Brownback, Davis spar over judges and public safety, but not EPA

? Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his Democratic challenger Paul Davis found some rare common ground Thursday when they both said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should roll back proposed new clean water regulations that limit pollution in lakes, rivers and streams.

Although EPA officials have adamantly denied that the proposed new rules represent a change in policy, they have generated strong opposition in farm states throughout the Midwest, especially among farm groups and the oil and gas industry whose members say they would impose an economic burden.

But the two candidates continued to spar over other issues, particularly public safety and the role governors play in selecting Supreme Court justices.

“Regulation over land use decisions has always been the purview of local government and the rights of individual land owners,” Brownback said at a news conference Thursday morning. “Kansans have had enough. They have had enough of this type of federal overreach.”

Brownback said he and several cabinet secretaries were sending a letter to the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging them to withdraw the proposed rules. EPA is accepting public comment on the proposed rules through Nov. 14.

“In that letter, we hold that the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA are proposing a rule that unlawfully and unconstitutionally tries to assert federal jurisdiction over local water and land use management,” Brownback said.

Under the Clean Water Act of 1972, the EPA has authority to regulate water quality in lakes, rivers and streams that are considered “waters of the United States.” Those include water bodies that cross state boundaries, as well as the streams and watersheds that feed into them.

In 2005, under the George W. Bush administration, the EPA revised its maps that show which water bodies are covered by the act. But last year, the agency revised those maps based on updated data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

During his news conference, Brownback displayed before-and-after maps showing how much additional territory would be taken in by the proposed new rules. Greg Foley of the Kansas Department of Agriculture said the new rules would take in 140,000 stream-miles of waterways in Kansas, more than triple the number of stream-miles currently regulated under the Clean Water Act.

But EPA spokesman Tom Reynolds said in a blog post in August that those maps do not reflect what the proposed new rules would do.

“Simply put, these maps do not show the scope of waters historically covered under the Clean Water Act or proposed to be covered under EPA’s proposed rule,” Reynolds wrote. “These maps show generally the location of many streams, wetlands, rivers, lakes and other water bodies. They serve as a tool for visualizing how water flows across our nation and in regions of the country.”

In a separate news conference later in the morning, Davis said he agreed with Brownback.

“I think I’ve been up front about saying the proposed rule to the Clean Water Act that is out there I think would be very damaging for Kansas,” Davis said.

Public safety and judges

Davis held his news conference to announce that he’s received an endorsement from the Kansas State Troopers Association’s political action committee. That group represents Highway Patrol troopers in Kansas.

It was the first time that group has endorsed a challenger to a sitting incumbent. In 2010, when there was no incumbent running, the association endorsed Brownback.

The issue of public safety became a campaign issue this week when the Brownback campaign began running TV ads criticizing the Kansas Supreme Court for overturning the death sentences of brothers Jonathan and Reginald Carr, who were convicted of a brutal quadruple homicide that occurred in Wichita in December 2000.

The court said the sentences were unconstitutional because the trial court should have held separate sentencing hearings for each defendant instead of sentencing them jointly. That phase of the trial was remanded back to Sedgwick County for a new sentencing phase, which officials have said could result in the same verdict.

The ad also says that Davis would appoint “liberal judges” like those who voted to overturn those death sentences.

That ad has been criticized as “race baiting” because it features mug shots of the two defendants, both of whom are black. It has also been criticized for falsely claiming that one of the justices, Carol Beier, hosted a fundraiser for Davis.

In truth, the fundraiser was hosted by Beier’s husband, Richard Green, a retired teacher in the Topeka school district. It was attended by members of the local Topeka teachers union, but not by Beier herself, and not by Davis or his lieutenant governor running mate Jill Docking.

But Brownback stood by the ad when asked about it at his news conference Thursday.

“Paul Davis supports a liberal court, and they apparently support him,” Brownback said.

Brownback also said he plans to vote no on two of the justices who are up for retention this election, Lee Johnson and Eric Rosen, both of whom supported the majority opinion.

Davis declined to say how he will vote on Johnson’s and Rosen’s retention.

“I don’t really discuss in public who I’m going to vote for and who I don’t vote for,” he said.

But he did criticize the Brownback TV ad, saying, “This is an issue that has no place in a political campaign.”

Later in the day, a group of 14 past presidents of the Kansas Bar Association issued a letter endorsing Davis and criticizing Brownback over his relations with the judicial branch.

“As past presidents of the Kansas Bar Association, we feel we should be able to trust a lawyer like Sam Brownback — the head of the executive branch in — to respect the importance of an independent and co-equal judiciary. But to the contrary, we are alarmed at the erosion of judicial independence,” the attorneys said.