“Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is on a glide path toward re-election, having won endorsements from each of the state’s four members of Congress as well as five statewide officeholders,” wrote Kansas City Star columnist Steve Kraske. “Oh, did I mention he’s got $1.1 million in the bank, too?” Kraske also credited Gov. Sam Brownback and his political operative, David Kensinger, with “the solidarity the Kansas GOP is maintaining in the wake of its historic clean-sweep election of 2010. The temptation to break rank and run for Senate or governor, and trigger a primary, is extraordinary given the number of down-ballot officeholders with oversized ambitions,” he wrote. “But so far, the dam is holding.” Of course, the newly powerless moderate Republicans are angry and restless, and will see their only statewide officeholder, Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, retire after 2014. The GOP primary for that job will feature at least three conservatives, including repeat candidate David Powell of El Dorado.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has four vacancies, including, unbelievably, the one created when Chief Justice John Roberts left that bench in 2005. President Obama is hoping his latest nominee for that court, Sri Srinivasan, will avoid a GOP filibuster. Srinivasan, who played basketball in high school with Danny Manning while growing up in Lawrence, is the Obama administration’s principal deputy solicitor general and has been endorsed by the likes of Kenneth Starr. He had an uneventful hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Washington Post’s Jonathan Bernstein called the Srinivasan nomination the “moment of truth” for Obama’s nominations to the court, which is often seen as a stepping-stone to the Supreme Court. “If 41 or more Republicans simply will not vote for anyone to the left of John Roberts, the only option left to Democrats will be Senate rules reform,” Bernstein wrote. “On the other hand, if Srinivasan can be confirmed, Republican claims that they have objected only to specific nominees for specific reasons can be taken more seriously.”
“We should swallow hard and extend the sales tax,” concluded Kansas City Star columnist Steve Rose, urging the House to go along with the Senate and Gov. Sam Brownback. The 2012 tax plan won’t be repealed, Rose wrote, and extending the sales-tax hike beyond its June 30 sunset date is the only way to avoid draconian budget cuts to K-12 schools, higher education and social programs as state revenue ebbs. “It is appropriate to feel sympathy for those who would like to see the governor pay the price for his irresponsible income tax cuts. And sympathies abound for those who were viciously attacked for supporting the sales-tax hike in the first place,” Rose wrote. “But let’s not shoot ourselves in the foot while aiming at Brownback.”
“I don’t know what we’ve done to Mother Nature, but she sure hasn’t been very kind to us.” – Sen. Pat Roberts (in photo), R-Kan., in a Senate floor speech about strengthening crop insurance
“What Republicans need to do is get off their rear ends and go out, outside of Washington, and talk about what they’re for.” – Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, in a radio interview in which he also dismissed party outreach to “the so-called Hispanic voter”
“We all find ways to entertain ourselves late at night.” – Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, on the House’s 0-120 vote against the Senate tax plan and its extension of the higher sales-tax rate
“It’s just craziness to think that accounting maneuvers would fool the court and turn an apple into an orange.” – John Robb, an attorney for school districts in their lawsuit against the state, on a House-passed bill that would newly count a portion of local-option budget funding as base state aid
“I would like to see the highest-paid person in every school be a teacher.” – Rep. Ron Highland, R-Wamego, saying districts can use money more wisely
Never mind that Wichita is a long way from an ocean. It was a proud moment to learn last week that a U.S. Navy warship will again bear the city’s name and safeguard the nation’s liberty around the world. Lockheed Martin’s construction of the new USS Wichita should begin in the next couple of years in Wisconsin, according to the office of Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita. The littoral combat ship, a kind of fast and maneuverable craft designed for combat close to shorelines, will be the third Navy ship named after Wichita and the first since 1993. As Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said: “Two great ships have already carried Wichita’s namesake, and its re-selection is a real honor for the city and for Kansas.”
It was a relief to see U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson refuse Wednesday to order the federal government to accept into trust the Park City site where the Wyandotte Nation wants to build a casino. Now the Interior Department will decide whether the 10.5 acres, which are unconnected to the tribe’s history and far from its reservation in Oklahoma, can be considered tribal lands and therefore available for tribal gaming. The judge’s decision is another important roadblock to a tribal casino, which would be at odds with the 2007 Sedgwick County vote against casino gaming and also would be untaxed and largely unregulated.
