Good morning everyone:
A relatively sedate week in Kansas politics. The biggest news on our end is we finally created a Facebook page.
It only took more than 18 months to get it published. Not sharp marketing our end, but we won’t digress into the difficulties we had arranging art for the page. Besides, it’s hard to balance journalism and marketing (and we’re really not good at self promotion, either).
That said, if you can check it out and give us a “like,” it would be kindly appreciated. Starting next week, stories will be posted over there as well.
Now onto our weekly roundup of significant stories we published last week and other news that’s bubbling under the surface that you either didn’t know or just got past you.
- Western Kansas power player Cecil O’Brate is backing Garden City eye doctor William Clifford in the 1st District congressional race.
- Political observers are scratching their heads over Kris Kobach’s recent fundraising email that complains about Jake LaTurner’s decision to withdraw from the U.S. Senate race and run for Congress in the 2nd District.
- A judge last week threw out the legal contest challenging Republican state Rep. Adam Thomas’ election to the Kansas House.
- Keep your eye on an emerging controversy over provisional ballots and just how much of that information is public record.
- Three weeks ago, we told you that Lenexa homebuilder Tom Bickimer might very well run against Dinah Sykes for the Kansas Senate. Last week, he made it official.
- Just several months after his angry tweets cost him a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals, Labette County Judge Jeffry Jack announced he was retiring from the bench.
- This certainly wasn’t our story, but we thought it was notable enough to send out to you. It seems that former Johnson County Commissioner Brian Newby is now out of a job at the federal Election Assistance Commission. It wasn’t that long ago when he left Johnson County under some troubling circumstances as well.
- The Kansas Board of Regents approved new admission requirements for most state universities.
- Former state Rep. John Wilson is now going to lead Kansas Action for Children.
Ward for Senate?
While the Kansas political world watches every chess move in the U.S. Senate race, there’s another Senate race being watched closely on the local level.
It’s been speculated for months that longtime state Rep. Jim Ward of Wichita is looking to run for the Senate seat now held by Republican Mike Petersen. It’s increasingly believed he will run.
Ward, the former House minority leader, said last week that he was, indeed, considering a run for the Senate in District 28.
“I am looking at it. There’s nothing I can officially say,” Ward said in an interview last week. “Basically, I’m just weighing my options.”
Ward wouldn’t be a stranger to the Senate. He served in the Senate in 1992 when he was appointed to fill a vacancy. He ran for the state Senate in 1996 but lost to Republican Pat Ranson.
The Wichita Democrat is now in his ninth term in the House after first being elected to the chamber in 2002.
The 28th District is attractive to Democrats because of how Petersen performed in 2016.
The Republican incumbent beat Democratic challenger Keith Humphrey with 51% percent of the vote, or 562 votes.
Gov. Laura Kelly carried the district last year. It also was won by Democratic secretary of state candidate Brian McClendon.
In 2016, the district went for President Donald Trump, but in 2014 it went for Democrat Paul Davis in the governor’s race.
Petersen is now in his fourth term in the state Senate after first being elected in 2004. As of the end of December, Petersen had about $30,100 in his Senate campaign account.
Efforts to reach Petersen for comment were unsuccessful.
LBGTQ fundraising in Kansas
Last year, the LGBTQ Victory Fund made its presence felt in Kansas when it poured almost $70,000 into two House races won by Brandon Woodard and Susan Ruiz.
The Victory Fund’s role in those two races helped Woodard and Ruiz become the two first openly LGTBQ members of the Kansas Legislature in a historically red state.
The Victory Fund was back in Kansas last week for a champagne brunch fundraiser that featured Congresswoman Sharice Davids and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
Davids is the first LGBTQ member of Congress from Kansas, while Kelly has been an ardent advocate of LGBTQ rights.
Kelly’s first act as governor was to sign an executive order protecting LGBTQ state employees from discrimination.
A couple hundred people filled the meeting room at a Mission Woods location last Sunday morning for the fundraiser.
