Tonganoxie ? U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback offered his auction expertise Tuesday at the Leavenworth County Fair in Tonganoxie.

“If you have an auction for a grand champion pig, I’ll do that, too,” Brownback said. “I’m an auctioneer, too.”

Brownback then went into a bit of auction speak, to the delight of about 75 people gathered under a tent at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds.

But Brownback, R-Kan., the lone candidate for the governor’s race in 2010, was in Tonganoxie for a town hall meeting, not the livestock auction.

He led a lively discussion about President Obama’s health care plan, Guantanamo Bay, immigration and the direction of the Republican Party.

Regarding health care, Brownback said the country didn’t need “a revolutionary approach to this system.”

He said incremental reform was the answer, noting there needed to be tax deductions for health insurance costs. Brownback also said trade associations and small businesses should band together to offer health care insurance and people should be able to purchase health insurance across state lines.

Brownback questioned mandating health care coverage. People in Kansas are required to have car insurance to operate a vehicle, Brownback noted, and he said about 10 percent of the driving population doesn’t have auto insurance. He said about 12 percent of the state’s population doesn’t have health care.

“America works best when it works freest,” Brownback said.

Gitmo talk

Brownback reiterated his stance against moving Guantanamo Bay detainees to Leavenworth and mentioned a letter from U.S. Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates expressing opposition to transferring terrorists to Fort Leavenworth.

In the letter, Skelton noted the fort is home to the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks and the Army’s General Command and General Staff College. Skelton said some Muslim countries would not send students there.

Brownback said the college was like having “the Rhodes Scholars of the military pass through one place in the country.”

Concerns from the crowd

At the fairgrounds, people lined up to talk and ask questions. Some told him they were ready for him to be Kansas’ next governor, while others voiced concerns about immigration reform. He said he continued to support efforts to build a fence on the U.S.-Mexico border and expand requirements for e-verification, which provides a database system that allows employers to cross-reference identity information with Social Security Administration records confirming work eligibility.

One person asked Brownback to promise to veto any legislation providing tax money for abortions. He assured the woman he was against abortion and would do so.

“I am pro-life,” Brownback said. “I have fought for the pro-life issue. I’m going to continue to fight.”

Dave Dreyer, of Topeka, said media figures such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity shouldn’t be the voice of the Republican Party. “… You should be our voice.” Dreyer told Brownback.