All the attention went to the offense taken over what Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said about Kansas wine during a Seattle appearance last week. She had other observations about Kansas, though, recalling that at the time of her 2002 election, “I think Kansans, like many American people of a variety of faiths, were alarmed at interference by those who sought to impose their tenets of belief in our public life. If you want to teach creationism, do it in a theology course, but don’t interfere with science classes.â€
She also said: “Most Kansans consider themselves religious — and connect with a specific religion — but don’t want religion practiced in the courtroom or the public schoolroom. A lot of people felt that social justice, the (Iraq) war, poverty — the plight of the least of our brethren — should be what people of faith concern themselves with.â€
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Never mind what voter registration numbers say about Kansas. Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has easily won a second term, thanks to her crossover appeal to moderate Republicans and the weak challenge by state Sen. Jim Barnett of Emporia. Now Sebelius needs to spend some of the political capital she earned at the polls on moving the state further forward. That will mean reaching out more to the GOP-controlled Legislature and being more vocal and visible.
As for the Kansas Republican Party: It still hasn’t learned the lesson of the 2002 election, which was that Democrats can and will capitalize on its ideological split.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
The state budget — and the re-election campaign of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius — got a big boost last week as new budget estimates projected that the state will collect $299 million more in tax revenue this fiscal year than originally forecast. That means there should be more than enough money to fully fund the state’s three-year school finance plan. And it makes it even tougher for GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett to convince voters that the Kansas economy stinks and that Sebelius is to blame.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
If Gov. Kathleen Sebelius wins a second term Tuesday, will she serve it to the end? Asked that question Thursday by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Sebelius clearly left the door open for another opportunity to intervene between now and her term-limited departure in January 2011 — say, as a vice presidential candidate on a Democratic ticket in 2008 or a Cabinet post in a Democratic White House. She said: “It’s my intention to serve if voters give me that opportunity.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
“In a free society, it should be perfectly acceptable to question what is taught and to allow for differences of opinion,” GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett said last week, defending the Kansas State Board of Education’s actions on evolution. “I believe it’s a disservice to limit the scope of what can be considered.”
Fine, but that wasn’t the issue. Teachers and students were already free to question and debate the merits of evolution, as long as schools didn’t promote religion.
But the state board’s job was to set public school science standards for the entire state. And such statewide standards should be based on what the experts consider to be the best science, not the personal religious views of board members.
Would Barnett, a physician, want medical school standards to include remedies that nearly the entire medical community rejects?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Kathleen Sebelius has again been named a top governor by a national magazine, this time by one that focuses on business entrepreneurship. Of 26 governors up for re-election, Sebelius was one of only four to receive Inc. magazine’s highest four-star rating — signifying “a true friend whose policies will benefit businesses over the short and long term.” As with an earlier top ranking by Time magazine, some of the achievements cited by Inc. were more the doing of the Legislature than Sebelius. But Sebelius won praise from Tom Devlin, co-founder of Rent-A-Center, who told Inc. that Kansas governors traditionally haven’t been that pro-business. “Sebelius is the first one who realizes the value of entrepreneurs,” he said.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s not a huge gain, but GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett is narrowing the gap with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, according to a Rasmussen poll last month. Sebelius has a 9 percent edge, leading Barnett by 48 percent to 39 percent. That’s slightly less than the 11 point lead she held in a Rasmussen survey in August. Sebelius’ lead is significantly less than a Survey USA poll last month that had her up by 20 points.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
The Kansas Sierra Club isn’t endorsing either Gov. Kathleen Sebelius or Republican challenger Jim Barnett in the upcoming election, our editorial today reported. Neither has exhibited “environmental leadership,” according to the group’s latest Planet Kansas newsletter.
The group is especially disappointed in Sebelius’ lack of action in developing Kansas’ wind power potential, which is rated among the highest in the nation. Among other things, it would like to see her push for a renewable energy portfolio, which would require utility companies to develop a percentage of their energy from renewables such as wind and solar by a target date.
The governor recently told The Eagle editorial board that she is a big supporter of renewable energy, including wind, but what has she actually done during her term? Nothing bold. Her efforts to moderate the controversy over siting wind power in the Flint Hills by setting up a regional buffer zone is a modest accomplishment at best.
“She needs to lead the way,” said Sierra Club spokesman Craig Wolfe.
Barnett met with the group and expressed support for renewables as an economic development opportunity for Kansas, but his record wasn’t impressive enough to warrant support.
Would the club — often associated with liberals and Democrats — be comfortable endorsing a Republican? Absolutely, said Wolfe. It would and has in other state races.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Here’s a sad testament to these politically testy times: Of the 30 or so campaign ads rolled out across the country Tuesday in contested congressional races, three are positive. According to the New York Times, the unflattering subject matter goes beyond voting records and campaign donations into personal finances, business histories and even old student writings, presented with lots of “shadowy images, breathless announcers, jagged music and a dizzying array of statistics, counterstatistics and vote citations.” By comparison, Kansas’ air wars in the gubernatorial and attorney general races seem pretty tame so far.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, doesn’t appear to have been included in the Times’ review, likely because his race isn’t considered to be competitive. But Tiahrt has a positive commercial up this week that emphasizes jobs and his efforts to keep the U.S. economy competitive.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ new ad expresses her disappointment with Jim Barnett’s anti-immigration commercial.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A relaxed, confident Gov. Kathleen Sebelius offered her case to The Eagle editorial board last week for why she deserves re-election. (We’ll hear from GOP challenger Jim Barnett again next month.) She remains well-positioned to win, but the meeting left the editorial board wanting more from the popular incumbent in the way of big ideas for a second term, along with more substance in the race generally.
Surely one of Time magazine’s “five best governors” in 2005 should be laying out an agenda for something more bold and enduring, even considering the difficulty in seeing her proposals through a GOP-controlled Legislature.
That said, as we ask in our editorial on today’s opinion page, is it somehow too much to expect big ideas and detailed agendas in a Kansas gubernatorial race? Do Kansans prefer their governors to be competent caretakers rather than trailblazers?
FYI: Check out the video excerpts of our interview that are posted on our Opinion page.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It isn’t even September, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is already selling her record hard on TV. Too hard, according to Republicans. The pro-military and anti-waste ads came first, positioning the Democrat as patriotic and fiscally hawkish. But it’s the latest education ad that has drawn the most fire — perhaps also crossing a taste line by using kids as Sebelius’ spokesmodels (though no African-American children, as some Republicans point out). The governor had a key role in legislative discussions of how to respond to the court order to find more money for schools, but most agree that since her 2004 plan went nowhere she’s been behind the scenes rather than out front.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
GOP gubernatorial candidate Jim Barnett wouldn’t tell The Topeka Capital-Journal whether he’d rather the conservative majority on the State Board of Education had remained in place. He said: “I prefer that the people of Kansas are engaged in the election process and get out to vote.” Yet Barnett was critical of opponents of the science standards for twisting the other side’s position and being less than factual about what’s in the standards, and he said local districts should be free to teach science as they see fit. “What I think is important is both sides of this story are taught in a factual manner,” he said. For her part, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius seems pleased with the outcome of the Aug. 1 primary, which ensured that evolution critics will lose their majority on the board. “I’ve always believed that science should be taught in science classrooms,” she said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman