Good morning everyone:
Sincerely hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.
We’re now about to move into the second week of the lockdown at the SSJ offices, and it hasn’t been that bad.
We have enough work to do that we’re essentially hunkered down in front of the laptop anyway with little sense of time.
The only difference is that Mrs. SSJ is working in the adjacent room with her battle station of laptops and phones as she executes HR policy in response to the virus. She probably is more qualified to write about COVID-19. We haven’t gotten on each other’s nerves — yet.
Political news is in short supply these days, with the headlines dominated by COVID-19.
But we have scrapped together what we hope is another worthwhile Sunday roundup. So let’s get started with significant stories we published last week and the news you may have missed but need to know…
- Gov. Laura Kelly announced a statewide stay-at-home order in the ongoing fight against the spread of COVID-19.
- Candidates rework their campaign strategies as they face stay-at-home orders and limits on mass gatherings in the fight against the coronavirus.
- A look at the fate of more than 50 bills that were considered during the 2020 legislative session. It will give you an idea of how much was left unfinished if the Legislature doesn’t return for its so-called veto session in April or May.
- Republican state Rep. Kellie Warren announced her candidacy for the state Senate seat held by Republican John Skubal in Johnson County.
- Republican congressional candidate Amanda Adkins added a campaign manager and made some other staffing changes.
- The U.S. Supreme Court upheld state law for an insanity defense and turned away a quadruple murderer’s appeal.
- Unemployment claims rocket upward as businesses shut down or curb staffing amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- The Kansans Republicans are taking their district conventions virtual in response to the threat of COVID-19.
- Gov. Laura Kelly extended the deadline for filing income taxes and renewing car tags.
Top 10 ranking for Kansas
Kansas ranks among the top 10 states in the country for the response rate to the U.S. census.
A database that allows you to follow how well states are responding to the census shows Kansas ranks sixth nationally.
Kansas had a self-response rate of 36.2% to the census, compared to 31.6% nationally as of Saturday.
Leading the country was Wisconsin at 39%, followed by Minnesota at 38.1%, Nebraska at 38%, Iowa at 37.8% and Michigan at 36.8%.
Former Democratic secretary of state candidate Brian McClendon has been crunching the data and shared his state-by-state ranking with the Sunflower State Journal.
McClendon is a co-chair of the Kansas Complete Count Committee, which Gov. Laura Kelly created to ensure that as many Kansans were counted in the census as possible.
The census database sets up a competition of sorts between states, counties and cities to see who is ahead of each other when it comes to completing the census on their own.
Within Kansas, for instance, Johnson County had a response rate of 40.6%, Shawnee County had a response rate of 38.5%, Sedgwick had a response rate of 35.6%, Wyandotte County was at 28.8% and Douglas County was at 37.5%.
The Census Bureau produced a map of each state that also gives you a sense of the response rate by region.
Some of the areas with the lowest response rates in the state included southwest Kansas, where Morton County had a 5.5% response rate, along with Stanton County at 7.6%, Clark County at 13.1% and Kearny County at 12.1%.
Other counties of interest: Finney County, 26.2%; Riley County, 34.2%; Saline County, 39.1%; Crawford County, 34%; and Barton County, 36.9%.
Bear in mind, these numbers were good as of last Saturday and can fluctuate daily as more and more people fill out their survey.
Unemployment numbers by county
Kansas saw unemployment claims soar by nearly 24,000 for the week ending March 21, a jump of more than 1,700% over 2019 and more than 1,200% from the week before.
The Department of Labor last week broke down where most of those claims were filed, revealing a trend that generally follows the state’s population centers.
The state Labor Department data shows that 6,349 initial claims were from Sedgwick County, 4,772 claims came from Johnson County, 1,842 were from Douglas County and 1,067 from Wyandotte County.
Coronavirus politics
President Donald Trump is increasingly at odds with the nation’s governors over how to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Some governors, including Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, promise to resist efforts by the president to open parts of the country as the number of COVID-19 cases escalates.
“From the very beginning, the states have really had to take the lead on this,” Kelly said at a news conference Saturday when she announced a statewide stay-at-home order.
“We are making this move now because of what we are seeing here in Kansas,” she said.
“Any guidelines from the federal government that don’t model this, we quite honestly will ignore. We think this is what is reflective of the current situation in Kansas.”
Meanwhile, Politico is reporting that other governors will likely fight to protect their own social distancing rules despite what the Trump administration decides.
