Good morning everyone, and happy Labor Day weekend:
Not a terribly busy week as we headed into the weekend that essentially marks the end of summer. Everyone stay safe.
Now onto the more significant stories that we published as well as others you may have missed but need to know:
- Can Sara Hart Weir or Amanda Adkins reverse the declining trend of Republican women in Congress? Experts say it’s is no easy task.
- Manhattan Mayor Pro Tem Usha Reddi, a Democrat, sets out on what could be an historic campaign for the U.S. Senate.
- A top Aetna executive apologized for failing to comply with its contract for administering the KanCare program. The company’s provider network lags significantly behind the other two managed companies, raising concerns with the state.
- Former Gov. Jeff Colyer asked Republican state Treasurer Jake LaTurner to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate and run for Congress against incumbent Steve Watkins in the GOP in the 2nd Congressional District.
- Meanwhile a day earlier, Colyer announced he would not run for the U.S. Senate.
- The Federal Elections Commission dismissed a complaint alleging that the Kansas Republican Party coordinated with a super political action committee on an ad against Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids last year.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt said he would review a state revenue department directive to collect sales taxes on internet transactions.
Top Republican leaders in the Legislature want to know whether it complies with a Supreme Court decision that was handed down last year.
Now onto other news….
Republicans eye District 21
Republicans are looking to take back Senate District 21, a seat they lost after incumbent Dinah Sykes changed parties last year.
Lenexa homebuilder Tom Bickimer is looking to run against Sykes as a Republican in a district that includes parts of Lenexa, Olathe, Overland Park and Shawnee.
Bickimer, 61, confirmed last week that he’s “very seriously” considering running for the seat that Sykes has held since 2017. He hopes to make a decision by mid-September after spending the last several months seeking out advice.
“I hope to have something decided here in the next couple weeks,” he said. “At this point in my life, I really wanted to do something for the community, and I really like the idea of public service. I thought this was a good time to give it a go.”
Sykes won the Senate seat as a Republican in 2016 by defeating incumbent Greg Smith in the primary and downing Democrat (now Overland Park city council member) Logan Heley and Libertarian Michael Kerner in the general election.
But last year, Sykes became a Democrat, saying she was out of step with an increasingly conservative Republican Party. Bickimer raised the party change in a brief interview last week.
“As a citizen in her district, I’ve kind of watched her in Topeka and never really had too much of a problem with some of the issues that she supported and voted for. And then she changed parties on us,” Bickimer said.
Bickimer said the decision was bad for the residents of the 21st District.
“She is now a member of a minority party,” he said. “She basically ran as a Republican (and) people thought she was a Republican and that’s changed. There’s a certain amount of confusion and disappointment in that.
“I understand she had her reasons for changing parties,” he said. “But I think she made a political decision that wasn’t in the best interest of her constituents.”
Sykes said she is the same person she was before she changed parties. She said she can work for the issues that she values better in the Democratic Party.
“My voting record has remained consistent over the last three sessions,” she said. “I have never been one who voted party lines. I am engaged in my community, and that’s what I represent when I’m voting.”
The district has been trending more Democratic in recent years.
Gov. Laura Kelly carried the district by about 23 percentage points over former Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Democratic Congresswoman Sharice Davids won the district by 13 points over Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder.
Hillary Clinton won the district with 48% of the vote in 2016, and Democrat Paul Davis carried the district by 5 percentage points over former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback in the 2014 governor’s race.
Sykes ended calendar year 2018 with about $9,200 in cash on hand while raising about about $8,600.
Bickimer wouldn’t be pegged as either a conservative or moderate Republican.
“Right now, I would like to be considered a Republican,” he said. “I have talked to folks on either side of the spectrum and have gotten a lot of good, positive feedback from both ends.”
Paperwork troubles
Remember Jack Bergeson? He was one of a handful of high school students who ran for governor last year. Well, Bergeson is about to get a lesson in campaign finance.
Last week, the state Ethics Commission set a hearing for Bergeson to answer a complaint lodged against him for failing to file an amended campaign finance report for January. The hearing is set for Sept. 25.
In May, the Ethics Commission sent Bergeson a notice informing him of material errors and omissions in his January campaign finance report.
The notice said that the January report contained receipts and expenses that were previously reported on the July 2018 report, but it did not list any activity for the reporting period of Oct. 26 through Dec. 31.
Bergeson has already been fined $300 for failure to file the amended report. He could be fined up to $5,000 for a first offense if he fails to address the complaint.
Bergeson accepted responsibility for the report. He said he did his own report and didn’t fully understand all the rules. He conceded it looked embarrassing.
“It’s nothing nefarious,” he said Friday. “It’s just a mistake. I misunderstood some of the requirements when I filed my original report.”
He said he’s working with someone to help him sort out the report. He said he hoped to file an amended report on Friday or Monday.
“I’ll have to pay the fine and move on with it. I hope it’s not too big.”
Slattery starts consulting firm
Former six-term Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery revealed to friends last week that he’s leaving the law firm Wiley Rein to start his own consulting firm, Slattery Strategy.
“After nearly 24 wonderful years at Wiley Rein LLP I am leaving to start a consulting firm, Slattery Strategy LLC, effective September 1st,” Slattery said in an email.
“I am grateful for my association with Wiley Rein and wish my former partners, associates and staff all the best,” he wrote.
Slattery joined Wiley Rein as a partner in 1995 and left briefly in 2008 to run for the U.S. Senate against Republican Pat Roberts.
After losing his bid for the Senate, Slattery returned to Wiley Rein in 2009 to lead its Public Policy Group, which represents clients before the administration, Congress and various regulatory agencies.
In an interview Saturday, Slattery said he would focus his efforts on health care, railroads and pro bono international work focused on peacekeeping.
“I’ve really enjoyed this time with the law firm,” Slattery said. “It’s been a great, great experience. I have had a wonderful time there serving a lot of different clients, many of them from Kansas and the Midwest. I really want to do something different as I move into the next season of life.”
Slattery represented Kansas 2nd Congressional District from 1983 to 1995. He also served in the Kansas House from 1973 to 1979. He also was acting Kansas revenue secretary in 1979.
Concealed-carry permits continue plummeting
The number of applications for concealed-carry permits reached its lowest point since the program started in fiscal year 2007, new state data shows.
The attorney general reported receiving 3,841 applications for concealed-carry permits during fiscal year 2019.
It was the lowest number of applications received since the program started in fiscal year 2007. The second lowest number was 4,896 last year.
The number of applications has been steadily declining since hitting an all-time high of 25,361 in fiscal year 2013. The number of applications has dropped every year since.
In 2015, the state enacted a law allowing concealed carry without a license. Since then, the number of applications declined to 3,841 in fiscal year 2019 from 9,804 in 2015.
Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office reported receiving more than 16,400 renewal applications during the 2019 fiscal year.
Currently, more than 82,300 Kansans have active concealed-carry licenses.
Thomas election contest news
A new development to report in the ongoing court case over efforts to remove state Rep. Adam Thomas from the Kansas House.
For those following along at home, Thomas is asking a judge to dismiss an election contest seeking to remove him from the Legislature over questions about where he lived when he filed to run for the House last year.
The residents seeking to oust Thomas have since asked a judge not to dismiss the contest, contending that it was Thomas’ fault for their inability to prosecute the case within the timeline set by state law.
And now, here’s the latest filing from Thomas’ lawyer arguing that residents can’t claim it is either Thomas’ fault or the court’s fault that the case has not moved forward in the timely fashion required by state law.
Thomas says in court filings that the case had to move forward within 20 days of the date it was filed, last Dec. 10.
“Contestants failed to timely prosecute this contest and therefore it must fail,” Thomas’ lawyer, Mike Kuckelman, argued in the latest court filing.
A hearing on the case is set for Sept. 11. Kuckelman, chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, noted that by the time of the next hearing, 275 days will have passed since the case was filed and 253 days have passed since a hearing was required. Thomas has been in the House District 26 seat for 240 days.
Thomas had been charged with election perjury after he filed documents to run for the Kansas House last year.
The case centered on where Thomas was living when he filed to run for the Kansas House in May. Democrats contended that Thomas misrepresented an Olathe duplex as his address within the House district when he filed to run for the Legislature.
In July, Thomas entered into a diversion agreement with Johnson County prosecutors that will allow the charge to be dropped if he complies with the terms of the agreement.
