BY JIM MCLEAN

Legislative leaders often use their authority over committee assignments and other perks to reward loyalty and punish insubordination.

But rarely are punishments meted out as publicly as they were Tuesday in the Kansas House.

House Speaker Ray Merrick, a Republican from Stilwell, publicly stripped fellow Republican John Rubin of his chairmanship of the Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee just minutes before the House adjourned for the day.

The announcement was swift retribution for Rubin’s role an hour earlier in challenging a decision that Merrick had made the day before to remove a bill from debate calendar to prevent it from being used to force a floor vote on expanding casino gambling in the state.

Upon learning of his ouster, Rubin stormed out of the House chamber. When asked for a comment as he hurried down a set of stairs to his office, the Shawnee Republican lashed out at Merrick.

“If he wants to run the state like a Napoleon Bonaparte for the state of Kansas he can do it without my help,” a visibly angry Rubin said before adding, “I’m resigning from the House of Representatives effective midnight tonight.”

Rubin later inched his position back, telling the Kansas City Star that he was “considering” stepping down because of the way Merrick ousted him.

“I was relieved as chairman by the speaker in a very open and public way,” he said.

In a statement, Merrick said he took the action in response to an attempt to “manipulate the House rules” and force a floor vote on a gaming bill that already had been scheduled for a hearing in committee on Wednesday.

Merrick said the hearing in the House Appropriations Committee would allow members to better understand the possible financial ramifications of expanding gaming.

He said the bill in question could require the state to pay the current operators of state-owned casinos more than $100 million. Tuesday’s incident wasn’t Rubin’s first tangle with House leaders.

His efforts to promote transparency by challenging rules that allow several bills to be bundled into conference committee reports that lawmakers must either vote up or down also rankled them.

Even so, his ouster as the chairman of a committee that has spent hours crafting a package of juvenile justice reform bills left several legislators stunned.

“I’m still coming to grips with it,” said Rep. Blaine Finch, a Republican from Ottawa. “But that was swift. Quite swift.”

Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, called Merrick’s actions “irrational.” “He (Merrick) never stands up and argues his ideas,” Ward said. “He just punishes and threatens. That’s not leadership, that’s bullying and it’s happening too much in this building.”

Merrick also removed Rep. John Barker, a Republican and retired district court judge from Abilene, as chairman of the committee that resolves disputes over the House rules. Merrick took the action even though Barker and the committee upheld his decision to pull the bill that could have served as a vehicle for gaming amendments.

Several legislators said Tuesday’s developments were an indication of growing tensions at the Statehouse – tensions caused by ongoing budget problems and deepening differences about how to address them.

Those tensions also were evident Monday when heated exchanges in a GOP caucus prompted Senate leaders to excuse the media and close the meeting.

Before the session began, Merrick removed several members of the House Health and Human Services Committee because of their support for expanding KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, to cover more low-income adults.

On the other side of the Statehouse, Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a Republican from Shawnee, was removed from her position as chair of the Senate Public Health and Welfare committee after she tussled with Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, over an amendment related to Medicaid expansion. Pilcher-Cook said she offered the amendment with the idea that it would be voted down and send a message to the House that Medicaid expansion was a dead issue.

Jim McLean is executive editor of KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team.