Here are two similar pieces, one from the Des Moines Register and the Guardian. Another look from The Associated Press at how governors are dealing with Trump during the health crisis.
Coronavirus polling
A new Pew Research Center poll shows that Americans of all political stripes are generally coming to a consensus about the seriousness of the threat posed by the coronavirus.
The poll of 11,537 U.S. adults from March 19 to March 24 shows that the country is increasingly becoming worried about the spread of the virus.
Sixty-six percent of those surveyed believe that the coronavirus is a major threat to the health of Americans, compared to 47% surveyed in a poll done by Pew from March 10-16.
Meanwhile, 88% said COVID-19 presents a major threat to the U.S. economy, compared to 70% surveyed in the earlier poll.
“While Democrats remain more likely than Republicans to say that the coronavirus outbreak is a major threat to public health and the economy, concerns have risen among members of both parties,” Pew researchers wrote.
Consider these results:
- Ninety-four percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic believe closing K-12 schools was necessary to battle the virus; 85% of Republicans and those leaning Republican favored closing schools.
- Ninety-five percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners supported canceling sporting events; 87% of Republicans and GOP leaners favored canceling sporting events.
- Eighty-one percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic supported requiring most businesses other than grocery stores and pharmacies to close; 61% of Republicans and GOP leaners supported closing most businesses.
- Ninety-one percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic agreed restaurants should be limited to carry out; 78% of Republicans and Republican leaners agreed with restricting restaurants to carry-out service.
Democrats and Republicans are generally close to agreement on how public officials are handling their jobs during the public health crisis, except for the president and the media.
While 48% of those surveyed supported President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic, there was a vast divide between Democrats and Republicans.
Eighty-three percent of Republicans thought Trump did an excellent or good job responding to the public health emergency, with just 18% of Democrats agreeing.
There was a similar divide over the media as well, with 68% of Democrats saying the media did an excellent or good job responding to the crisis. Just 37% of Republicans thought that the media did an excellent or good job.
Fifty-four percent of those surveyed overall thought the media did an excellent or good job responding to the crisis.
Other findings included:
- Eighty-four percent of Republicans thought that public health officials were doing an excellent or good job responding to the pandemic. Seventy-four percent of Democrats thought they were doing an excellent or good job. Overall, 79% of those surveyed agreed that public health officials were doing a good or an excellent job.
- Seventy-two percent of Republicans thought state elected officials were doing an excellent or good job responding to the pandemic. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats thought they were doing an excellent or good job. Overall, 70% of those surveyed agreed that state elected leaders were doing a good or an excellent job.
Other coronavirus news
Here’s a quick look at other coronavirus news that’s worth taking a look at this Sunday if you’re lacking anything to do:
- Coronavirus is threatening to unravel state budgets.
- Florida lawmakers are nervous about the future of their state budget, which is expected to take a big hit.
- The Idaho governor has already ordered a 1% cut in state spending because of the fallout from the virus.
- Coronavirus presents challenges to the foster-care system.
- NBC News and McClatchy examine how states that didn’t expand Medicaid are being affected by the pandemic.
Virgil Peck returns
Virgil Peck, the former state legislator well known for his festive-colored sport coats, is making another run at Republican Sen. Dan Goddard in the primary this summer.
Peck has filed to run in Senate District 15, which covers parts of Neosho, Allen, Labette and Montgomery counties in southeast Kansas.
Peck served in the Kanas House from 2005 to 2017.
He made national headlines in 2011 when he apologized for making a joke during a committee meeting about shooting illegal immigrants.
Peck ran against Goddard in 2016 and lost by 171 votes.
Goddard is finishing his first term in the Senate, elected to the seat once held by Sen. Jeff King.
Former Secretary of State Kris Kobach carried the district by about 21 percentage points over Gov. Laura Kelly in last year’s governor’s race.
The district went for President Donald Trump with 70% of the vote in 2016, for former Gov. Sam Brownback with 58% of the vote in 2014 and Mitt Romney with 66% of the vote in 2012.
GOP virtual convention
The Kansas Republican Party held what was believed to be the first virtual district convention in the country on Saturday.
Republicans from the 1st Congressional District elected three delegates and three alternates to the party’s national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, via a teleconference call and email.
They elected Tom Arpke, John Ball and Laura Tawater as delegates to the convention.
Alternative delegates are Dave Bohnenblust, Bill Clifford and Kathy Martin.
The 3rd District convention is set for Thursday, April 2, and the 2nd and 4th District conventions will be held April 4.