Weir’s advocacy questioned
Republican Congressional candidate Sara Hart Weir is coming under question Sunday morning in a story published by the Kansas City Star, which examines her work leading the National Down Syndrome Society. At issue in this piece is the relationships she established with the Trump administration, most notably Education Secretary of Betsy Devos. The story probes Weir’s advocacy and whether she cozied up too closely with the administration, leading critics to charge that the Weir was more interested in forging relationships with Republican leaders than advocating for people with disabilities.
Medicaid expansion news
The federal government last week dealt another blow to states that want a partial expansion of Medicaid. This time, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services turned down Idaho’s request to allow low-income residents eligible for an expanded Medicaid program to buy insurance through the state exchanges.
Idaho had submitted a waiver request to the federal government asking for approval to allow anyone earning between 100% and 138% of the poverty level to receive federal tax credits to buy insurance on the state exchange instead of enrolling in Medicaid. Here’s one more link to an Associated Press story that was published by a local television station.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the state’s application was incomplete. It further said that the plan submitted would cost the federal government more money with tax credits than insuring them through Medicaid.
It was the second time the federal government has rejected the idea of a partial Medicaid expansion. In July, the federal government set aside Utah’s request to cover 90% of the cost of Medicaid expansion if it only applied to anyone earning up to 100% of the federal poverty level.
For what it’s worth, Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has a news conference scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday to talk about Medicaid expansion.
In other Medicaid expansion news, there’s been a lawsuit filed in Nebraska to force Medicaid expansion to start this year rather than be delayed.
Nebraska Appleseed is asking the state Supreme Court to order the state to start Medicaid expansion by Nov. 17 rather than the Oct. 1, 2020, start date announced by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Here’s coverage from The Hill.
Moran in line for committee chairmanship
Republican U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran is line to chair the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee with the Sen. John Isakson’s announcement last week that he planned to resign because of health issues. Roll Call has this comprehensive piece that looks at what might be ahead for Moran. This interesting factoid from the story: A 2017 survey showed that about 200,000 Kansas residents were veterans, or roughly 9% of the state’s population.
Rogers’ rural report coming soon
Lt. Gov. Lynn Rogers has been traversing the state learning about the needs of rural Kansas and ways for helping it grow. He tells the Manhattan Mercury that he’s been to 44 cities and 23 counties while traveling almost 5,000 miles. Now, he tells the newspaper that he plans to present Gov. Laura Kelly with a report about ideas for growing the rural economy this month. He recently discussed some of what he learned in an interview with WIBW. Among other things, he talked about demands for housing and high-speed internet service.
Grissom’s investigations
The Kansas City Star looks at the investigative tactics that U.S. Senate candidate Barry Grissom used to foil terrorist plots as the top federal prosecutor in Kansas. The story questions whether the undercover techniques used essentially lead to contrived terror plots. Grissom defends the investigations in the story, which looks very similar to one the newspaper published in 2017 raising similar issues.
Deaths in the desert
CoreCivic’s struggles running jails have been well chronicled across the country, whether it’s Tennessee, Georgia or Texas.
Now, The Kansas City Star takes a look at the jail in Arizona where Kansas is planning to send hundreds of its prisoners to relieve overcrowding.
The Star reports that three inmates have been killed at the Saguaro Correctional Center during the last decade.
The Star interviewed criminal justice experts and others who voice worries about the safety of the facility.
To put some of this in context, four people have died since 2017 at a south Georgia detention center that CoreCivic operates on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In memoriam
Rick Worrel, former chair of the Overland Park Chamber of Commerce, died last week. He was 58.
Worrel, the co-founder of Affinis Corp., was well known in political circles in Johnson County where he developed a reputation for being a staunch advocate for the city of Overland Park.
He was chairman of the Overland Park chamber’s board, its Economic Development Council and Foundation, president of the American Council of Engineering Companies Kansas and vice president of the United Community Services of Johnson County.
“Active in the community is an understatement of Rick’s enthusiasm for community service,” is how the company described him in an internet post last week.
He is survived by his wife Susan and daughters Kate and Brooke Worrel of Overland Park, daughter Jill and husband Brian Norwood of Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.
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