As I write this, it is Monday morning. Certainly, last week was an interesting week to be a Kansan and a state employee. On Friday, I was declared to be “non-essential” by the Kansas University administration. Over the weekend the Kansas Legislature passed and the governor signed a law that declared me to be “essential,” at least until the Legislature adjourns for the year.

During the past seven days I also have watched the incredible political mess in Topeka with incredulity and despair. I have watched our elected representatives at what I hope is their worst. (Could it get any worse?) As I have watched and listened to the debates and the political maneuvers in the Legislature as well as the occasional pronouncements from the governor and his staff, I have come to believe that one of the fundamental problems we face in Kansas is the influence of money and lobbyists on our leaders. I think that the time has come when Kansans must do something about the massive influence lobbyists and political action groups — often lobbyists and political action groups from out of state — exert upon our elected officials.

The simplest solution to the problem would be to pass legislation that would reform campaign financing and limit the ability of lobbyists to influence legislators and executive branch officers once they are in office. But such laws are not easy to draft and would almost certainly come under legal challenge. Furthermore, it is hard to imagine that our legislators would, in fact, pass legislation of this sort that many might see as harming them personally and professionally.

Such laws also would not solve what I perceive to be one of the most serious problems we now face: the inclination of legislators and candidates for office to make broad “pledges”  about how they will vote on issues, such as the pledge never to vote to raise taxes, in advance of actually receiving proposed legislation. To make such pledges without any specific legislation before them and not knowing the factual context in which legislation might be proposed, to my mind, prevents legislators from doing their jobs as they should. It causes just the kind of situation now going on in Topeka.

Absent the possibility of serious campaign finance and lobbying reform laws, especially laws limiting what gifts and other support legislators can receive when they are in office, I think the next best possible solution is to adopt in modified form one of the tactics that lobbyists and political actions groups have been using so effectively. I think that it is time for Kansas voters to demand that every candidate for public office “pledge” that they will not accept any campaign contributions greater than $500 from any individual, corporation, or political action committee; that they will not accept gifts, services, or travel from any lobbying organizations or other organizations that wish to influence their votes; and that they will not make any advance “pledges” to anyone or any group that might limit their freedom to vote on any specific legislation that might come before them.  For instance, a legislator could state that he is opposed to increasing taxes, but would not “pledge” that he would never vote to increase taxes under any circumstances.

The Kansas political scene is a mess. We have become a national poster child for dysfunctional government. It is time to fix Kansas politics and we must do so immediately.