The group was seeking one-time donations ranging from $1,200 to $10,000. Of course, those in attendance were invited to contribute any amount to the group’s efforts.
Kelly encouraged contributions to help elect more like-minded lawmakers like Woodard and Ruiz to help the governor with her agenda in Topeka.
“As a Democratic governor in a state like Kansas, it is important that I have allies within the Legislature who can help me get through my agenda,” Kelly said.
Kelly said in an interview that she thought the Victory Fund’s presence in Kansas was significant.
As governor, Kelly said she wanted to change the national perception that Kansas is an intolerant state.
“The fact that Victory Fund crossed the state line this year for the first time says that it’s working,” Kelly said in an interview.
“People are beginning to see Kansas differently, seeing it as an open, welcoming state,” she said. “That was one of the things that I wanted to accomplish.”
So what’s the future for the Victory Fund in Kansas?
Annise Parker, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, said the group isn’t targeting legislative races in Kansas.
“We follow the candidates,” said Parker, the former mayor of Houston and the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major American city.
“We are not a national organization that goes in and says, ‘We’re going to tell you where we need to elect people,'” she said.
“We come in and say, ‘Who are the people who are running? What do we do to help them up their game and make inroads?'”
Parker said Victory Fund will be all-in to help incumbents like Davids, Woodard and Ruiz get reelected next year.
She said she hopes events like the one last Sunday encourage other members of the LGBTQ community to run.
“We’re planting seeds everywhere,” she said.
Abortion rate hits new low
The country’s abortion rate reached its lowest level since 1973, according to a new report out last week.
The report by the Guttmacher Institute found that the U.S. abortion rate dropped to 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 in 2017. It was the lowest rate recorded since abortion was legalized in 1973. The abortion rate crested at 29.3 per 1,000 women in 1980.
Guttmacher reports the largest declines from 2014 — the last year the study was done — to 2017 were in Alabama, Delaware, Arkansas, West Virginia and Virginia. Those states had abortion rates well below the national rate of 13.5 in 2017.
Meanwhile, the abortion rate rose in Wyoming, Mississippi, New Jersey, Illinois, Minnesota, Georgia, Maryland and Wisconsin.
In Kansas, the state saw its abortion rate fall from 12.9 to 12.2 abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44, a decrease of 5%, according to the study.
The abortion rate for the Midwest fell to 10.2 in 2017 from 10.6 in 2014, a decline of about 4%, the report showed.
The number of abortion clinics declined by 9% in the South — the largest of the four regions — and 6% in the Midwest from 2014 to 2017, Guttmacher reported. The number of clinics increased by 16% in the Northeast and by 4% in the West.
The Midwest saw six fewer clinic facilities in 2017 than in 2014, according to the report. Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin all had fewer clinics in 2017 than in 2014. Kansas was unchanged.
Here’s coverage of the report from The Los Angeles Times, Fox News, USA Today, NPR and The Associated Press.
More abortion reversal debate
Lawmakers in Ohio last week started work on a bill that would require physicians to tell women that drug-induced abortions can be reversed. We’ve covered this extensively in Kansas last session and again last week when we reported on a court ruling that halted a similar law in North Dakota. Here’s the latest development on the legislation out of Columbus. And more coverage from WKRC in Cincinnati.
E-cigarettes
Next year, the Legislature is expected to be asked to consider new regulations on e-cigarettes as part of a bill that would raise the age for purchasing tobacco products to 21. Here’s the latest news on this topic with the number of deaths related to vaping on the rise.
Flavored e-cigarettes are now banned in New York. Michigan has banned them as well. A similar ban is now considered in Ohio. California is getting tough on the product, too.
This comes as the number of kids reported to be vaping has doubled in the last two years, a New England Journal of Medicine study shows.
Meanwhile, state officials in North Carolina report that dozens of children under 5 years old have been poisoned by e-cigarettes or related vaping products this year. Meanwhile, a handful of media outlets are banning e-cigarette advertising.