Those district conventions will be held virtually as well.
Moran seeks tariff relief
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran joined a bipartisan group of senators last week to ask the Trump administration to defer tariffs until after the coronavirus pandemic subsides.
“As numerous industries and individual businesses in the United States suffer extreme cash flow problems due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, we urge you to immediately issue a directive to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to defer all tariffs for at least 90 days, or until the crisis passes,” the senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
Here’s the letter.
Kansas Democrats make new hire
The Kansas Democratic Party last week announced the hiring of a new political and data director.
The party hired Jonathan Jones, who worked as the regional field director for the Kansas Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign in 2018.
Jones also was a research fellow at the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri.
He has a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Arkansas Tech University and a law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
Jones also has a master’s in history from the University of Arkansas.
He previously worked as a field organizer for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and as a field director for Phil Glynn’s unsuccessful race for Kansas City mayor in 2019.
Jones also was a regional organizing director for Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign in Missouri.
Kobach campaign tactic assailed
Last week, U.S. Senate candidate Kris Kobach sent out an email fundraiser not-so-subtly suggesting that failure to build a border wall had allowed the coronavirus to enter the country.
In the email, which included a 52-second video, Kobach said the president was right to ban flights from Europe and China.
“Because of Congress’s repeated failure to fully fund the construction of the border wall, over 12,000 Chinese nationals snuck across our southern border into the United States last year,” the Kobach email said.
“And they continue to come in illegally with: No checks, no visas, no health screenings,” the email said.
“In times of global pandemic, borders matter,” Kobach said in the video.
Kansas Democrats responded with their own email on Saturday, calling attention to what they described as Kobach’s “latest attempt to mislead Kansas voters and benefit his own racist agenda.”
“Now is not the time to push your unsubstantiated, racist argument about border security,” the Kansas Democratic Party’s email said.
“Right now, real hardworking Kansans are worried about their jobs, the viability of their small businesses and their access to affordable and accessible health care resources.”
Here’s the video, if you haven’t already seen it:
Governor’s appointments
Gov. Laura Kelly has appointed John Bottenberg to the Kansas State Fair Board and reappointed Harmon Bliss, Nick Ketzner and Robert Atkisson.
Bottenberg, of Topeka, has served on the board in the past and was appointed to an at-large seat. He previously was a state representative.
Bliss, of Jetmore, is the current president of the board and was reappointed to the seat reserved for a representative from the southwest agriculture extension district.
Ketzner, of Bird City, was reappointed to the northwest agriculture extension district seat.
Atkisson, of Stockton, was reappointed to the seat set aside for a representative from the Kansas Fairs Association.
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Gov. Laura Kelly reappointed Charles Peckham, Paula Shawn Herrick, James Triplett, Lisa Disbrow and Wayne Blackbourn to the Solid Waste Grants Advisory Committee. She also appointed James Teutsch and Charlotte Weiss to the panel.
The committee reviews competitive grant applications and establishes project priority lists for each fiscal year based upon the funds available.
Peckham, of Atwood, was reappointed to a seat representing a regional solid waste management entity. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law and has been involved in the field of recycling for decades.
Herrick, of Topeka, was reappointed to a seat representing waste tire generators. She works as the executive director at Mid-America Tire Dealers Association Inc.
Triplett, of Pittsburg, was reappointed to a seat representing a county government. He works at the Pittsburg State University Department of Biology as a professor and chair emeritus.
Disbrow was reappointed to a seat representing private industry. She works at Waste Management of Kansas Inc. as the director of government and public affairs.
Blackbourn, of Waverly, was reappointed to a seat representing a county government. He is a county engineer for Coffey County.
Teutsch, of Salina, was appointed to a seat representing a city government. He is the city of Salina’s operations manager.
Weiss, of Paola, was appointed to a seat representing a regional solid waste management entity. She is the regional coordinator at Lake Region Solid Waste Authority.
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Gov. Laura Kelly appointed Jodi Guetterman, Kevin Dieckmann and reappointed Kamyar Nikoomanesh to the Kansas Agricultural Remediation Board.
The board administers the Kansas Agricultural Remediation Fund and the remediation reimbursement program.
Guetterman, of Bucyrus, was appointed to the seat designated for agricultural producers.
Dieckmann, of Olathe, was appointed to the specialty chemical distributor seat.
Nikoomanesh, of Lenexa, was reappointed to the seat set aside for agricultural processors and was also appointed as board chairman.
