As the results of a state audit on the impact of the state’s $1.3 billion investment in economic development since 2003 were presented to a legislative panel Tuesday, state Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, asked a question worthy of debate: “What if we just lowered business taxes by $1.3 billion? Would that have more of an impact?” Of course, if Kansas hesitated to offer generous cash and tax incentives to business, other states wouldn’t hesitate to steal those companies and jobs away.
Time to place bets on which role Gov. Kathleen Sebelius might be asked to fill in an Obama-Biden administration. Christian Morgan, Kansas Republican Party executive director, guesses Environmental Protection Agency administrator, because of the Sebelius administration’s fight to keep new coal-fired plants out of western Kansas. The Roll Call newspaper notes that she and other governors with experience running their states’ Medicaid programs “could be strong candidates” to head the Department of Health and Human Services, also mentioning her as a possible education, agriculture or energy secretary. Sebelius’ eight years as Kansas insurance commissioner would favor her to lead HHS, too. Or Sebelius could serve out her second term in Topeka, then run in 2010 for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sam Brownback. Roll Call also raises the possibility that Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby might head Obama’s EPA.
If Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, is holding a grudge against Gov. Kathleen Sebelius over the coal-plant fight, he didn’t let it show in a New York Times profile of the governor last week. The article described her as “a darling of environmentalists” for blocking the Holcomb plant. “That’s the only major disagreement we’ve had since she took office,” Morris said. “She knew she would have to work with Republicans when she came in, and she’s done pretty well doing that.” He also noted that she’s “taken advantage” of the ideological split in the Kansas GOP.
Noting that a National Women’s Law Center poll shows women are more concerned than men about economic security, MarketWatch columnist Darrell Delamaide recently wondered if Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ eight years as an aggressively pro-consumer Kansas insurance commissioner “could tip the scale in her favor” in the Democratic veepstakes. “After all, insurance is all about financial security. During her tenure as insurance commissioner, Sebelius often stood up to the insurance industry, as when she blocked Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas from merging with an Indiana company, arguing that it would raise health-insurance premiums in Kansas.”
As leaders of key health committees in the Legislature, Sen. Susan Wagle (in photo), R-Wichita, and Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, surely are more knowledgeable than they appeared in an Eagle news article Thursday. Wagle complained that too many people on public health assistance could afford to take responsibility for their care. Her evidence: patients she saw who had cell phones or talked about watching cable TV. Landwehr complained about “a generation who believes that welfare is a job.”
Most of the estimated 47 million Americans who don’t have health insurance are working full time, and most of the people who receive public health assistance had to meet income qualifications. The fact that some of them have cell phones doesn’t mean they could afford health insurance premiums, which in 2007 averaged more than $12,000 a year for a family.
State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins’ GOP primary victory over former Rep. Jim Ryun was “another sign that, for the moment, moderate Republicans seem to be on the ascent” in Kansas, observes RealClearPolitics’ Reid Wilson in an article headlined “What’s Wrong With Kansas Republicans?” Further evidence: All seven top moderate Republican state senators who faced primary challengers won last week (though state Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, did so by only 202 votes), belying the conventional wisdom that conservatives own GOP primaries in Kansas.
There weren’t many big surprises in Tuesday’s primaries, but a few of the results were interesting. In the 2nd Congressional District, GOP moderate and state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins appears to have narrowly prevailed against social conservative and former Rep. Jim Ryun, though a vote-counting goof could change the outcome. And in the Johnson County district attorney race, Phill Kline got clobbered by Steve Howe, a former assistant district attorney Kline had dismissed after Kline was appointed to the job. Ouch. Locally, Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers Network, soundly defeated incumbent Tom Winters in the Sedgwick County Commission race.
Given that Kansas is 45 percent registered Republican and 27 percent registered Democratic, you’d expect the Kansas Republican Party to dominate in fundraising. But the Kansas Democratic Party is showing unexpected strength, raising $3 million to the Kansas Republican Party’s $600,000 over the past six reporting periods. Christian Morgan, state party executive director, responded that GOP fundraising extends to more groups than Democratic fundraising, and predicted the state GOP party’s role will increase after the primary.
Topeka Capital-Journal columnist Ric Anderson is going to miss our own state Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville — calling him “an individual in a place with a lot of suits. He worked hard, was conscientious and became a go-to guy for reporters looking for a tasty quote. A gun-rights advocate, he stocked his apartment with handguns, a rifle and a shotgun when he stayed here during sessions. He delighted in saying he rubbed elbows with Charlton Heston and Ted Nugent during NRA events.” Journey is running to become a Sedgwick County District Court judge, a job that would position him far less well to serve reporters with quotes, tasty or otherwise.
Wonder how many Kansans know most or all of U.S. News & World Report’s “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Kathleen Sebelius.” Here’s one: “Kathleen attended all-girls schools all the way through college. She thrived in that environment, where, she has said, she ‘was never told, overtly or covertly, girls couldn’t do everything.’”
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is often criticized by Republicans for her busy travel schedule. But Wichita should thank her for taking the time and trouble to visit the recent Farnborough International Air Show near London, where she drew some extra attention because of the Obama veepstakes buzz surrounding her. The governor’s presence at the air show helped convey to the world the mammoth role that Kansas and Wichita play in aviation manufacturing, and their determination to defend and build on that role in a highly competitive global economy.
It’s difficult to remember another election year with so many revelations about local candidates’ serious personal and professional issues. A stalking protection order, bad personal debts, bad business debts, a personal bankruptcy, a Kansas Supreme Court censure - and it’s just the primary season. Some explanations may inspire empathy in potential voters also going through tough stuff in this economy. But you have to wonder what makes people overlook their failings to file for elective office, then expect voters to overlook them as well.
Homeowners’ associations in Kansas may not like political yard signs, but they can no longer prohibit them, thanks to a law introduced by state Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, and approved unanimously in May by the House and Senate. The law limits the signs’ size to less than 6 square feet and their display to 45 days before the election and two days afterward. But it protects a homeowner’s right to state his political preference on his lawn. “I think it’s good public policy to let people participate in politics, and this is one way people can do that,” Journey told the Topeka Capital-Journal. However, a First Amendment scholar doubts such laws’ legitimacy, because free speech constraints apply to governments, not homeowners’ and condominium associations.
Legislative candidate Sean Tevis made the popular boingboing and crooksandliars Web sites with a cartoon pitch to help him unseat Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe. Boingboing says that Tevis is “a geeky geek from Kansas who’s fed up with his state rep, an anti-abortion, anti-evolution, pro-censorship, pro-surveillance, anti-gay incumbent.” Tevis called for 3,000 people to each donate $8.34 in support of open government, personal property and ending the sales tax on food. He’s already more than met his goal. What will he do with all that Internet dough? Boingboing said it will help him kick Siegfreid’s “(extremely tight) ass.”
Gas prices are driving up the cost of politicking this summer, especially in lesser-populated rural areas. An article on the subject by Harris News Service noted that one Wichita district is the smallest in the Kansas House: District 88, held by Democratic Rep. Jim Ward, consists of 4.59 square miles. At 6,568 square-miles, the House’s biggest is District 118, represented by Republican Virginia Beamer of Oakley. The smallest Senate district, 15.83 square miles, is represented by Sen. Barbara Allen, R-Overland Park. The Senate’s largest district, represented by Sen. Ralph Ostmeyer, R-Grinnell, consists of 16,637 square-miles — a whopping 20 percent of the state.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius made national news last year when she complained about Kansas National Guard equipment shortages. Much of the equipment had been sent to Iraq and wasn’t available to respond to disasters here, such as the Greensburg tornado. So what is the equipment status these days? “Fair but guarded condition,” Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting (in photo with Sebelius), the state’s adjutant general and Guard commander, told the Lawrence Journal-World. “We’re better than we were.” The Kansas National Guard has a few more helicopters than it did last year, though they are older and the Guard barely has enough of them, Bunting said. It continues to be significantly short on trucks and Humvees, and also doesn’t have the radar equipment it needs to train soldiers.
“As the other woman in the vice-presidential derby, Sebelius is often regarded as a road-company version of Hillary Clinton, a pale reflection of the real thing.” — Salon writer Walter Shapiro, who also described the Kansas governor as “a passionate advocate of political moderation, as oxymoronic as that may seem”
Two of Kansas’ statewide officeholders are standing out in their fields: Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger (in photo) is president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and state Treasurer Lynn Jenkins is president of the National Association of State Treasurers. It’s a vote of confidence in Kansans’ judgment whenever their elected officials are looked to for leadership among their peers.
The state Capitol is a treasure that must be maintained. But its long-running renovation is trying Kansans’ patience. Members of a legislative committee learned last week that the project, budgeted at $120 million eight years ago, may end up costing closer to $300 million by the 2011 completion date, because construction costs are projected to be up 15 percent this year. “It’s a cause for concern, but we just have to plan for it,” said Statehouse architect Barry Greis.
It was bad enough that seven state surplus computers offered for sale were found to still contain confidential information such as Social Security numbers and personal data about Medicaid recipients. Worse, the surplus property program had used inmate labor until January 2007, mostly female inmates from the Topeka Correctional Facility. A spokesman for the Kansas Department of Administration assured the Topeka Capital-Journal that the computers were never turned on when the inmates were around, but nothing about this investigation inspires much confidence — including assurances that it won’t happen again.
It may look and sound like a political ad and, now, even have been coordinated with a candidate’s campaign, but its backers aren’t subject to Kansas campaign finance laws if the ad doesn’t explicitly tell people for whom to vote. That’s according to a frustrating advisory opinion issued by the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission. The panel can’t do anything about “issue advocacy groups,” which can spend as much as they want with no disclosure of donor lists or expenditures, until the Legislature does. “That’s the law and it will be until Kansas changes it,” said Carol Williams, executive director of the commission. In any case, get ready for more such ads and mailers this year.
Kansans don’t seem to be warming to the Sebelius administration’s exhaustive efforts to block a coal-fired power plant expansion near Holcomb. Though one survey last November found that 62 percent of Kansans strongly agreed with the administration’s initial decision to deny the plant’s air-quality permit, 48 percent of the 500 Kansans surveyed earlier this month by Rasmussen Reports said the state should allow the plant to be built, compared with 32 percent against the plant.
Concluding that “ownership and operation are flexible concepts,” the Kansas Supreme Court today gave the green light to the 2007 expanded gambling law and the four destination casinos planned around the state. That will be a huge relief to developers and locals in Sumner County and elsewhere who’ve been proceeding under the assumption that the law was constitutional. It also should be some comfort to state lawmakers looking for a cash source to offset declining state revenue. But even the court acknowledged the ambiguity of the setup: Under the state constitution, the state must control the “ownership and operation” of the casinos, yet they will be managed by private contractors.
A Rasmussen Reports poll earlier this month gauged how Kansans felt about Gov. Kathleen Sebelius having hosted a 2007 reception bought at auction by Wichita abortion provider George Tiller. The results should give Sebelius and the nonprofit group Friends of Cedar Crest something to talk about: 44 percent said Sebelius shouldn’t have allowed the event at the governor’s mansion, and 51 percent said receptions at Cedar Crest should not be offered as fundraisers for groups such as the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus.
With Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., having drawn a credible opponent in former Democratic congressman Jim Slattery, there is much mention of the facts that Kansans haven’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932 and only a total of three since statehood in 1861. But such trivia overlook the barn-burner Senate election in 1974, when Bob Dole escaped the Watergate fallout and won re-election over congressman Bill Roy by only 13,500 votes.
Roy has a commentary on today’s Opinion page noting how much doctors now favor some form of universal health care, and how that is the most economic, efficient system.
As the results of a state audit on the impact of the state’s $1.3 billion investment in economic development since 2003 were presented to a legislative panel Tuesday, state Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, asked a question worthy of debate: “What if we just lowered business taxes by $1.3 billion? Would that have more of an impact?” Of course, if Kansas hesitated to offer generous cash and tax incentives to business, other states wouldn’t hesitate to steal those companies and jobs away.
