POLITICS: Battle for presidency turned on the votes of some unlikely allies

Key conservatives' support vital to Senate leadership

The recent re-election of Kansas' liberal Senate leadership - Stephen Morris as president, John Vratil as vice-president, and Derek Schmidt as majority leader - appeared to have left Senate conservatives frustrated and a little surprised.

After picking up a little strength in the November elections, conservatives thought Morris and Vratil might be vulnerable, especially after Morris told a New York Times reporter that he had no serious disagreements with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, and after a watchdog group, the Kansas Taxpayers Network, put Vratil near the bottom of Senate Republicans' lifetime ratings.

But when the secret-ballot vote was tallied, Morris - and his allies, Vratil and Schmidt - had prevailed over a conservative challenge led by Susan Wagle. [ Read more...]

Geography also plays a role in who gets appointed to top committee slots

House majority leader claims results trump ideology in choices for committee chairs

Kansas Republican House leaders released a list of lawmakers Wednesday who will serve as chairs and vice chairs of House committees.

Although most, but not all, committees will be chaired by lawmakers who lean to the right, House Majority Leader-elect Ray Merrick of Stilwell said the Republican leadership team, which also includes House Speaker Mike O’Neal and Speaker Pro Tem Arlen Siegfried, focused more on results than ideology in making its choices.

“We have 77 Republicans in the House Republican caucus, and that’s how we have to look at it,” Merrick said. “We can’t look at it like there are 55 conservatives and 22 moderates, or whatever the numbers would be.” [ Read more...]

Sebelius' announcement that she's staying put sends ripples across Kansas' political landscape

Is a job-swap in the future for Brownback and Sebelius?

Might Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Sam Brownback swap jobs come 2010?

Some political observers say that’s possible, now that Sebelius has announced she will not accept a position in the Obama administration - either because none was offered or because she didn't want one, after all.

Either way, the announcement by Sebelius that she wasn't going anywhere fueled speculation that since she can't seek a third term as governor, she may be eyeballing a run for Brownback’s Senate seat. [ Read more...]

'It is highly likely that I will be running for elected office myself in 2010,' says Republican leader

Kobach to step down as state GOP chair

Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kris Kobach announced today that he will not seek a second two-year term as chairman.

In a statement released Monday by the state party, Kobach claimed he had done what he set out to do. "Kansas," he said, "was one of only a handful of states in the country in which Republicans gained seats in 2008."

Kobach said he had accomplished what he set out to do when he assumed the chair in 2007. [ Read more...]

Gilstrap says if successor is a 'yes-man' for Sebelius, he may launch another campaign - as a Republican

Former Democratic senator quits party to join GOP

GOP officials in Wyandotte and Leavenworth Counties – including a former state delegate for the Democrat Party – on Thursday welcomed soon-to-be ex-Senator Mark Gilstrap to the Republican Party.

Gilstrap, a lifelong Democrat who represented parts of Wyandotte and Leavenworth Counties for 12 years in the Kansas Senate before losing a primary election to an opponent backed by fellow Democrat Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in August, announced Thursday morning that he and wife JoAnne were switching their party affiliation.

“The message I got from the Governor when she backed my primary opponent was that if you’re a pro-life Catholic Democrat, you’re not welcome in the party,” Gilstrap told Kansas Liberty. “The Democrats’ big tent is shrinking.” [ Read more...]

In the 2010 version of musical chairs, he'll try to take Jerry Moran's seat

Huelskamp announces a run for Congress

Sen. Tim Huelskamp, the veteran Fowler Republican, has announced he'll pursue a seat in the U.S. Congress for 2010.

Huelskamp wants to fill the First Congressional District opening left by western Kansas' Rep. Jerry Moran.

Moran already has announced his intention to run for the seat being vacated by Sam Brownback in the US Senate. [ Read more...]

EDUCATION: KU research says student achievement unaffected by flood of state revenues

Study shows 'little evidence' education funding improves test scores

In 2005, the state Supreme Court ruled that the education of Kansas schoolchildren was in peril because the Kansas Legislature had not spent enough on the state's schools. Despite the fact that by every recognized measure, Kansas schools already were near or at the top in most state rankings, the court imposed spending increases that are now helping push the state into a deep budget crisis.

The court's only evidence was a discredited school audit that had been dismissed by the Legislature, which had commissioned it, as impractical and dangerously expensive. The audit's figures had been compiled by asking school administrators how much money they would like to receive to achieve a range of outcomes. Critics condemned the audit - and the court's imposition of a funding increase based on it - saying in most cases there was no provable relationship between funding and achievement.

Now, according to a new study released Tuesday by the University of Kansas, it turns out the critics may have been right. [ Read more...]

Operating costs triple over 20 years, tuition jumps five times. Maybe KU should go to Fort Hays to take the course in how to hold down cost?

Why are costs at Kansas' universities skyrocketing?

Operating costs at the University of Kansas have more than tripled in the last 20 years despite stable enrollment figures. The rising costs are largely the result of a substantial increase in the amount of services provided at KU, combined with the decrease in state financing.

According to the University of Kansas Office of Institutional Research and Planning, the operating costs at KU for fiscal year 1988 were $204 million, with 40 percent of the funds coming from state appropriations. KU's ballooning figures were reported in a national education journal.

In fiscal year 2008 the school is at $677 million in operating costs, with just 22 percent of the funding coming from state appropriations. [ Read more...]

HOLCOMB: Current legal challenges could be rendered moot if Legislature acts

Coal plant dispute is heading to the Kansas Supreme Court

A Kansas administrative hearing officer sided with the Sebelius administration Thursday in its ongoing battle against the expansion of a coal-fired power plant planned for Holcomb.

The ruling, which is non-binding, will force the issue to the Kansas Supreme Court.

Officials of Sunflower Electric Corporation, who cried foul when Kansas Secretary of Health and Environment Rod Bremby defied his own staff’s recommendation in October 2007 and denied an air-quality permit needed to allow the project to proceed, welcomed the relatively quick action. [ Read more...]

WISHFUL THINKING: Opponents of gaming blame a badly written bill. Gambling backers say it's all the fault of the economy.

What happened to Kansas' gambling windfall?

One of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas is the Mirage.

"Mirage" also describes the river of revenues that was supposed to flow from the four casinos that were to be owned by the state.

It turns out there was nothing there but dust. [ Read more...]

COMMENT: Being addicted to living on credit is the same as being addicted to cheap cheeseburgers. Bill Wyckoff offers some dieting tips.

High-fat credit

Once again, Uncle Sam is getting more requests to bailout someone else.

Now it is the major credit card companies. You know those dastardly people who use slick marketing to empty the pockets of the public at every turn and then hide behind the consumer unfriendly laws of states like Delaware.

Some overly educated idiot must think we can jump start the economy by packaging up all this worthless debt into U.S. government-backed securities to sell it to oversea investors, in, say, China. Then these same credit card companies would be able to flood the American public with more misleading advertisements to entice people to take on more and more unnecessary debt. [ Read more...]

SNIDE COMMENTS: Casino workers, unite!

The Week on the Web

Two, with a bullet. On a website called Wake up America, Kansas comes in at number two on a list of "really stupid uses of your tax money in 2008."

Training Classes for Casino Workers – Kansas ($784,000) Good casino workers are hard to find in the Kansas City area, according to the Departments of Labor and Education. Both federal departments teamed up this year and gave $784,000 in grants to the Kansas City Kansas Community College for a [Read more...]

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