Lykins criticizes Ryun’s money link to Westar

Democrat Dan Lykins thinks he’s found the issue that just might stir up enough hornets to unseat 2nd District Congressman Jim Ryun.

“Jim Ryun from 1997 to late last November took $32,000 in campaign contributions from Westar Energy, its executives and its board members,” Lykins said.

The contributions, he argued, make Ryun an accomplice in the utility company’s troubles.

“He sold himself to the highest bidder,” Lykins said. “He let the foxes in the henhouse; he should be held accountable.”

But Ryun, a conservative Republican, said Lykins was pandering to voter anger about reports Westar executives were paid millions of dollars in bonuses despite the company’s earnings plummeting.

“He’s desperate,” Ryun said. “He’s distorting my record.”

Westar executives and board members have, in fact, contributed to his campaigns, Ryun said. But they’ve also contributed to Kansas Sens. Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, and Congressmen Todd Tiahrt, Jerry Moran all Republicans and Dennis Moore, a Democrat.

Westar Energy is only “one of many, many contributors” to his campaigns, Ryun said.

He said he doubted Lykins’ claims would sway many voters, noting that Westar Energy’s troubles haven’t caused much of a ruckus in the 2nd District.

“It’s not like it’s been a huge, huge issue,” he said.

Dan Lykins, a Democrat running against Jim Ryun for the 2nd District congressional seat, shows off one of his billboards in Topeka near Wanamaker Road.

Underdog campaign

That’s not what Lykins is hearing.

“Everywhere I go, people are furious over what’s going on at Westar,” Lykins said.

Last month, Lykins paid for six billboards in and around Topeka that show him with a milk mustache and that reads: “Been milked? Western Resources milked millions of Kansans. Let’s stop the milking.”

Lykins knows he’s the underdog in his battle against Ryun.

For starters, Ryun, a three-term incumbent, entered the race with more than $325,000 in the bank.

Lykins expects to raise and spend about $50,000.

Name recognition, too, is a problem. Ryun, 55, is well known for running a record-setting sub-four-minute mile while still in high school and for later competing in the 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympics.

Lykins, 56, is an attorney who specializes in representing injured workers and victims of drunken drivers. He ran for attorney general in 1998, losing to Carla Stovall.

Active in party politics, he’s been Kansas Democratic Party treasurer since 1991.

“Ryun, at this point, is pretty safe,” said Loran Smith, a political science professor at Washburn University who’s been following the 2nd District race.

“He certainly has the name recognition,” Smith said. “As a congressman he’s been rather low-key people don’t see or hear a great deal about him. But they know him; they don’t know Mr. Lykins.”

Smith predicted Lykins would have a hard time connecting Ryun to Westar Energy’s troubles.

“For that to stick, he’s got to tie a specific contribution to a specific favor,” he said. “Otherwise, Mr. Ryun is correct when he asks, ‘How can you criticize me when everybody else is doing it?'”

Redistricting impact?

Ryun weakened Lykins’ case against him, Smith said, when he recently joined others in the Kansas delegation in raising objections to a Westar-favored regulatory exemption discovered during deliberations on a federal energy bill.

“I’m guessing he was smart enough to smell a rat on that one,” Smith said.

It’s not yet known how this year’s reapportionment will affect the 2nd District race now that much of west Lawrence is in the district.

But Steven Maynard-Moody, a public administration professor at Kansas University who followed the reapportionment debate, said he doubted the reconfiguring would take many votes from Ryun.

“It’s true that metro-centered growth areas Lawrence, for example are more likely to encourage moderate-to-liberal voting preferences and that a conservative would do less well in these environments,” Maynard-Moody said.

“But in this instance, I think it’s also true that the part of Douglas County that moved to the 2nd District is Republican,” he said.

“It’s not as conservative as Ryun, but it’s still Republican.”