A year ago, in assessing nascent opposition to some of Governor Sam Brownback’s policies, I quoted Winston Churchill’s famous lines: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Bearing in mind the precipitous drop in tax revenues and the death spiral of Governor Brownback’s approval ratings, Republican senators like Jeff King (Independence) and Jim Denning (Johnson County) had begun to question the income-tax exemptions of 330,000 small businesses. Fast forward a year, and King has declined to seek re-election, while Denning is locked in a close re-election battle, even as he has sought to modify Brownback’s tax policies.

Some of the key decisions of the 2016 campaign were being made in the fall of 2015. Potential moderate Republican and Democratic candidates could anticipate an upcoming election that would be a referendum on the Brownback administration, featuring taxes and a host of other policies, from Medicaid expansion to the delivery of social services to raids on highway funds.

No matter what voters think on given issues, effective candidates must put themselves forward to translate opinion into campaign discussions and legislative actions. Recruiting candidates is difficult, but overall an impressive array of moderate candidates – both Republicans and Democrats — have emerged over the past year, from the Johnson County suburbs to medium sized-communities like Leavenworth and Pittsburg to Wichita to the expansive districts of western Kansas.

In 2014 Democrat Paul Davis’s attempt to hold Governor Brownback accountable was seriously compromised by the immense outside spending on behalf of incumbent senator Pat Roberts, which nationalized the gubernatorial election. But this year national forces have played a lesser role in Kansans’ decisions, especially in the GOP legislative primaries, where many Brownback allies either did not run for reelection or lost, often by wide margins.

Republicans this year must run not only with the Brownback albatross but also with the uncertainty of Donald Trump’s wavering support, especially in Johnson County, where he trails by 10 points or so. Moreover, various suburbs have become more Democratic over the past few years, and the outcomes of some moderate Republican-Democrat races will demonstrate the extent of this trend.

In short, this Tuesday Kansans can profoundly reshape the legislative mix in Topeka over the next two years, and beyond.

Running parallel to the legislative races are the retention elections for Supreme Court justices. In 2014, two sitting justices came close to losing their seats, and their opponents anticipated that in 2016 they could unseat the four incumbents they opposed, largely based on death penalty and school finance rulings.

It now appears, based on public and private polling, that the opposition campaign has faltered. The retention and rejection forces have raised roughly equal amounts of money, but the retention supporters enjoy the advantage of supporting justices whom Governor Brownback, the least popular chief executive in the country, has vigorously opposed. In addition, pro-public education sentiments favor the incumbents, who have consistently ruled that more state funding for public education is required.

For many, the 2016 election will be defined by the unlikely emergence of Donald Trump and his bizarre campaign, but for Kansans, who will reluctantly give Trump their six electoral votes, the real news is that an independent judiciary and a more moderate legislature may well increase the chances of more responsible governance to address the state’s profound array of problems.

Maybe, just maybe, our 2016 elections will be “the beginning of the end.”

Burdett Loomis is a professor of political science at the University of Kansas.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

What’s your platform? No, not fancy shoes or the policy statements which are debated and adopted by the political parties every four years. I’m talking about what has been referred to as a “regional change platform.” In fact, it is a grassroots network that is working to improve the lives of citizens across a multi-county region of southeast Kansas.

Project 17 is the name of this project for regional economic development and community engagement in the southeast region of the state, led by the Advanced Manufacturing Institute (AMI) within Kansas State University’s College of Engineering. Jeff Tucker is executive director of AMI. Since 2004 AMI has been working with companies, communities, and regions throughout Kansas to help cultivate rural, innovation-based economies.

Back in 2011, AMI was contacted by four senators who also went to the governor and expressed their concerns about the 17-county region of southeast Kansas which they represented in the legislature. The concerns they expressed were real. Southeast Kansas has long suffered from concentrated poverty and unemployment rates which significantly exceed the state average. Most of the counties had suffered significant economic losses due to a shrinking manufacturing base. Many lacked adequate access to high speed internet for business, education, or health care. Public health indicators were chronically among the poorest in the state.

The senators asked K-State’s Advanced Manufacturing Institute to become the backbone organization to organize a response to these serious needs. In response, AMI worked with a small initial coalition of civic leaders and partner organizations to plan the response. A series of community meetings were held across the region to engage the public in a civic conversation about the challenges.

These seventeen counties go from Chautaqua County to Miami County and from Coffey County down to Cherokee County. From corner to corner, this includes lots of rural communities, from Bucyrus to Cedar Vale, population 709, and from Galena to Bushong, population 54. Now, that’s rural.

To address the deep-seated issues in the region, it was clear that a different approach was needed. The result was what AMI calls a “regional change platform.” Rather than a traditional top-down driven change program, this project was designed as a network-based, grass-roots supported program that enables all citizens to participate. It actively recruited volunteers and partners, focused on linking and leveraging regional assets, placed priority on strategic doing over strategic planning, and launched multiple initiatives to seed large-scale change.

Based on lots of grass-roots input, Project 17 is built on four pillars: Health, Economic Development, Education/Workforce, and Leadership. Work teams were formed and specific activities are organized under each of those pillars.

Based on the number of counties in the region, the project became known as Project 17. Heather Morgan was selected as executive director of Project 17 in 2013. From a core planning group of about 15 people, this project has mushroomed across the region to engage thousands of citizens.

Of course, resources were needed to accomplish these activities. AMI led a proposal team that was awarded a Rural Jobs and Innovation Accelerator grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture – Rural Development, with matching funds coming from the Kansas Department of Commerce and K-State.

Many partner organizations were engaged with these activities. The results are remarkable: More than 1,800 citizens were engaged in this work, over 1,000 citizen leaders were trained, 674 jobs were created and 431 jobs retained, 194 businesses were assisted, 107 entrepreneurs were engaged, and $25.54 million in private investments were leveraged.

For more information, see www.twsproject17.org.

What’s your platform? No, not the policy statements of the political parties. This is Project 17, which is what has been described as a regional change platform for economic and community development in southeast Kansas. We commend the Advanced Manufacturing Institute and all those involved with Project 17 for making a difference with grass-roots involvement to make their region better. They are helping to hold this platform high.

And there’s more. Beyond the numbers, this program is changing lives for the better, one person at a time. We’ll learn about that next week.

I would like to take this opportunity to write this letter of support for State Rep. Sue Boldra, who is running for re-election for House District 111.

Sue has taught in the Hays public schools, current FHSU professor, former business owner, grandmother, mother of children who are in education and a wife. I have had the opportunity to serve with Mrs. Boldra for two terms in the House of Representatives while serving on two House committees with her. I know the long hours she puts in and the deep devotion she has for all of the 111th District residents.

Sue Boldra is a good listener and puts in extra time to research and study the many issues that comes before the Kansas Legislature. She has a great understanding of how the legislative process works and is a strong and respected voice in Topeka for the 111th District.

Thank you for taking time to vote and for supporting Sue Boldra.

1117th District State Rep. John L. Ewy, Jetmore