According to Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight political numbers blog, Gov. Sam Brownback is among 10 governors up for re-election next year whose job-approval numbers are “underwater” – with more constituents disapproving than approving of their job performance. For Brownback, the numbers are 36 percent approval and 51 percent disapproval. At least Brownback’s net negative job approval number (minus 16) is lower than those of Rhode Island’s independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee (minus 40), Illinois’ Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn (minus 24) and Florida’s Republican Gov. Rick Scott (minus 20). And as the blog noted, “being unpopular does not necessarily make an incumbent vulnerable to defeat.”
It looks like something great for the community will come from the Wichita school district’s decision last year to close Lincoln Elementary School, thanks to the school board’s vote Monday paving the way to sell the school to the Child Advocacy Center of Sedgwick County for $260,000 later this month. Staffed by law enforcement officers and others who investigate and fight child abuse, the nonprofit center has been doing its crucial and sensitive work in the awkward setting of the State Office Building downtown. At the former school, it can fulfill its goal of being a one-stop, child-focused crisis center for victims of physical and sexual abuse, human trafficking and Internet crimes. Would taxpayers rather the sale were at a price closer to the appraised value for the property and land of $939,000? Of course. But the community has sorely needed such a center for years now, and as superintendent John Allison said Monday: “This is truly the definition of a win-win.”
As President Obama steps up his call for an up-or-down vote on gun restrictions in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School carnage, Kansas Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts and 11 other Senate Republicans are threatening to filibuster any such vote. The senators, led by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., said in a letter Monday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that they “intend to oppose any legislation that would infringe on the American people’s constitutional right to bear arms, or on their ability to exercise this right without being subjected to government surveillance.” But Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that he didn’t understand the filibuster threat: “The purpose of the United States Senate is to debate and to vote and to let the people know where we stand.” McCain asked: “What are we afraid of?”
Gov. Sam Brownback at least brought some badly needed gender diversity to the all-male Sedgwick County District Court Monday by choosing Wichita attorney Faith Maughan to fill the spot left empty by the governor’s appointment of Tony Powell to the Kansas Court of Appeals. Maughan has a good resume, including work with the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps and as a municipal prosecutor and judge. Unfortunately, Brownback shunned the traditional input of the Wichita Bar Association and declined to even release a short list of finalists – odd for a governor who has decried the secrecy of the state’s merit-selection process for appellate judges. And Brownback, who also has spoken of judicial selection needing to pass the “democracy test,” has someone in Maughan who lost the GOP primary for a judgeship by 9 percentage points last August. Plus, her sharply partisan campaign cast doubt on her ability to be fair and impartial, especially should a case relating to abortion come to her courtroom.
In a commentary in the Washington Times, Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, characterized “God, the flag, mom and apple pie” as pillars “of the American paradigm for our patriotic, wholesome culture.” He claimed that “activist judges have already expelled faith from the public square” and “decriminalized burning the Stars and Stripes in public.” Huelskamp continued: “The first lady’s ‘Let’s Move!’ initiative and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s sugary-drink ban suggest the days of consuming apple pie might well be numbered. That leaves motherhood.” And that will be irreparably harmed, he wrote, if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns California’s Proposition 8 and the federal Defense of Marriage Act. “Redefining marriage to remove parents of both sexes from the equation would further the destruction of the family, the most fundamental building block of society,” he wrote.
After Complex magazine listed “The 40 Hottest Women in Tech,” Pando Daily responded with a less-serious “The 41 hottest guys in tech,” which included Jeff Bridges in “Tron” and “Al Gore’s beard (deceased).” Coming in at No. 34 was Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., accompanied by this comment: “Hottest advocate for high-skilled immigration that Capitol Hill has seen since John Adams.” Moran recently attended the South by Southwest Interactive event in Austin to promote his Startup Act 3.0, which would create visas to allow educated and entrepreneurial immigrants to stay in the country, accelerate the commercialization of university research and serve other high-tech goals.
Though Wichita’s low-turnout election last week barely qualified as news, Topeka voters made history by electing four women to the City Council. That means women now hold five of nine seats – their first majority in the council’s 28-year history. “I think a real theme of Topeka is freedom and offering an opportunity to anybody who is willing to step up,” re-elected council member Karen Hiller told the Topeka Capital-Journal. The election brought to mind both the historic election of an all-female Syracuse city council in 1887, just after Kansas amended the constitution to allow women to vote and hold municipal offices, and the city-county fight in Topeka in 2011 over paying for prosecution of domestic violence cases, which drew national headlines such as “Enjoy Hitting Your Spouse? Move to Topeka.” In contrast, Wichita has two women on its seven-member City Council; it reached a peak of three a few years ago.
