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.”

Gilstrap, who traces his family’s Democratic roots back to the Civil War period, said he and his wife did their fair share of soul-searching before choosing to disavow the party.

Connie O’Brien, vice-chair of the Leavenworth County Republican Party, knows how that feels. A loyal and active Democrat for most of her life, O’Brien said she became increasingly disillusioned with the Democratic Party as it lurched leftward, particularly on social issues, after the election of Gov. Sebelius.

“I switched for the same reasons Mark did,” O’Brien told Kansas Liberty. “If you’re pro-life, you’re not welcome in the Kansas Democratic Party. You just get marginalized. And if you’re against same-sex marriage, you’re called a bigot.”

Following her party switch in 2004, O’Brien became increasingly active in the party, and, in November, she was elected as a Republican to replace retiring Rep. Kenny Wilk in the Kansas House.

O’Brien said it would be natural for Gilstrap to have some initial misgivings about leaving a party he’s served for the entirety of his adult life.

“But, for me, I just felt better about myself after I switched,” she said. “I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.”

Both O’Brien and Wyandotte County GOP Chair Paul Milton Ham said they would like to see Gilstrap become active in their party organizations.

“Sure I would absolutely welcome Mark to get involved,” Ham said. “He’s obviously got a lot of experience in Topeka and he knows the ins and outs, and I think he could lead us in directions we might not even be aware of now.”

Ham, who was elected Wyandotte County GOP Chair two months ago, said he wants to help lead a revival of the party in the traditionally Democrat-rich district.

“There’s a good number of Republicans, but we’re still outnumbered, and I would welcome anyone who wants to help us build the party up here in Wyandotte County,” Ham said.

Gilstrap said he may very well get involved in the Republican Party organization, and he’s also not ruling out a future run for office.

“I’ve still got $40,000 in my campaign coffers and I’m going to keep a close eye on Kelly Kultala (the primary candidate who defeated him and won election in November),” Gilstrap said. “If she represents the Fifth District – Democrats, Republicans and Independents – that’s fine, but if she’s just going to Topeka to be a yes-man for the Governor, then I would consider running again.”

Gilstrap said his betrayal at the hands of Sebelius, who was joined by Sen. Anthony Hensley in support of Kultala, was just a tipping point that pushed him toward the Republican Party, but he conceded he’s long been at odds with Democrats on both social and fiscal issues.

In fact, his voting record more closely mirrors a Republican's than a Democrat's. He’s been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, he’s strongly pro-life and pro-traditional marriage, he generally opposes tax increases and he voted with lawmakers from both parties in attempting to overturn the Sebelius Administration’s rejection of a coal-fired power plant that was planned in Holcomb.

Gilstrap added that the Kansas Democratic Party’s increasingly radical agenda was costing the party seats in the Legislature.

“Under Sen. Hensley’s leadership, we’ve gone from 16 seats in the Senate in 1994 to 9 this year,” Gilstrap said. “The party’s obviously not going in the right direction.”

- Phil LaCerte

The Week in Review