Good morning everyone:
We begin today on a somber note as the coronavirus pandemic escalates with a stay-at-home order issued for Johnson and Wyandotte counties as the number of positive cases rises.
It’s a development that can’t bode well for the prospect of the Kansas Legislature returning for the veto session late next month, especially if similar orders are issued elsewhere.
These are grave times, and we wish everyone to stay healthy and safe as we ride this storm out.
Let’s get started with the more significant stories we published last week and move onto other news you may have missed but need to know that is not necessarily related to the coronavirus.
- The Legislature adjourned Thursday and may very well not return for its veto session, leaving much legislation unfinished.
- The Legislature passed a new multiyear transportation plan, the fourth since the 1990s.
- The Legislature put checks on the governor’s emergency powers, but not to the extent that was originally proposed.
- The Kansas House rejected the governor’s plan to reorganize the state’s energy office and social service agencies.
- The governor halted banks from starting mortgage foreclosures and eviction proceedings.
- The Legislature passed a bill extending unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks. The governor later signed the bill. It turned out to be prudent after it was revealed that claims for unemployment benefits spiked by more than 10,000 in a week.
- Senate President Susan Wagle really was a victim of fake news last week when a false news story about her supposed withdrawal from the Senate race was circulated.
- Sen. Vic Miller has filed to run for his old House seat. He is leaving the Senate seat once held by Gov. Laura Kelly.
- A private Mass of Christian Burial for Senate President Susan Wagle’s daughter, Julia Marie Scott, was held this weekend in Lawrence. A memorial Mass will be held at a later date when restrictions for public gatherings are lifted. Scott passed away last week after a four-year battle with cancer.
Governor issues health care executive orders
Gov. Laura Kelly on Sunday morning announced a new executive order that will help ensure access to health care during the coronavirus pandemic.
The order will:
- Allow doctors to prescribe medicine after an appropriate telemedicine consultation.
- Authorize out-of-state doctors to provide telemedicine services to Kansans if they are licensed in another state.
- Permit temporary emergency licenses for health care professionals regulated by the Kansas Board of Healing Arts.
“By allowing more doctors to practice in Kansas — and more patients to be seen remotely — we can alleviate the increasing burden on our healthcare system,” the governor said in a statement.
“Expanding the use of telemedicine for nonemergency-related assessments like routine checkups and prescribing medication frees up additional time, resources and physical space in our hospitals and clinics.”
She also signed an executive order that will ease restrictions on trucks so they can deliver supplies in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The order lifts certain weight restrictions and permitting requirements to allow trucks to deliver supplies to Kansas or move them through the state more quickly.
“Expediting the transport of resources into the state will enable us to meet the increasing demand for medical supplies, groceries — and yes, even toilet paper.” Kelly said.
Here are the executive orders dealing with health care and the second relating to transportation.
Club for Growth enters Senate race
An old foe has returned to try to defeat Congressman Roger Marshall in his bid for the U.S. Senate.
The conservative-leaning Club for Growth has poured about $33,000 into a campaign that highlights vague complaints about Marshall’s demeanor as a physician.
The ad only refers to the patients by their first names — Sunny, Jeanie and Tammy — and their hometowns.
The comments — some from 2016, when Marshall was running for Congress against Republican incumbent Tim Huelskamp — appear to have been plucked from HealthGrades.com, where anyone can offer remarks about their physician.
A spokesman for Club for Growth would not provide any context or more specificity about the complaints.
Nor would he say how the women’s complaints in the ad were found or if they had filed complaints with state regulators.
The group spent money to run ads against Marshall in six newspapers, including The Kansas City Star, the Wichita Eagle and the Topeka Capital-Journal.
It also created a website asking patients for information about how they were treated by Marshall, who is an obstetrician.
“Several of Dr. Marshall’s patients have raised important concerns about their treatment while under his care,” said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth Action.
“We think Kansas voters deserve to hear what these women have said, and if other women have similar stories we hope they speak out as well,” McIntosh said in a statement.
Marshall campaign manager Eric Pahls blasted the ad campaign.
“In one week, in the midst of an international crisis, a dark money group out of Hollywood and another from the D.C. swamp have attacked Dr. Marshall with strange lies and below-the-belt innuendo,” Pahls said in a statement.
“Luckily Kansas conservatives don’t listen to garbage from Hollywood or the swamp,” he said.
Pahls was alluding to a television ad campaign recently launched against Marshall by a super political action committee financed by PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel.
Club for Growth’s opposition to Marshall is not new.
Four years ago, the group dropped about $400,000 against Marshall in his congressional race against Huelskamp.
Two years ago, the organization gave Marshall a score of 47 out of 100 on its issues scorecard of “pro-growth” policies.
Last summer, Club for Growth released a poll showing Marshall losing to conservative lobbyist Matt Schlapp in the primary.
The poll did not include former Secretary of State Kris Kobach or Senate President Susan Wagle, two of the major candidates for the U.S. Senate.
Nor did it include Kansas Treasurer Jake LaTurner, who at the time was the only announced candidate for Senate. LaTurner is now running for Congress in the 2nd District.
Kelly approval numbers
A week can be an eternity in politics, but here are some polling numbers on Gov. Laura Kelly from about a week ago, shortly after the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Kansas.
The poll of 1,567 Kansas voters showed that Kelly had an approval rating of 44%. Her disapproval rating was at 27%. Twenty-nine percent were unsure.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
The survey was done by Public Policy Polling on March 10 and 11, just days after the first virus case was confirmed and before the governor responded with a series of executive orders, including one closing schools.
