Kansans have two chances to vote on Kris Kobach next month: on Kobach himself in the gubernatorial race and on his legacy in the secretary of state race. Kobach’s tenure as secretary of state has been marred with mismanagement: failures to update his office’s website, shortfalls in ...
President Donald Trump campaigns in Kansas this week. This should provoke Democrats into action. His campaign stop will likely include: blaming Democrats for his shortcomings, mocking claims of sexual assault, condemning the press as fake news, inflaming racial resentments, demeaning officials ...
From the vantage point of November 2019, the chaos of Kris Kobach’s initial year as governor seems inevitable. The ambitious Kobach, much like Sam Brownback, assumed that a small-state governorship could propel him into the national spotlight. Remarkably, it has taken Kobach only a year to ...
Traditionally referred to as “mainline,” many Protestant churches, including Lutheran, Presbyterian and Methodist, are under great stress. Some older Catholic congregations are struggling, too. Many of these congregations are aging, with a startlingly high percentage of members (and ...
“Can’t fight progress,” my father observed as he pitched his plan to buy our family’s first automatic dishwasher. “Why would we want one?" I remember my mother’s counter. “We already have two daughters.” Fortunately for me, it didn’t take long for dishwashers to make ...
Bill Graves, the last moderate Republican governor of Kansas, recently endorsed Democrat Laura Kelly in the gubernatorial race — his first public endorsement of a Democrat ever for statewide office. Sure, Graves and Kelly are both relatively centrist, but the shocker was Graves endorsing at ...
Will the “Trump effect” carry Kris Kobach and Republican congressional candidates to victory this November? Some commentators believe that an endorsement by President Donald Trump represents a powerful force in winning state and local elections, but the president’s mounting and careless ...
With seventy-some days to the 2018 general election, Greg Orman has become reviled by Democrats and others as a “spoiler,” who could easily help far-right Republican Kris Kobach win election as governor of Kansas. It didn’t have to be that way. In 2014, heading into the last few days of ...
Contested recounts, an independent spoiler candidate and national publicity each time our secretary of state starts a new round of antics. Never a dull moment in Kansas these days. Enough already. To heck with those guys. I am not even going to bother naming them. It is time to talk about ...
How can a politician as flawed as Kris Kobach be elected governor? Easy—just divide and conquer. A lot of politicians with deep pockets and deep ambition see 2018 as their moment to shine. Consequently, Kobach enjoys the major advantage of having “too many” opponents, letting him squeak ...
For voters planning to cast a primary election ballot for governor on Tuesday, your choice is move forward and away from the Sam Brownback era or turn back toward it. Candidates have defined this choice on the major issues of the campaign. Most Kansans do not see abortion and guns as their ...
On Aug. 7, GOP voters will choose their nominee for governor, and it’s an intriguing four-person race. No, not the Jeff Colyer, Kris Kobach, Jim Barnett, Ken Selzer contest, although those names are on the ballot, along with a couple of well-spoken 17-year-olds. With all due respect, ...
The Kansas Constitution requires all gubernatorial nominees to run on a ticket with their lieutenant governor nominees. Much more fanfare has surrounded the process this year than it has in the past. Why? The state Constitution and recent history do make one thing clear: The next lieutenant ...
A storm is brewing over equitable education funding in Kansas. Last month, the Kansas Supreme Court passed down a decision upholding the state Legislature’s five-year school funding proposal of $522 million in new spending. The court required only that additional resources to sufficiently ...
Kansans should expect candidates seeking state office this year to address state laws and practices that discriminate against LGBT people. Gov. Jeff Colyer recently signed a bill that allows faith-based adoption agencies that receive state funds to refuse service to gay and lesbian couples ...
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been on vivid display in federal courtrooms over the past year, and his performance there tells Kansas Republicans all they need to know about his capacity to be the next governor of Kansas. He clearly lacks the competence and character to be elected to ...
“Come Gather ‘Round Children …” Despite the great success of female candidates across the country this year, 2018 may become, even more, the political year of youth. This rosy possibility confronts the hard historical reality of low interest, low voting turnout and general cynicism ...
Nearly 45,000 Americans die by suicide each year — an increase of nearly 25 percent since 1999. No wonder the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls it a public health crisis. The problem is even worse in Kansas: up 45 percent in the same time frame. The issue is in today’s ...
As state legislators grappled with a new Kansas school-funding plan this spring, in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, and recently North Carolina, strikes, walkouts and statewide teacher rallies closed schools. The demonstrations protested low salaries for teachers and ...
This is it. The end. I’m not going to be around anymore to nag you about low birth rates, shrinking populations out west, and the inevitability of change and its costs and responsibilities. No more scoffing at ridiculous claims about the sanctity of free enterprise without government ...