And last week, a Johnson County man took an e-cigarette manufacturer to court, alleging that it deliberately hid the harmful effects of vaping products. Here’s coverage from KCUR, KSHB and KMBC. Also, here’s a copy of the lawsuit filed in federal court if you want to dig deeper into the case.
Meanwhile, the Goddard school district plans to take the makers, distributors and sellers of e-cigarettes to court.
Higher education budget request
Last week, the Kansas Board of Regents agreed to ask state lawmakers for $95.3 million more in state support for the public higher education system. The request includes $50 million in base operations for the state’s universities plus $10 million in deferred maintenance. The request includes about $13.5 million for community colleges, as well. Here’s coverage of the board’s request from the Capital-Journal.
Pay raise for KBOR chief executive
The Kansas Board of Regents last week approved a $30,000-a-year pay raise for Blake Flanders, the agency’s president and CEO. The raise is equal to a 15% increase. His salary is currently $200,000. Here’s more coverage from the Lawrence Journal-World.
Medicaid expansion
We have basically turned this into a standing category each week with the latest developments across the country regarding Medicaid expansion. We ran across this nifty table assembled by the Kaiser Family Foundation that gives you a state-by-state rundown about what’s going on with Medicaid expansion. Kaiser published the chart last week, so it’s probably the most current information available.
Hawkins criticizes Kelly commissions
House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins appeared on former state Rep. John Whitmer’s radio show last Sunday night where he criticized of Gov. Laura Kelly’s task forces on Medicaid expansion and tax reform.
Hawkins, a frequent vocal critic of the governor’s, took aim at Kelly’s Medicaid expansion task force. He called it an effort by the governor to thwart any proposal that the Senate might develop.
“Quite frankly, it’s my belief that this is nothing more than a way for them to get ammunition to tear up anything that the Senate might do,” Hawkins told Whitmer.
“She already knows she’s not going to like what the Senate does. That compromise bill is going to have some things in it that she calls her redline and she’s not going to do it. She’s just trying right now to find ways to throw some roadblocks out there for them.”
As we all know, the House has already passed a Medicaid expansion plan that stalled in the Senate last session. The Senate, led by Majority Leader Jim Denning, is now crafting its own plan.
Hawkins also went to criticize her tax reform commission, which is going to spend the next 18 months studying state tax policy with a goal of making recommendations by December 2020.
Hawkins said the makeup of the panel was designed to give the governor a tax policy she wants. The interview lasts about 14 minutes.
College voting surges
A new study out last week showed that the average student turnout at U.S. colleges and universities more than doubled from the last midterm elections in 2018.
The study by Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy and Higher Education showed that student turnout spiked to 40% in 2018 from 19% in 2014.
Researchers acknowledged that wasn’t terribly surprising since turnout among all voters increased almost 14%. However, at the same time student voting had increased 21 percentage points.
“In 2018, we saw new energy and a greater sense of agency among students that transcends demographic and disciplinary subgroups,” the report says.
“College and university students today are more diverse than ever, and while they are not a monolithic group, the 20 million students enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities present a formidable voting bloc.
“Students mobilized around competitive state races and high-stakes ballot initiatives, and around issues like immigration, gun violence, and the environment.”
A couple months ago, we touched on this trend in Kansas, which saw a big increase in young adults turning out to vote, partly attributable to the state Democratic Party’s voter registration efforts on college campuses.
Retirement
The Capital-Journal reports the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System is considering the possibility of lowering the assumed rate of return on its investments.
The current assumed return on investment for KPERS is 7.75%, but a national study indicates that many public pension systems are revising that assumption downward.
A February study by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators examined 129 public pension funds.
It found that 42, or more than 30%, have lowered their assumed rate of return since February 2018.
More than 90% of those systems have lowered the assumed return since fiscal year 2010, leading to a drop in the average return assumption from 7.91% to 7.27%.
