Topeka ? Marion Mays says only two kind of people ever created problems for him: politicians and lawyers.

Yet his daughter became an attorney and his son, a legislator.

Rep. Doug Mays, R-Topeka, speaks with a fellow legislator from his desk on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Statehouse in Topeka. Mays continues a special relationship with his father, whom he visits every night.

His father’s “healthy disrespect” for politicians doesn’t stop Rep. Doug Mays, R-Topeka, from spending a couple hours every night with him an arrangement the younger Mays describes as an addiction.

The elder Mays, 79, moved to Topeka from Pittsburg in the early 1990s after his wife died. Soon after that move in 1994, he had a major stroke.

“That’s when it became as much of a friendship as a classic father-and-son relationship,” said the younger Mays, who is 51. “Our lives had been on two separate tracks and suddenly they were brought together, and we found we had a lot more in common.”

The two have developed a routine. Every Monday through Friday at 9 p.m., they watch “Law and Order,” then the news and Jay Leno’s opening monologue. When the Legislature is in session, the elder Mays listens to House sessions over the Internet during the day and questions his son about bills at night.

“He pretty well explains what they’re doing, what the bill will do and what it won’t do,” said Mays. “I just listen to what he says because it makes pretty good sense to me.”

Mays is serving his fifth term representing a central Topeka district in the House and is chairman of the Federal and State Affairs Committee. He served as speaker pro tem for two years, narrowly losing a bid to become speaker last year.

Marion Mays isn’t surprised by his son’s interest in politics. Politics have been important to family as long as the two can remember.

The elder Mays said his father was a Republican and his grandmother a Democrat, and they wouldn’t speak or even eat together during the week before an election.

“I have been plagued with politicians from the day I was born,” said Marion Mays said. “But I’m not into politics much. I just ride along with Doug. He seems to know what he’s doing.”

Political fate

The elder Mays said his son was destined for politics whether he wanted to be or not.

“My father-in-law and my dad were both Republican, and they just hit each other perfect,” the father said. “Doug was their idea. They just zeroed in on him and decided he was going to make it.”

The younger Mays jumped into politics in the 1970s, when he was working as a securities broker. He became angry when he had to take a client to court to get paid. The client was a Democratic legislator.

A few months later, Doug was walking by the state Republican Party’s headquarters, stopped inside on a whim and offered to help any candidate who would run against his former client. A party official suggested that he looked like a nice young man who should run.

At 25, with his wife expecting their first child, he entered his first race for state representative, against an incumbent.

“I remember praying the night before, ‘God, please, I’d like to win this thing, but if I lose, please let me lose by a big margin.’ Because I knew if it was close, I was going to be bitten by the bug,” he said.

It was close. Mays lost by 300 votes, or about 2 percent of those cast. He later served as Shawnee County GOP chairman.

Marion Mays political or not passed on an important trait to his son, who is known for his skilled negotiations.

The father has always been a good negotiator, according to the son. Six months after his stroke, Marion Mays negotiated a deal for a house a block away from his son.

“I saw him negotiate that house,” the younger Mays said. “He got that house for a bargain.”

Redistricting talent

Many of Doug Mays’ colleagues point to the House redistricting bill now before Gov. Bill Graves as an example of the son’s skills.

“Some Republicans were pretty rigid and didn’t want to bend,” said Rep. Rocky Nichols, D-Topeka, who sat on the Redistricting Committee with Mays. “Rep. Mays, toward the end, really showed some leadership and the ability to compromise, which is what the process really needed.”

Mays’ work on redistricting was critical in bringing the process to conclusion, according to House Speaker Kent Glasscock, who defeated Mays for the top House leadership job.

“He was instrumental in the redistricting process, and his fairness was key,” Glasscock said. “I relied heavily on his advice and counsel during that process.”

Mays said he always been a little shy about haggling, taking more after his mother’s side of the family.

“More than anything, I rely on my powers of persuasion,” said Mays. “I think I’ve had pretty good luck persuading people to listen to me on issues I believe in.”

Over the past 20 years, his powers of persuasion have taken him from the city council, to the securities commissioner’s office under Gov. Mike Hayden, to the Statehouse.

In his Statehouse office, there’s a picture of the elder Mays holding his infant son in front of the Capitol. When asked about the photo, Marion Mays laughs.

“Nobody knew when we were showing him, it was where he was going to end up,” he said. “He’s a pretty smart boy.”