If some Kansans are enthusiastic about the Kansas Energy Council’s proposal to lower the state’s maximum highway speed limit from 70 to 65 mph, they seem to be keeping it to themselves. At a Wichita hearing last week on the council’s 15 policy recommendations, speakers argued for personal freedom and against lowering the speed limit – which “would be like in the 1850s Kansas passing a law that said you couldn’t gallop a horse,” as Wichitan Terry Morris so colorfully put it. Even if the lower speed limit is a nonstarter in these fast-paced times, Kansans should weigh in through Friday on the council’s other ideas to promote alternative energy and pursue fewer carbon emissions.
Complete with a man in a chicken suit, the silly demonstration recently held outside the campaign headquarters of Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, made a serious point: Voters deserve to hear Tiahrt debate his challenger, state Sen. Donald Betts, D-Wichita. True, the race isn’t considered among the most competitive in Congress or even the state, and Tiahrt has been tied down on Capitol Hill recently with the bailout bill and other matters. But in refusing to commit to a debate and sending surrogates to forums, Tiahrt is dissing not only Betts but also his constituents of the past 14 years. Besides, with four years in the Kansas Senate and two in the House, Betts has three times the legislative record that young state Sen. Tiahrt had when he knocked off Rep. Dan Glickman – after a campaign that included at least two debates.
Speaking of debates, it’s disappointing that the remaining two debates Sen. Pat Roberts (in photo) has agreed to have with Democratic challenger Jim Slattery – Oct. 14 in Wichita and Oct. 15 in Overland Park – aren’t free or open to the public. At least the Oct. 14 debate, at the Kansas Association of Broadcasters convention, will be taped for possible broadcast around the state. Roberts should agree to at least one truly public debate, not because Slattery wants one but because Kansas voters deserve to hear their “junior” senator for the past 12 years take tough questions and defend his record.
Every bit of dire economic news would seem to add to the challenge for proponents of Wichita’s $370 million school bond issue, which is on the Nov. 4 ballot. And sure enough, 37 percent of participants in a SurveyUSA poll last week for KWCH, Channel 12, said that gas prices and the economy would have a “major impact” on their bond issue vote, compared with 26 percent who said the impact would be minor. What does one make, though, of the 33 percent who said it would have no impact of all – unless they’d already decided to vote against it?
If some Kansans are enthusiastic about the Kansas Energy Council’s proposal to lower the state’s maximum highway speed limit from 70 to 65 mph, they seem to be keeping it to themselves. At a Wichita hearing last week on the council’s 15 policy recommendations, speakers argued for personal freedom and against lowering the speed limit – which “would be like in the 1850s Kansas passing a law that said you couldn’t gallop a horse,” as Wichitan Terry Morris so colorfully put it. Even if the lower speed limit is a nonstarter in these fast-paced times, Kansans should weigh in through Friday on the council’s other ideas to promote alternative energy and pursue fewer carbon emissions.
