BY BECKY KISER
Hays Post
State representative Sue Boldra believes “God must have another plan for me.”
The Hays Republican incumbent was defeated in a close race Tuesday by Democrat Eber Phelps of Hays for the 111th House District seat. Four years ago, Boldra unseated Phelps who had served in the position since 1996. The district encompasses most of Ellis County.
“I don’t know what I could have changed or done differently in my re-election campaign,” she said Wednesday morning.
Boldra thinks there was a lot of “anti-Brownback sentiment” among Kansas voters which led to her ouster, although she was not in the legislature when the governor’s tax bill was passed.
“I think that happened all over the state. There were 11 of us who have been there two terms or more who lost our seats, all by about the same margins–very close,” according to Boldra.
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That margin in Ellis County was 47 percent to 53 percent. Boldra got 4,517 votes; Phelps had 5,184 votes. There are still some provisional and paper ballots to be counted but not enough to close the gap, according to Ellis County Clerk Donna Maskus. All election results remain unofficial until canvassed by Ellis County Commissioners during their meeting Mon., Nov. 14.
“I think people are upset with Gov. Sam Brownback and the state of the economy in Kansas and it showed up in the election,” Boldra concluded.
Boldra was a longtime teacher at Hays High School. She said she has met with the chairman of the Fort Hays State University Department of Teacher Education, where she is an instructor, about more work opportunities. “He commiserated with me but he also said ‘I’m glad you’re going to be here,” Boldra said with a laugh, “so that was nice.”
She was a member of the House Education Committee, something she is “very proud” to have worked on.
“I did ‘gut and go’ a bill that would have taken away all negotiation rights for teachers. I took an amendment down and we gutted that and we put in the language a compromise agreement by KNEA (Kansas National Educators Association, KASB (Kansas Association of School Boards) and the two administrators’ associations, and we saved the right to negotiate. I was very proud of that.
“I also was very proud to get rid of a bill that would have made schools spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new materials because it had something to do with Common Core. We were able to stop that one on debate on the House floor.”
Boldra mentioned her work to help get three amendments added to the Step Therapy bill to protect Kansans with debilitating diseases so “they don’t have to go down to the very first step in prescription drugs if they already know a specific drug works for them. Our daughter has MS and that was an important bill for me.”
Boldra also helped get the David Carter Memorial Interchange–the interchange of Interstate 70 and Commerce Parkway in Hays–signed into law. She said monies are still being raised for the road marker to honor the Hays native who was killed in 2011 while serving in Afghanistan.
Boldra was insistent she “doesn’t know where this new path is going to take me.”
“I’ve had a lot of calls from people who are still going to be in the statehouse, a lot of calls and text messages from friends–a lot of people who are still supporting me and would support me again,” Boldra added.