By NICK BUDD
Hays Post

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis visited Hays on Sunday, meeting with supporters and various community groups to talk about his campaign to unseat current Gov. Sam Brownback in the November general election.

Davis, Lawrence, practices as an attorney and has served as the House minority leader over the past six years in the Kansas Legislature. Davis’ running mate is Jill Docking, a financial planner from Wichita. Docking ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1996, eventually losing to Brownback.

Davis said state government needs a significant makeover. In the last election cycle, several moderate Republicans were voted out of the Legislature, which created formidable divide in the state House and Senate.

“I think people are looking for somebody who can be a uniter instead of a divider and somebody that has a track record of bringing Democrats and Republicans together,” Davis said. “In my time in the Legislature, I’ve worked very effectively with Republicans and I’ve been able to build coalitions with both parties on many different issues.”

Davis said he has continued to work with Republican since he was elected to the state Legislature 12 years ago. In fact, Davis mentioned it was one of his first priorities when he arrived in Topeka.

“I’m not a partisan person by nature. I don’t look at a person and wonder what party they belong to. I’m interested in finding people who share the values that I share,” Davis said. “Not all of the great ideas come from one political party.”

At Sunday’s town hall meeting, which brought nearly 150 to VFW Post 9076, Davis talked about his bipartisanship accomplishments. Davis mentioned one of his biggest accomplishments came in 2005 when the Kansas Supreme Court ruled school funding levels were unconstitutional.

“Our bipartisan coalition at that time, which included Eber (Phelps) and Janis (Lee), ended that lawsuit, and we made a historic to public schools at that time,” Davis said. “If I’m elected, I plan on including Republicans within my administration. Right now, Brownback does not have a single Democrat in his cabinet.”

He also talked about the creation of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which he said has made Kansas the “talk of the country.” Five years ago, Kansas was one of the top five states in creating life-science and bioscience jobs, which helped bring the proposed federal facility to Manhattan.

“During a meeting in Washington when we were trying to secure the funding for the (defense center), I walked into another senator’s office who had a competitor for the same project in his district and he said ‘There’s something very special going on in Kansas, because I have never seen people coming into my office, Democrats and Republicans, working with private industry and all of you are on the same page. This is something that’s really special,’ ” Davis said.

But, he added, Brownback’s administration has forced the bioscience authority to take a “180-degree turn.”

“Now we’re in a place where our industry growth in that area is very stagnant, and it’s a … shame because we want kids to stay here in Kansas,” Davis said.

The Davis-Docking campaign also has focused on the fact public school funding has continued to decrease throughout Brownback’s tenure as governor. At Sunday’s gathering, Davis reminisced about the time when Brownback released his first budget, where historic cuts were made to public schools.

“When (Brownback) delivered his first State of the State address, he said ‘Public education is to Kansas as what the national defense is to the federal government.’ … The very next day Gov. Brownback released his first state budget and that budget provided for the single largest cut to public school funding in state history. Four months later, the governor got his wish and signed the cuts into law,” Davis said. “We’ve got to recommit ourselves as a state to reinvesting in the next generation of Kansans. If we do that, we know that it’s going to lead to economic successs. Strong schools are the very foundation of our economy and if we have great public schools here we’re going to be able to grow our state.”

“We’ve got to recommit ourselves as a state to reinvesting in the next generation of Kansans. If we do that, we know that it’s going to lead to economic successs. Strong schools are the very foundation of our economy and if we have great public schools here we’re going to be able to grow our state.”
Paul Davis, D-Lawrence

Davis said education is the biggest issue in the western part of the state, along with the depletion of water. Davis noted it as a “tremendous issue that the state has to deal with.”

“The future of water in western Kansas is going to be critical to be able to grow the economy in western Kansas,” Davis said. “If we continue down the path we are on right now, we know that it will have serious economic effects in western Kansas.”

The presumed Democratic candidate also talked about a recent comment Brownback made referring to himself as a “Reagan-style Republican” and calling Davis an “Obama Democrat.” Davis said Brownback is “wrong on both counts.”

“(Reagan) wanted to work with Republicans of all different ideologies, and he was also able to work with Democrats in Congress; he had a famous relationship with Tip O’Neil, the speaker of the House at the time. They disagreed on a lot of things but they were able to work together,” Davis said. “Sam Brownback has not only not been able to work with Democrats, he hasn’t been able to work with people from his own party.

“The charge that I’m some kind of Obama Democrat is a false one, as well. I’m a moderate, common-sense leader. I’m an independent thinker, and I’m somebody that has a track record of being able to unite Democrats and Republicans. That’s why 100 former Republicans have endorsed me in an unprecedented step in Kansas political history.”

Davis also said the middle class needs to be rebuilt in Kansas. He noted members of the middle class are “getting squeezed” by the Brownback tax cuts.

“We’ve seen this tax experiment that has just been a complete failure and what has really happened is the folks that are the top income earners have seen some very significant tax breaks and the burden has been shifted onto the middle-class taxpayer and those who are simply trying to get into the middle class,” Davis said. “If we continue down the path with the Brownback tax experiment, the state will be in debt over $1 billion over the next five years. That will affect our ability to fund all of our critical state services, especially our public schools and universities.”

He said his plan to reform the tax situation includes freezing the tax rates at where they are in order to restore the public school cuts that have been made by the Brownback administration.

At the gathering Sunday, Davis said he plans to participate in Fort Hays State University’s homecoming parade on Oct. 11.

Brownback faces a primary challenger on Aug. 5, on the ballot against Wichita Republican Jennifer Winn.