Karleskint undecided in upcoming House speaker race

Republican Rep. Jim Karleskint of Tonganoxie will serve on the House committee charged with writing a new school finance formula.

? Newly elected Rep. Jim Karleskint, of Tonganoxie, said Tuesday that he has met with all three people vying to be the next speaker of the Kansas House, but so far has not made a commitment about which one he’ll support.

He did say, however, that the No. 1 factor in his decision will be how the candidate plans to handle the task of writing a new school finance formula.

“One of the things that concerns me the most about the upcoming legislative session — in 1992 when they wrote the last formula, it took two years to get it passed. We’ve got three months,” he said.

In 2015, at Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s urging, lawmakers repealed that 1992 school finance formula and replaced it for two years with a system of block grants that effectively froze K-12 funding in place. They are now expected to write a new formula during the 2017 session, and Brownback has indicated he will not support continuing the block grant system for another year.

But Karleskint said that so far none of the three speaker candidates has said how he plans to manage the school finance debate, or even which committee, or group of committees, will be in charge of writing the new formula.

The three people actively campaigning for the job are Reps. Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, who currently chairs the Appropriations Committee; Jene Vickrey, R-Louisburg, the current majority leader; and Russ Jennings, R-Lakin, who has been in the House just two terms and is running as the “moderate” alternative to the two conservatives.

When the 2017 session convenes, Karleskint will be one of 39 freshman members of the House and one of 27 freshman Republicans. He was elected after defeating incumbent Rep. Connie O’Brien in the Aug. 2 primary and winning a general election race against Democrat Kara Reed.

He will represent the 42nd House District, which includes the city of Eudora, much of eastern Douglas County and part of Leavenworth County.

Republicans suffered a net loss of 12 House seats in the Nov. 8 elections, taking their total down to 85 seats. That means those freshmen will make up nearly one-third of the new House GOP caucus.

Members of the new Legislature will gather at the Statehouse to elect new leadership on Dec. 5, a few days after the State Board of Canvassers meets Nov. 30 to certify the election results.

Because Republicans hold the majority in the House, the GOP caucus will nominate a new speaker, although technically the speaker must be formally elected by the full House. Other leadership jobs are chosen directly by the caucuses, including speaker pro tem, as well as the majority and minority leader positions.

It is unclear, however, how much of a majority, if any, conservatives still have within the GOP caucus because so many either decided not to run this year or were defeated for re-election.

Karleskint campaigned as a moderate on school finance and tax policy. But he has expressed decidedly conservative views on some social issues, including abortion and gun rights.

Besides pressing the speaker candidates on how they plan to tackle the school finance issue, Karleskint said he is also expressing his own preferences for committee assignments.

“A lot of times, freshmen do not get placed on the good committees like appropriations, and I understand that,” he said. “I’d like to be on the Education Committee and I shared that with all of them. I taught school finance at the doctorate level. And I’d like to be on the Veterans Committee.”

But as far as the speaker’s race goes, Karleskint said he is still uncommitted.

“I haven’t made a commitment; I haven’t made a choice,” Karleskint said Tuesday. “We’ve got until Dec. 5. I want to read more about their backgrounds and what they’ve done in the past.”

Rep. Tom Sloan, of Lawrence, the only other Republican in the Lawrence-area delegation, was unavailable Monday and Tuesday this week to comment on the speaker’s race.