Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning on Thursday faced blowback from conservative members of his caucus for a trip he took with Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly promoting Medicaid expansion.
Denning on Thursday fended off criticism about the trip to Wichita from conservatives who said it left them exposed amid a high-stakes legislative session that has entangled Medicaid expansion with a constitutional amendment on abortion.
Although there have been sharp exchanges of emails in recent weeks between senators, cracks within the Senate Republican caucus started showing publicly Thursday afternoon as senators convened before going into session.
Saying he was disheartened by Denning’s trip with the Democratic governor, Wichita Republican Sen. Gene Suellentrop asked Denning to commit not to make another trip like it in the future. Denning refused.
“What I really am is very, very disappointed in you doing that,” said Suellentrop, chair of the Senate health committee.
“What you did and the title of majority leader do not go together,” Suellentrop said. “I do not believe you’ve got the majority behind you on that particular vote.”
Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said the Medicaid expansion bill that he crafted came at the behest of the Senate Republican caucus. He pointed out that Suellentrop helped construct the legislation.
“I fulfilled that commitment,” Denning said.
Denning challenged Suellentrop to explain how his joint appearance with Kelly damaged him politically.
Suellentrop said he wasn’t damaged so much as potentially other senators facing tough reelections.
Denning said he understood Suellentrop’s complaint, but said it was his job to pass Medicaid expansion this year as he promised after last year’s legislative session.
Suellentrop said he had understood that the bill Denning was drafting was intended more as a way to play defense in case a worse expansion bill gained traction.
“This was a backstop,” he said. “This was supposed to be a defensive move. He’s making it an offensive move.”
Senate President Susan Wagle, who has blocked Medicaid expansion until the abortion amendment passes in the House, accused Denning of carrying “the governor’s water on a bill she wanted.”
Wagle, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said the timing of Denning’s trip was inopportune.
She pointed out that her district is at risk of being captured by Democrats – former District Attorney Nola Foulston is running for the seat – while GOP Sen. Mike Petersen is facing a challenge from former House Minority Leader Jim Ward.
Wagle said Denning is putting Senate Republicans in a vice between Medicaid expansion supporters on one side and abortion opponents who oppose expansion until the constitutional amendment passes.
“Our biggest voting bloc in a primary is the pro-life community, and we cannot be asked to step on that community and get re-elected. You’re putting us in a pretty difficult spot, Jim – very, very difficult,” Wagle said.
Denning pushed back against the idea that Medicaid expansion bill is the “governor’s bill.”
Denning said that 99% of the Medicaid expansion was a Senate proposal, not the governor’s.
Sen. Richard Hilderbrand questioned Denning’s comments about the caucus asking for a Medicaid expansion bill.
“We have never had a discussion in here, in this caucus, about endorsing Medicaid expansion,” Hilderbrand said.
“We never took a vote. We never took the temperature of this caucus,” he said.
Conservatives in the Senate questioned why Denning’s bill did not include a provision protecting religious and professional conscience objections and work requirements.
Work requirements have been struck down in the courts, and there is now a separate bill that would afford conscience protections for medical providers.
Suellentrop’s committee added an amendment to Denning’s bill that included a work, education or volunteer requirement.
The committee also agreed to allow Medicaid providers to opt out of medical services they object to on religious grounds, such as providing birth control or abortion.
The Legislature has been bogged down since Feb. 7, when the House couldn’t pass a proposed constitutional amendment reversing a state Supreme Court ruling that found the right to an abortion in the state constitution.
The Senate passed the amendment but the House came up four votes short, setting off an effort to block Medicaid expansion.
Ethan Patterson, Denning’s chief of staff, stressed that his boss developed the Medicaid expansion legislation with the support of a majority of senators.
“We wouldn’t have done this if a majority hadn’t come to us saying they needed to take a vote on Medicaid, especially in an election year,” Patterson said.
“Denning is not one of these that does anything just to go rogue and would do something without support of the caucus,” he said after the meeting.
Patterson said he believed complaints about his boss’s trip were limited.
“I think there is a small group that feels uncomfortable by it, but I think that the masses believe that it’s our job to be bipartisan,” he said.
“Jim Denning and Laura Kelly do not agree on everything,” Patterson said. “But they put their differences aside.”
“Now is the time to govern, not pick fights, especially when you know you have the majority of votes.”
