Consensus grows on February primary

? With growing agreement among legislators that Kansas ought to hold a presidential primary in early February 2008, a bill aimed at making it possible won first-round approval Wednesday in the Senate.

The measure would rewrite election laws to give Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh more flexibility in choosing a date for the election. The bill also would fix a flaw in a law that allows Thornburgh to set a date but says the filing deadline for the primary is Feb. 12, 2008.

Senators advanced the measure on a voice vote, setting up a final vote today to determine whether it goes to the House, where it could face problems. Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, opposes a primary because of its $2 million cost.

“Since I care a lot about health care, would that money, that couple of million dollars, be better spent making sure that more families have health insurance?” he said.

The push for a primary is occurring because the 2008 presidential race will be open and U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas wants to be the Republican nominee.

Kansas had primaries in 1980 and 1992 on the first Tuesday in April, a date legislators now agree is too late to influence the races for the Democratic and Republican nominations. In other years, the parties have held caucuses because the Legislature canceled the primaries. At stake are six electoral votes.

The date most often mentioned is Feb. 5, a week after South Carolina holds its primary. Both national parties have agreed that they won’t recognize the results of any primaries or caucuses held before South Carolina’s, except for Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on Jan. 14 and New Hampshire’s primary.

“Kansas has a real chance to have some impact,” said Senate Elections and Local Government Committee Chairman Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler. “We’ll have it Feb. 5 or before – I’m convinced of that.”

Thornburgh has until Nov. 1 to pick a date for the election, and spokesman Jesse Borjon said he plans to appoint a committee next week to advise him. The bill says Thornburgh must pick a date used by at least three other states, down from five in the law.

“Passage of this legislation puts Kansans one step closer to having a voice in the presidential selection process,” Thornburgh said in a statement.

The only hitch was Sen. David Haley’s desire to discuss how the president is chosen during the general election.

Haley, D-Kansas City, offered an amendment to bring Kansas into a compact with other states to ensure that they automatically give the most votes in the Electoral College to the winner of the popular vote.

But his amendment died on a voice vote. Huelskamp, who holds a doctoral degree in political science, said the founders concluded, “The Electoral College is a great protection for small states like Kansas.”

The 1980 primary was an effort to increase participation by Kansans in the nominating process, allowing tens of thousands of people to participate, rather than a few thousand in caucuses.

But it also was an experiment not tried again until 1992, and the state canceled primaries scheduled for 1996, 2000 and 2004, either because lawmakers didn’t think the races were competitive enough or because they felt the state couldn’t afford the cost.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius included $2 million in her proposed budget for the primary. A House Appropriations subcommittee approved the money – but added a provision saying it couldn’t be spent unless the election were held on or before Feb. 5.

“If we were going to spend it, it made sense to have the primary early enough that it made a difference,” said Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Overland Park, the subcommittee’s chairman.