By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
UPDATE at 3:30 p.m.: Saturday’s public forum with the Kansas Legislature’s Women’s Caucus has been canceled.
According to Kathy Rome, the two Republican lawmakers have had a change in their schedules and will not be able to attend. Rome says organizers hope to reschedule the event.
The newly organized Hays/Russell chapter of Women for Kansas is helping to sponsor a public forum Saturday featuring a bipartisan group of female state lawmakers who helped to find the solution to the tax issue this past legislative session.
Representatives Cindy Holscher (D-Olathe), Stephanie Clayton (R-Overland Park) and Sydney Carlin (D-Manhattan) of the Kansas Legislature’s Women’s Caucus, will speak about how and why the caucus formed. The women will also discuss important legislation of the 2017 legislative session, upcoming elections and share the strategic vision of the caucus.
Perhaps most importantly, the trio will talk about how to get more people involved in politics.
The basis of that, according to Kathy Rome of Hays and a member of the local Women for Kansas chapter, is getting people registered to vote.
“We had a voter registration booth at the Ellis County Fair this summer,” Rome said.
The group is forming a leadership team comprised of several women from Hays and Russell. Although they have not yet set a schedule of regular meetings, Ellis County Clerk Donna Maskus and Russell County Clerk Mary Nuss recently spoke to the chapter about election laws in Kansas.
Rome, a former teacher, is the northwest Kansas Uniserv Director for the Kansas National Educators Association and has long been aware of politics at the state level. She first learned about the Women for Kansas group during the 2014 gubernatorial election and attended their convention in Wichita.
“It sounded like an organization I’d like to be involved with,” she said, “and ever since then, I thought it would be nice if we could get a group going in our area.”
Rome talked with several women, including former State Senator Janis Lee, who expressed interest in the idea. Core members of the leadership team include Hays residents Rome, Lee, Dawn Berry, and Celeste Lasich and Russell resident Ann Blessin-Deyoe.
“Anybody is welcome to join our group. It is definitely bipartisan,” Rome added. “We just focus on the issues that are going on locally.”
The Hays/Russell chapter of Women for Kansas plans to host a speaker in November to address Medicaid in Kansas, which is “a concern of many people” Rome believes. They also will help with a Oct. 17 local candidate debate in conjunction with Fort Hays State University and the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce prior to the November general election.
For more information about joining the Hays/Russell chapter of Women for Kansas call Rome at 785-259-1456, Berry at 785-483-2066, Lasich at 507-530-3671, or Blessin-Deyoe at 785-483-2066.
The Kansas Bipartisan Women Legislators Forum is Saturday, Sept. 16 at 2 p.m. in the Stouffer Lounge of the Fort Hays State University Memorial Union. The public is invited.
The event is sponsored by the FHSU groups Phi Kappa Phi, Student Government, Collegiate Democrats, and Collegiate Republicans, the FHSU Political Science Department and the Hays/Russell chapter of Women for Kansas.