Business needed. Unfortunately for Kansas that was in opposition to what she wanted. Republicans were able to work with John Moore and Sebelius did not like that.

    He had ideas for health insurance and economic development that could have helped Kansas. But they were not what the Governor wanted. It was pretty obvious that she was giving him the boot when she decreased his roll in her cabinet.

    It will be interesting to see how long she keeps her new Republican Lt. Governor.

  5. JM
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 10:44 am | Permalink

    Sebelius knows that Wichita exists?

    I’m truly amazed. Always thought the largest city in Kansas was some sort of disowned orphan of Topeka.

  6. Vaughn Tolle
    Posted October 6, 2006 at 10:46 am | Permalink

    Heartlander, I agree it was an interesting political move, and one that IMHO makes all kinds of sense.

    JoCo, even though laboring under all the business disincentives we are constantly reminded about, seems to be in the one area of the state experiencing real growth. While I have some thoughts on why that is, I’ll reserve them for another time. Disregarding the governor’s comments about the Wichita feedback for the present, reality tells me that it is that part of the state that the governor needs to court to build the base necessary for her programs, should she win reelection.

    I would hope that she, should she win, or Dr. Barnett, should he, does pay attention to what is going on in JoCo, and see how much of that might be transferable to the rest of the state.