Topeka ? Most counties in the state’s western half have been losing population in the past 15 years, and the region has lost legislative seats as a result, in theory shifting power to the east, particularly Johnson County.

Yet when the 2007 Legislature convenes Jan. 8, western Kansas will have significant clout, thanks to the longevity of some of its lawmakers and House leadership elections this month.

Three of the its most powerful leaders will live west of U.S. Highway 281, which intersects Interstate 70 at Russell: Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton; incoming House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls; and House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg.

And while Johnson County’s population is far greater than the combined numbers in the state’s westernmost 54 counties, it can claim only one of the six leaders: House Majority Leader Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell.

It’s not clear exactly what western Kansas’ leadership dominance means for policy in the new year, with lawmakers from all regions suggesting the west won’t be trying to ram an agenda past the east. But it does have implications for debates on issues such as education funding and energy policy.

“How it will play out is how they want it to play out, to make sure western Kansas doesn’t sort of get forgotten,” said Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist.

Some seniority

The other two leaders at the top of the Legislature’s hierarchy are Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence, and Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.

In the Senate, the president and majority leader share control of the agenda; in the House, power rests with the speaker, though the majority leader retains informal but potent influence. Minority leaders are the chief opposition spokesmen and strategists.

Merrick and Schmidt are the least senior of the six leaders, having both won their first terms in 2000. Morris and McKinney won their seats in 1992, while Hensley is the Legislature’s senior member, having been elected to the House in 1976 and to the Senate in 1992. Neufeld won his first term in 1984 but lost his 1988 re-election race. He recaptured his seat two years later.

The western Kansans leaders now have relatively safe seats. Morris had no opponent in his last race, in 2004, and neither Neufeld nor McKinney were challenged this year.

That fact gives them some freedom to broker deals.

“It may be easier to spend more time doing legislative work than worrying about getting re-elected,” said Burdett Loomis, a Kansas University political scientist who formerly served on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ staff. “There may be a little less to attend to in terms of having to quiet the waters.”

The western Kansas leaders also said they’re more used to building coalitions, coming from a less populated region. To get elected speaker, Neufeld had to get support from easterners, and as a rural lawmaker, McKinney had to win over representatives of Democrats’ core urban constituencies.

McKinney and Neufeld said westerners do such coalition-building in their personal and professional lives.

“I help my neighbor work his cattle. I help him sometimes with field work, and there’s a bunch of times I’ve depended on him to help me – because we have to,” McKinney said. “Our culture requires us to be of a cooperative mind-set.”

Shifting dollars

The ascendancy of western Kansas leaders is important to the region because changing demographics are against it.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the westernmost 15 Kansas counties lost about 14,000 residents from 2000 through 2005, dropping their population to about 365,000. While the population did rise between 1990 and 2000, that was largely because of a few isolated trends, such as an influx of Hispanic residents in southwest Kansas.

Meanwhile, in 2000-2005, the Census Bureau estimates, Johnson County gained more than 55,000 residents, bringing its total population to more than 506,000.

There’s also been pressure to see that small rural schools receive a lesser share of the state’s K-12 education dollars, largely because of a now-resolved lawsuit that claimed districts with poor and minority students were being shorted.

Western Kansas legislators frequently worry that shifting dollars in the name of making the school finance formula fairer will force some schools to close. Having people in powerful leadership positions helps.

“They’re going to make sure that the policy is as favorable as it can possibly be toward rural school districts,” said Joe Aistrup, head of Kansas State University’s political science department. “It could be swung even further away from rural school districts.”

Western Kansas legislators also have a keen interest in energy policy. Not only is their region the site of potential wind farms, they’ve been watching the reserves of the giant Hugoton natural gas field decline, and they’re worried they can’t gain economically from other western states’ growing demand for electricity because of a relative scarcity of transmission lines.

Finally, there’s rural development. It’s an issue that’s never quite off the Legislature’s agenda, but having western Kansas leaders is certain to make it more visible.