The governor’s approval numbers in the PPP poll were lower than Morning Consult polls, which showed Kelly with an approval rating at or just above 50% but well ahead of her disapproval numbers.
Coronavirus and the economy
The sudden spike in unemployment benefits in Kansas in just one week was astonishing as the state responded to the coronavirus pandemic.
Kansas saw benefit claims rise by more than 10,000 last week as hundreds of bars and restaurants were forced to close amid the public health crisis gripping Kansas and the country.
Here’s a look at what’s happening in other parts of the country that will underscore the gravity of the situation:
- The governor of California says unemployment claims exploded by 80,000 in that state in just one day alone.
- Florida restaurant’s and hotels now only employ maybe just about a quarter of the 1.5 million workers they did before the pandemic took hold in that state.
- Colorado reported seeing a 1,400% increase in unemployment claims last week after the state closed down bars and restaurants for 30 days.
- Iowa is seeing an unprecedented number of claims.
- Nebraska is bracing for a flood of unemployment claims.
- The U.S. Labor Department reported 281,000 new unemployment claims, an increase of about a third from a week earlier.
Coronavirus fallout: What regions suffer the most?
The Brookings Institution produced a new report last week that examines what industries and regions will be most affected economically by the spread of the coronavirus.
The report projects that leisure and hospitality, employment services, transportation, oil and gas, as well as travel booking will be the most heavily affected by a sliding economy.
Using those industries, Brookings tries to estimate what parts of the country might be most affected because of a downturn in the economy brought about by the coronavirus.
The good news for Kansas: You’re not as heavily affected as other parts of the country that depend more heavily on the hospitality and energy sectors.
Out of 382 metro areas studied by Brookings, Kansas City ranked 178th, Lawrence was 194th, Wichita was 202nd and Topeka was 346th.
The study showed that 15.6% of the jobs in the Kansas City metro area fell into one of the high-risk industries.
Lawrence was at 15.4%, Wichita was at 15.3%, while Topeka was at 12.4%, the study showed.
The metro areas considered to be the most vulnerable were Midland, Texas; Kahului, Hawaii; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Las Vegas, since more than a third of the jobs in those areas are in sectors that are threatened by the coronavirus.
Brookings concluded that agriculture communities in Madera, California; and Yakima, Washington, were the two least exposed metro areas nationally since less than 10% of their workforces are affected industries.
Medicaid fraud resources
The Legislature passed a budget that approved new positions for the attorney general’s Medicaid fraud unit.
The state’s $19.9 billion budget for 2021 includes seven new positions that will augment a unit that a federal audit described as understaffed.
The audit, released last July, found that each investigator was handling 31 to 51 cases, attorneys 25 to 87 cases and auditors 27 to 49 cases.
While auditors from the Department of Health and Human Services said that staffing levels in Kansas were similar to those in states with similar Medicaid budgets, the case loads were still too large.
The unit already employs 16 people, including six investigators.
The attorney general did not ask for any additional state general fund dollars for the new positions.
The program gets 75% of its funds from the federal government and the remaining 25% from Medicaid.
Thomas draws opposition
Retired teacher and college professor Michael Shimeall is mounting a campaign in House District 26 against Republican incumbent Adam Thomas.
While Shimeall is not officially listed as a candidate, he has appointed a treasurer and has created a Facebook page and a Twitter account for his campaign. He is running as a Democrat.
His Twitter profile shows that he is a retired public school teacher and college professor as well as a Vietnam veteran.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Sterling College, a master’s degree from Emporia State University in history and has doctorate and specialist degrees in educational administration from the University of Nebraska.
At one point, Shimeall worked as an associate professor in the Department of School Leadership and Secondary Education at Emporia State University.
Thomas was elected amid controversy two years ago when questions were raised about whether he lived in the district when he filed to run for office.
Prosecutors charged him with election perjury, but Thomas later entered into a diversion agreement that will lead to the charge being dropped.
Thomas won his 2018 race against Democrat Deann Mitchell with 55% of the vote despite facing the felony charge.
The district has skewed reliably Republican in the past.
Kris Kobach carried the district by about 2 percentage points over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly in 2018.
It went for President Donald Trump with 59% of the vote in 2016, former Gov. Sam Brownback with 57% in 2014 and Mitt Romney with 65% in 2012.
Davids self-quarantines
Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids last week announced she would self-quarantine after being exposed to someone stricken with the coronavirus. Here’s coverage from KCTV and KMBC. Here she discusses her quarantine with KCUR’s Steve Kraske. The segment starts at the 3:30 mark.
Judge selection delayed
The selection of a new judge for the Kansas Court of Appeals has been delayed out of concerns presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
A screening committee had been set to meet last Thursday and Friday to interview 22 candidates and recommend three to the governor to choose from.
But the meeting was delayed at the governor’s request to avoid bringing nine members of the commission and 22 applicants together and because of changes to the legislative calendar
The interviews will be rescheduled for a future date to be determined.
The governor is seeking to fill the seat of Appeals Court Judge Steve Leben, who will retire June 26.
The governor has 60 days after the vacancy to nominate a replacement, who must be confirmed by the Senate.
Emotional and impassioned speeches
The spread of the coronavirus is taking its toll on everyone, even in the halls of government.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran and Kansas House Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch gave passionate speeches in their respective chambers about the health crisis facing Kansas and the nation.
Moran’s speech addressed the economic hardship the state is now facing because of the coronavirus.
Finch’s speech on the House floor rallied lawmakers amid the public health emergency confronting the state.
They’re two speeches worth watching, and we thought we would include them here.
Moran speech
Finch speech
(Begins at about 7:08 mark)
