LJWorld.com

If Nancy Todd hadn't had a bit of wanderlust, she might be serving in the Kansas Legislature.

As it is, the 56-year-old retired teacher who grew up in Lawrence and graduated from Kansas University decided to make her life in Colorado.

Starting in January, Todd will be a freshman lawmaker in the Colorado Legislature, riding a wave of Democratic Party resurgence and battling a $250 million budget deficit.

"I am a Colorado Jayhawk," said Todd, who returns to Lawrence often to visit family and friends and attend KU games. Any questions about her allegiance are dispelled when she calls out for her dog, a black Labrador named KJ, which stands for Kansas Jayhawks.

So how did a one-time Bob Dole intern make it to the Colorado Statehouse as a Democrat?

Todd's parents were Carl and Dorothy Knox.

Carl Knox was superintendent of Lawrence schools from 1963 through 1984. Growing up, Todd and her sister Carladyne were knowledgeable about politics and major events of the times. Todd served as an intern to then-U.S. Rep. Bob Dole, R-Kan., in 1968, whom she said was one of her inspirations in life.

When she graduated from KU in 1970 with a degree in education, Todd said, she had three choices: teach in Lawrence, Shawnee Mission or the Cherry Creek school district outside of Denver.

"I just loved Colorado and just felt like I needed to be my own person," Todd said. "My dad had been superintendent and was very high-profile. He's my hero still, but I felt like I needed to do something different."

She met her husband, Terry Todd, a Pittsburg State graduate, in Colorado, and the couple had two sons. Son Geoff is a high school basketball coach and minister in Missouri. Matt is attending law school at Washburn University in Topeka. Both sons received bachelor's degrees at KU.

After a 25-year career of teaching first- to seventh-grades, Todd retired in June, had hip replacement surgery in July and campaigned door-to-door all fall in her Aurora, Colo., district.

She said she decided to run "as the next step for me to work for public education in the state of Colorado." The seat she sought was being vacated by a Democrat who was elected to the state Senate.

Todd describes herself as a moderate Democrat and said she joined the party because it was more closely aligned with working people and public education.

On Election Day, Todd, who had never before run for any office, captured 59 percent against her Republican opponent in a district that is evenly divided among Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters.

She said Colorado's state budget was being squeezed by a constitutional amendment called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which limits spending and requires tax refunds.

She warned Kansas to steer clear of efforts to pass a similar measure.

"It's an absolutely horrible idea," she said. "I don't think most of us realized the constraints it would put on our state."

Aside from politics, Todd returns often to Lawrence to visit her 89-year-old mother, Dorothy Knox, sister, friends and her husband's family in Louisburg. Her father died 15 years ago. "Lawrence is still my home," she said.