In response to our item about campaign contributions from the payday loan industry to both major candidates for Kansas attorney general, the campaign spokesman for Democratic incumbent Steve Six said by e-mail: “If all Derek Schmidt had done is taken money from the payday loan industry, there wouldn’t have been any mention of it in our advertising.” The problem, Six spokesman Gavin Young continued, was that Schmidt voted “on behalf of the industry” as a state senator. Young said the Six campaign agrees “that this is a high-risk industry that is ripe for abuse, but Kansas law is clear that the industry is to be regulated by the state bank commissioner. Any suggestion of making changes to regulation in the Legislature appears to be a nonstarter right now, thanks to the powerful lobby in Topeka.” As for Six’s donations: “People contribute to Steve Six because they know him to be fair, impartial and independent,” Young said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will be on the ballot in November in only one district, her own. But her presence is ubiquitous in unflattering ads nearly everywhere else, 
Former Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh advocated that Kansas hold presidential primaries and perhaps be part of a rotating regional primary system. But since 1992, the Legislature has opted to save money by letting the parties hold caucuses instead — a missed opportunity to maximize voter participation. Surprisingly, neither of the main rivals for secretary of state expressed a strong preference for a presidential primary at last week’s Follow us