The commitment to school needs and funding at the state level remains questionable, but Kansans seem eager to raise taxes to invest in their schools locally. School bond issues passed last week in half a dozen Kansas districts including Lawrence and Shawnee County’s Seaman district, with the winning majorities ranging from 53 percent in Goodland to 92 percent in Goessel. “We were conservative and focused on education and not a lot of wants,” said Jeff Johnson, school board vice president in McPherson, where the bond issue passed with 81 percent of votes.
“I would gracefully bow out.” – Rep. Mike Pompeo (in photo), R-Wichita, joking about what he would do if WSU men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall ran for Congress
“It is those who make the most noise that sometimes succeed. I thought I’d made a lot of noise.” – Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., in the Washington Post, lamenting his failure to exempt small air traffic control towers from the sequester cuts
“Yes, I’d like to appoint myself mayor.” – Wichita City Council member Paul Gray, joking during the board appointments agenda item at his last meeting Tuesday
Gov. Sam Brownback may think same-sex marriage is a settled issue in Kansas eight years after nearly 70 percent of voters approved a constitutional amendment that prohibited it and barred the state from recognizing civil unions. And 87 percent of those Kansans recently polled by SurveyUSA said their opinion on same-sex marriage hadn’t changed over the past couple of years. But the survey, sponsored by KWCH, Channel 12, also found that 60 percent of Kansans said same-sex couples should be able to share in the legal benefits of marriage. In addition, 42 percent said the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold lower courts’ rulings against California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 law defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
Some of the state’s newspapers have joined The Wichita Eagle in celebrating the Wichita State University Shockers’ unexpected run to the Final Four. The Garden City Telegram urged all Kansans to get behind the Shockers, also calling for regular WSU games against the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. Dubbing WSU “the little Kansas team that could,” the Salina Journal editorialized: “With KU and K-State falling by the wayside – K-State a one-and-done and KU kicking away a huge lead against a frantic Michigan team in the Sweet 16 – we’re all Shocker fans now, or should be.” The Hays Daily News said: “The school with fewer than 15,000 students is more renowned for its bowling teams. The men and women pinstrikers have won 19 national titles since 1975. This year’s basketball team will change that reputation.”
Agree or disagree with Jeff Davis, vice president of the Wichita school board, who is leaning toward supporting a vote to close the current Southeast High and build a new $54 million building at 127th Street East and Pawnee. But at least Davis has shared his thinking with the community, as of an article in Monday’s Eagle by Suzanne Perez Tobias. “I’ve thought about it and looked at the plans, and I think it’s probably the right way to go,” Davis said, citing the benefits to students of state-of-the-art classrooms and athletic fields and a roomier site. Such talk arguably is premature, because the superintendent hasn’t made a formal recommendation to close Southeast and there haven’t been any public forums to gather stakeholders’ input. But as the process moves forward, the rest of the board members will owe the community their own explanations of their thinking and, ultimately, their votes on the issue, which will be defining for the school’s current 1,600 students and both neighborhoods.
Good for the Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback for taking steps to bring more rapists and child molesters to justice with House Bill 2252, which eliminates the statute of limitations on rape and aggravated sodomy and makes it easier for adults to report sex crimes that occurred when they were children. As Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt noted, successful prosecutions still will need good evidence. But because of technology and the new state law, time will no longer be on the side of a sex offender intent on escaping justice.
The efforts of Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., to curb Federal Aviation Administration cuts under sequestration and keep 149 airport control towers open were highlighted in a Wall Street Journal editorial blasting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Moran “proposed replacing $50 million of FAA sequester cuts with savings from unspent balances, which are a kind of agency slush fund, and by reducing other low-priority spending. Great idea. How did the vote turn out? There wasn’t one. Majority Leader Reid blocked the amendment from ever getting to the Senate floor.” The editorial noted that “Moran also couldn’t get a vote to restore funding for White House tours by cutting $2.5 million for new uniforms for airport screeners.”
