WE Blog

6 Comments

1. JWink
   Posted July 27, 2009 at 6:26 am | Permalink

   Steve Six has one thing going for him … he is an incumbent.

   In lethargic Kansas, incumbency is a big factor. If you have known candidates running for the little known elective Kansas department head positions, you know how tough it is. Kansas is a big state, 105 county courthouses and thousands of small towns scattered across the state. Kansas is 200 miles north-south by 400 miles east-west so it requires a lot of driving to win Kansas voters over.

   Of course, it would make sense to consolidate several of the state wide elected department head positions into one professional appointed position. Some of the elected department heads are state treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general, insurance commissioner and state printer. All these offices except perhaps attorney general should be division managers of an appointed professional finance director/department.

2. Monkeyhawk
   Posted July 27, 2009 at 6:32 am | Permalink

   Just to be clear –

   I am not now, nor have I ever been, a candidate for State Printer of the great State of Kansas.

3. HerbertWestIII
   Posted July 27, 2009 at 7:55 am | Permalink

   Rhonda Holman? When did you research this article? On April 13th, 2009. Ralph De Zago, 1203 North D Street, Herington Kansas, 67449 from Dickinson County, 1-785-238-0804 Filed and Appointed, Chanse R. Sanderson, 322 West Stockholm, White City Kansas, 66872 1-785-313-3709 to be Treasurer. Secretary of State Ron Thornburg Stamped the application April 13th 2009. I keep reading your articles. You keep stating “people Intend to File”. They already have!!! Stephen Six and Ralph De Zago filed for the Attorney General position, Sam Brownback and Herbert West III filed, seperately, for Governor, David Powell and Sandy Praeger for, seperately, Insurance Commissioner, J R Claeys, Kris Kobach, Derek Schmidt filed, seperately, for Secretary of State and Dennis McKinney filed for State Treasurer. I again, keep seeing favored mentions by a so-called non-biased paper/reporter. Thanks, Herbert West 3rd, Democrat, Uncontested Candidate for Kansas Governor, 2010. P.S. I am not endorsing any Candidate mentioned, I am simply making a point. I do endorse myself, Herbert West 3rd.

4. HerbertWestIII
   Posted July 27, 2009 at 8:09 am | Permalink

   JWink, I don’t see where it is Prudent, Within a Democracy, to alter the Elected Positions and place them under a Dictated system. That removes the Citizens rights from the Constitutional Democracy. I see that as a thought of tyranny sir. Changes within the title and entitlement of position/title elect, if deemed appropriate, is within the integrity of the Constitution. To consolidate and form a Dictatorship, removing the citizens from the process is Un Constitutional. Also, look at Senator Chris Steinger who wants to fire 92 Sheriffs and 92 Counties worth of otherr Elected Officials to include, Commissioners, City Council, County Treasurers, County Clerks etc:. He wants 13 people, Appointed within a Dictatorship, to run the entire State. I don’t like all people in current elected position now. I don’t feel removing the elected positions will fix the problem. I feel electing others into those elected positions will help fix the current problems. Just some thoughts, Herbert West 3rd, Democratic Uncontested Candidate for Kansas Governor, 2010.

5. Regular
   Posted July 27, 2009 at 9:43 am | Permalink

   Six appear to be pragmatic – I wouldn’t mind voting for him as long as he doesn’t have an agenda package strung along in his vest pocket.

   I would also like to see a female attorney run for AG. Females are often more pragmatic than males in the same position.

6. JWink
   Posted July 27, 2009 at 1:50 pm | Permalink

   HerbertWestIII: I’ll be honest. On this issue of electing or appointing public officials, I have mixed feelings. I recall talking to a retired ex-President about the city manager form of government. He said about what you would expect a person who had been elected to high office to say, wclong time elected person to say, he preferred local public officials to be elected to office.

   I have friends now who feel strongly all judges should be elected to office, not appointed by a committee of their peers.

   I think electing people to local offices was called “Jacksonian democracy” because the old Jacksonians felt it was safer to continuously change people in political offices to avoid tyranny and fraud in local offices.

   On the other hand, electing office holders to these little known state wide offices is probably a waste of time and money. Most Kansans don’t know which offices are elected and further don’t know who currently holds these offices.

   Same on the local county level I might add.

   However, these elected offices to provide a stable of politicians who might run for the top elected office, the Governor. Remember Bill Graves moved from the Kansas Secretary of State position to the Governor’s office. All he had to do was push his moving boxes across the hall of the Capitol building!

   When I comment on these elected state wide offices, I usually throw in the State Printer position to see if anyone is watching. For many years, the State Printer was an elected state wide office in Kansas. You might recall the State Printers office was in Topeka, of course, on west Tenth Street, about one block west of Kansas Avenue. I believe it was directly across west 10th street from the old Kansas Historical Society building or southeast of the Capital building. The advent of the high speed Xerox machines made the office useless and it was done away with.