Just 19 of the pension systems, including Kansas, use an assumed return higher than 7.5%, the study found.
“The sustained period of low interest rates since 2009 has caused many public pension plans to re-evaluate their long-term expected investment returns, leading to an unprecedented number of reductions in plan investment return assumptions,” the study said.
“Absent other changes, a lower investment return assumption increases both the plan’s unfunded liabilities and cost.”
The C-J reports KPERS lowered the assumption three years ago to 7.75% from 8%, but it drove up the unfunded liability by $500 million.
The newspaper reports that no action is expected until more study is done on the implications of reducing the return-on-investment assumption.
Here and there
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s press secretary, Morgan Said, has left Washington to go to work for newly elected Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas.
Said described her time on Moran’s staff as “wonderful.” The senator’s communications director, Tom Brandt, will handle the press inquiries for now.
Said, a 2015 graduate of the University of Kansas, has previously worked for Senate President Susan Wagle and as a staff assistant to former Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins.
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Dylan Jones is now handling press calls for Congressman Steve Watkins.
As part of the reshuffling that’s been going on in Watkins’ office in recent weeks, Jones is taking on the duties once carried out by Jim Joice, who moved up to become Watkins’ chief of staff when Colin Brainard left.
Jones had previously worked as a legislative correspondent and staff assistant for Watkins. Jones worked as a field director for Watkins’ congressional campaign last year.
He also had a congressional fellowship with The Heritage Foundation earlier this year. In 2017, Jones interned with Sen. Pat Roberts.
He graduated in 2018 from the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in economics/political science.
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Former state Rep. Mary Martha Good has joined the Kansas Children’s Service League as its new Head Start director. She started Aug. 12.
Good served in the Kansas House from 2017 to 2019 before joining KCSL’s board of directors this year.
Good lost her bid for reelection last year when she was defeated in the Republican primary by Will Carpenter.
Good will administer KCSL’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which focus on early childhood development and education and overall family well-being.
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As Congressman Sharice Davids heads into 2020 and her reelection campaign, she’s got a (relatively) new campaign finance director.
Annie Sgroi has been on board since June, but we thought we would drop it into this week’s roundup of various personnel changes.
A 2015 graduate of Wellesley College, Sgroi worked as the finance director for educator Tom Niermann, who lost to Davids in last year’s Democratic primary.
Two years ago, she worked as a scheduler for Democrat Jay Gonzalez, who lost to Republican Charlie Baker in the Massachusetts governor’s race.
She also worked as a field organizer in 2016 for Yes for a Better Boston, which worked to pass a property tax to fund affordable housing, historic preservation and development of parks and green space.
Hispanic affairs appointments
Gov. Laura Kelly last week appointed Claudia Yaujar-Amaro and Richard Martinez to the Hispanic and Latino American Affairs Commission.
Yaujar-Amaro, of Wichita, is the founder and owner of AB&C Bilingual Resources, where she works as a marketing and outreach director and translator.
Martinez, of Topeka, is the manager of the High Performance Incentive Program at the Kansas Department of Commerce.
He previously served as executive director of the Hispanic and Latino Affairs Commission and as the Department of Commerce’s chief financial officer.
Martinez earned a bachelor’s in business administration from Washburn University.
Closed-case task force appointments
Gov. Laura Kelly last week appointed Alice Craig and Cory Sheedy to the Closed Case Task Force.
Sheedy, of Lawrence, is the director of legislative affairs for the governor. Sheedy is on the task force as the governor’s designee.
Craig, of Baldwin City, is the senior attorney for post-conviction litigation at the Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence and Post-Conviction Remedies.
She also works as an instructor and faculty member at the University of Kansas School of Law.
Previously, she worked as the assistant death penalty defender for the Kansas Death Penalty Defense Unit.
Craig received a bachelor’s degree in business administration and her law degree from the University of Kansas.
Craig fills the seat as a representative of an organization that litigates claims of innocence.