“This may be the absolute worst idea I have ever heard in my life.” – Sen. Les Donovan (in photo), R-Wichita, about a proposal that Kansas Turnpike fees be higher the faster you drive
“If I had my way, you’d have to pass a test to get out of high school.” – House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, while saying he’s “not for mandates” but supports the governor’s proposal to hold back slow-reading third-graders
“Universal truth: the phrase ‘with all due respect’ precedes a statement devoid of said respect.” – Rep. Stephanie Clayton, R-Overland Park, tweeting during a House debate
“Ten years ago, you’d have never heard of me again.” – U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, in Salina, crediting the Internet with giving him even greater influence since his ouster from House committees
“Roberts Racks Up GOP Endorsements, Thwarting Primary in 2014,” declared Roll Call, after Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., released a list of re-election endorsements Thursday from “every top Republican official in Kansas.” Roll Call noted that “the Sunflower State is safe GOP territory, and Republicans are expected to hold the seat in 2014. But earlier this cycle, some quietly wondered if Roberts would face a primary challenge.”
How regrettable that the first bill to become law this year – House Bill 2019, which Gov. Sam Brownback signed Wednesday – was one that needlessly politicizes a merit-selection process for the Court of Appeals that has served Kansas well for 36 years. Now, Kansas reportedly is unique in the nation for selecting Court of Appeals judges one way and Supreme Court justices another way. Because the new system lets the governor pick anyone he wants but requires that his choices be confirmed by the Senate, which only works during the spring, the change could result in long-vacant seats on the court. Never mind that January poll showing 61 percent of Kansas voters opposed changing how appellate judges are selected. And so much for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2012 opinion that the nonpartisan nominating commission long used for Kansas’ appellate courts “is designed to ensure the conduct of the executive branch does not threaten the integrity of the judicial branch.”
Our March 22 Eagle editorial, “Speak now on budget,” referred to the unsuccessful effort by state Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, to amend the Senate budget plan “to help community mental health centers recover from the deep cuts they’ve sustained.” That drew an e-mail to the editorial board from Shawn Sullivan, secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, who said “the mental health centers have not received deep cuts” and cited, among other increases, an “increase of $209 million in fiscal year 2011 to $252 million in fiscal year 2014 (budget projection) for total community mental health center funding.” Sullivan’s perspective differs sharply from that of Michael J. Hammond, executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas, who has said that mental health reform dollars, which are what the system relies on to serve the uninsured and underinsured, have been “reduced by 50 percent since fiscal year 2008” and that “funding cuts to mental health reform dollars continue to place the public mental health system at a breaking point.”
Nate Silver, the New York Times statistical wizard known for his accurate predictions in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, gives Wichita State University a 24 percent chance of reaching the Final Four but only a 1.2 percent chance of winning the championship. “Wichita State has had as favorable a tournament as any team in the country so far,” Silver wrote. “Its win against No. 1-seeded Gonzaga on Saturday got lots of attention, but the team also crushed No. 8-seeded Pittsburgh in its first game, a team that the computer rankings regarded highly. As their reward, the Shockers will face an overachieving La Salle team in the Round of 16. Their next game, against Ohio State or Arizona, would be much tougher.” Silver put the odds of another University of Kansas championship at 4.5 percent, down from 7.9 percent. “The decline in Kansas’ winning odds might seem a bit punitive,” he wrote, “but the Jayhawks played three underwhelming halves of basketball before finally turning it on against North Carolina late on Sunday. Kansas will have much less margin for error against No. 4 seed Michigan, its opponent on Friday, and then in a potential matchup against Florida over the weekend, two teams that are well-regarded by the model.” Silver sees Louisville as the most likely winner, with a 32.4 percent chance.
“Republican Sen. Pat Roberts is on a glide path toward re-election, having won endorsements from each of the state’s four members of Congress as well as five statewide officeholders,” wrote Kansas City Star columnist Steve Kraske. “Oh, did I mention he’s got $1.1 million in the bank, too?” Kraske also credited Gov. Sam Brownback and his political operative, David Kensinger, with “the solidarity the Kansas GOP is maintaining in the wake of its historic clean-sweep election of 2010. The temptation to break rank and run for Senate or governor, and trigger a primary, is extraordinary given the number of down-ballot officeholders with oversized ambitions,” he wrote. “But so far, the dam is holding.” Of course, the newly powerless moderate Republicans are angry and restless, and will see their only statewide officeholder, Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, retire after 2014. The GOP primary for that job will feature at least three conservatives, including repeat candidate David Powell of El Dorado.
