Forget taxes and education. The hottest topic in the Kansas 3rd District Senate race may be trees.

In a pamphlet mailed last week to district voters, Richard Rodewald raised questions about whether rival Roger Pine, the apparent front-runner in a four-way GOP primary, actually planted trees for which he received federal government payment.

Pine said this week he had planted trees but they failed to grow.

Colleen Davison, a soil conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, confirmed his account.

“He’s planted trees a couple of times,” Davison said. “Our office helped him once.”

With two other Republicans — and two Democrats — also in the race to replace outgoing Sen. Bob Lyon, why did Rodewald go after Pine?

“Roger Pine is the leading candidate,” said Rodewald, who has conducted several unsuccessful campaigns, including a 1994 Kansas House race he abandoned after being arrested, and later acquitted, of assaulting police officers participating in a charity relay for the Special Olympics.

Pine wasn’t happy about Rodewald’s mass-mailed attack.

“I rather think we need to focus on what we can do for the citizens of the 3rd District rather than the type of thing we got through the mail,” Pine said.

The issues

All the candidates say schools and taxes are among their top concerns, but the field contains a wide variety of approaches.

On the Republican side, for example, Connie O’Brien of Tonganoxie is flatly against raising taxes; she says money won’t fix what’s wrong with Kansas schools.

“I don’t want to see our taxes go up,” O’Brien said. “I don’t see that it’s going to help the problems that are facing the education system.”

Rodewald, of Eudora, agreed, saying the property tax system needs to be reformed. The system is inequitable, he said, charging too little for expensive properties and too much for less-expensive properties. And schools, he said, are making inefficient use of the money they get.

“There’s a lot of money being spent,” Rodewald said. “I think we need to look at where our money’s going. It needs to go in the classroom — I think too much money goes to the administrators.”

Chuck Quinn of Perry calls for more than reform of property taxes; he wants to abolish the system and replace it with a tax on all wholesale goods except Kansas wheat. That would raise revenues, he said, but spread the tax burden to businesses outside the state.

“My theory is, if you have to pay property taxes you don’t own your property, because the state can take it away from you,” he said.

Records show Quinn was arrested in Shawnee County on a charge of driving under the influence in 1997, but a judge later dismissed the charge. Quinn also filed for bankruptcy that year, attributing the matter to his divorce at the time.

‘A responsibility’

Among the Republicans, only Pine allows for the possibility property taxes should be raised to support education, but he said he’s generally opposed to raising taxes and would rather see additional funds come from a growing economy.

“I would guess we would have a responsibility to look at the (school funding) formula, make it more efficient and more effective,” Pine said. “And if that doesn’t work, we may have to look at the dollars and see if we need to broaden the funds we devote to education.”

Both Democrats, Jan Justice of Linwood and Ed Sass of Easton, are less hesitant about raising taxes for education.

“I believe we have to fund our schools,” Justice said. “Part of that is probably going to be raising taxes. If we have to raise taxes to fund them, we have to do that, but I do believe we have to make sure the dollars go to the classroom.”

Sass, a former member of the Easton School Board, said his anger at the Legislature’s handling of education sparked his campaign. He said he would vote for a tax increase “if necessary,” but, like Pine, would rather see more funds come from successful economic development efforts.

“Good schools cause economic development,” Sass said. “It’s that simple. That’s why there’s so many houses in Johnson County. … People move to those communities.”

Social issues

O’Brien is the most conservative candidate on social issues; she supports a state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage and wants abortion clinics subject to strict licensing requirements.

“The whole abortion issue is probably wrong — abortion shouldn’t be allowed,” she said. “Since they’re already doing it, clinics should be held to the same standards as any other surgical procedure.”

Pine said he was opposed to abortion, with exceptions for a mother’s health or a pregnancy caused by rape or incest. He said he supports current state law that prohibits gay marriage.

“I’m not 100 percent sure we need a constitutional amendment,” he said. “If our statute were to be jeopardized in any way, I would support such an amendment.”

Quinn agreed with Pine, on both the gay marriage and abortion fronts.

“We have our laws in place,” Quinn said of gay marriage. “I don’t see any need to tinker with them.”

‘Private decisions’

Rodewald said he was satisfied with current abortion laws in Kansas but that a state constitutional amendment on gay marriage should be put to voters to dispose of the issue.

On the Democratic side, Justice said abortion is a private health-care matter.

“I don’t believe it’s healthy for government to interfere in the private decisions of health care,” she said.

Nor does she favor the statewide referendum required to pass a gay marriage amendment.

“Being as I’m fiscally conservative, I can’t see us spending several hundred thousand dollars to bring something to the ballot that’s already there,” she said. “Put it into education.”

Sass wouldn’t discuss social issues.

“I’m not interested,” he said. “Call me a single-issue person if you want. My issue is funding schools.”

The district includes a portion of Lawrence north of Sixth Street, plus Baldwin, Eudora, all of Jefferson County and Basehor, Easton, Linwood and Tonganoxie in Leavenworth County.