By SAM ZEFF

The Senate race in Kansas isn’t expected to be competitive and the governor isn’t on the ballot this fall. So, the hardest fought statewide campaign might just involve four people you’ve never heard of.

For the first time ever there will be a coordinated effort to oust state Supreme Court justices.

The bad blood between the state Supreme Court and conservatives in Kansas goes back ten years to when the justices ordered the state to pump more than $500 million dollars more into public education.

Conservatives were furious and tried to amend the state Constitution to limit what the Supreme Court could do in a school finance case.

And the relationship between the two branches has continued to sour.

So much so that at the state Republican convention in Topeka May 14 the delegates voted to make ousting four high court justices a priority.

“What we’re going to see in November, without a doubt, we are going to see a tremendous amount of money spent on judicial elections — retention elections — in Kansas,” says University of Kansas political science Professor Burdett Loomis, who leans Democratic.

Republicans are now committed to booting four justices off the Supreme Court: Carol Beier, Dan Biles, Marla Luckert and Chief Justice Lawton Nuss.

Also up for retention is Justice Caleb Stegall. He was appointed by Gov. Sam Brownback so conservatives want him to stay on the bench. This complicates the campaign. It will be harder to for voters to make a distinction between Stegall and the four targeted justices.

It will be a three pronged attack.

The Republican Party will coordinate the effort.

Koch brothers interests will help fund the campaign, many expect at least a half-million dollars to be spent.

And an old high court adversary will do the field work.

Lead by Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life tried to boot Justice Beier from the Bench six years ago for her votes on abortion but failed.

Culp says conservatives are mounting the campaign because of the justices opinions and votes on school finance, the death penalty and, of course, abortion.

“We passed serious laws. Laws people really care about and then you go to the courts and they say, sorry. It’s like pulling the rug from out from under you after you’ve passed these laws,” says Culp.

Culp says they’ll make phone calls, probably spend money on radio ads and send out postcards.

While this might feel like a regular political campaign, it’s far from it.

This is a retention election and that means Kansans will vote yes or no on whether these justices should keep their jobs.

But justices can’t campaign, so others have to campaign on their behalf.

“We have three branches of government in this state. Not two branches and a twig,” says Ryan Wright who is Executive Director of Kansans for Fair Courts.

Up until this year, he’s been battling attempts by the legislature to make it easier to impeach Supreme Court Justices, to defund the whole system, or restrict the authority of the chief justice.

“They’re not equipped to have a fair fight because they’re not politicians. That’s by design. We don’t want our judges to be politicians,” says Wright.

Although they used to be exactly that.

Before a scandal in 1956 justices ran in partisan elections.

Since then, after the people changed the state constitution, Kansas has used a merit selection process; a committee recommends three candidates and the governor chooses from that list.

But Brownback and legislative Republicans have suggested two alternatives; the federal system where the chief executive appoints and the senate confirms or to a system where the voting public outright elects justices.

Both, says Wright, are bad ideas.

Which brings us back to pure politics. Politicians on all sides expect this Supreme Court retention battle to get nasty.

“There’s going to be a lot of name calling. There’s going to be a lot of political posturing,” Wright says.

But the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Right now conservatives hold the governor’s office and the Legislature.

Democrats, moderate Republicans and progressives fear that losing these four high court justices would push all of state government far to the right.

 

Sam Zeff  covers education for KCUR Follow him on Twitter @SamZeff.

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — A central Kansas businessman says he is rebuilding what will be the deepest-diving submarine owned by a private individual once it’s done.

KSHB-TV reports Salina resident Scott Waters bought a Pisces VI submarine from storage and had it shipped to his hometown in middle of the country.

Waters, who owns several Kansas hardware stores, says he paid $30,000 for a sub that cost about $2.5 million to build in the 1970s.

He estimates it will take about four years and $130,000 to rebuild and fully test the submarine before it’s finished.

Waters takes a pragmatic approach to his love of submarines by saying he’s equally close to either ocean.

Several years ago he built himself a submarine that can dive to 300 feet.

JOHN HANNA, AP Political Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate’s top Republican is pushing to override GOP Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill enmeshed in a multi-million dollar tax dispute involving a retired pizza magnate.

Senate President Susan Wagle said Brownback “turned his back on Kansas taxpayers” earlier this month when he rejected the bill over a provision dealing with how tax disputes are handled. Lawmakers expect to vote on overriding the veto Wednesday.

The provision would have ensured that any taxpayer losing a dispute before the Board of Tax Appeals could have another full trial in district court before a limited review by the state Court of Appeals.

Legislators are considering the issue as ex-pizza magnate Gene Bicknell is asking the state Supreme Court to order the state to refund $42.5 million in income taxes.

OTTAWA COUNTY – A Kansas man was injured in an accident just before 2 p.m. on Sunday in Ottawa County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Harley Davidson driven by Stanley K. Britt, 62, Salina, was eastbound on Kansas18 eight miles east of Bennington.

The driver lost control of the motorcycle. It entered the south ditch and overturned.

Britt was transported to the hospital in Salina.

LAVERNE, Okla. (AP) — Two Kansans have died following a motorcycle crash in northwestern Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says 63-year-old Bill Meggenberg of Meade, Kansas, was dead at scene of the crash on Highway 64 north of Laverne.

The OHP says 70-year-old Susan Meggenberg of Meade died later at an Oklahoma City hospital where she was taken following the crash.

A police report says the two were westbound on the motorcycle Saturday afternoon when the rear tire apparently deflated and the motorcycle overturned several times.

The report says the weather was clear and the road was dry at the time of the crash.

LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — A Lenexa-based jewelry company that was one of the Kansas City area’s more successful startups has announced plans to close.

Silpada Designs Inc. says its business model that involved jewelry-sales parties hosted at home has become outdated. The company said women increasingly work outside the home, making sales parties more difficult to host than when Silpada formed in 1997.

Andrea Carroll, the company’s vice president of design, product development and marketing, told The Kansas City Star  no particular event triggered the board’s decision Tuesday to halt its business.

The retailer grew to become one of the largest party-planning sellers of sterling silver jewelry in North America. It was acquired by Avon Products in 2010 for $650 million but was reacquired by the founding families in 2013.

ELLSWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A 17-year-old boy has drowned while swimming at a central Kansas lake.

Ellsworth County Sheriff Tracy Ploutz says Trevor Blair of Ellinwood was not breathing when he was pulled from Kanopolis Lake about 4:15 p.m. Saturday.

The sheriff’s office received a call around 3 p.m. about someone whose body had been underwater at the lake for close to 10 minutes.

Emergency responders performed CPR as Blair was taken by ambulance to Ellsworth County Medical Center, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.

AMY BETH HANSON, Associated Press

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — As the National Park Service kicks off a centennial summer expected to draw record crowds, the agency is seriously considering caps on how many people pass through some of the country’s most iconic landscapes and historical sites each day.

Park managers have begun looking at whether, when and how best to manage the impact of more people on the parks, their features and the visitors’ experience.

Denali and Yellowstone plan to survey visitors about their experiences this summer, hoping the responses will provide insight on what limitations visitors might accept.

Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah have been taking public comment on their plans for tighter rules about how many people can be in the park at the same time.