“Democrats are for the working man. Republicans are for the businessman.” In the 1950s, political scientists taking polls heard this again and again. Today, we would not make such comments specific to men, but there is more to this story than that. Democrats were once America’s working class, lunch bucket party. With the weakening of private-sector labor unions, many in the paycheck-to-paycheck crowd no longer back the Democrats. Some do not vote at all. Neither party seems to be their advocate. Democrats must restore this reputation as the worker’s party, because identity politics alone cannot win elections.

Kansas Democrats are on the right track when they advocate cutting the sales tax on groceries. Kansas features one of the highest such taxes in the country, and the issue hits voters right in the pocketbook. Senator Anthony Hensley and his allies do not yet have the votes to pass this, nor an alternate source of revenue. However, they should keep pushing. Everyone feels the impact, because we all have to eat. It falls hardest on families with more mouths to feed, and those with low incomes. Granted, the state requires revenue for public schools, Medicaid, and other things, but taxing life’s most basic necessities is wrong way to get it. In some cities and counties, local add-ons push the grocery tax to nearly 10%–a regressive tax on those who can least afford it.

Democrats traditionally represent making life’s necessities affordable, funding public works, and creating jobs. Congressional earmarks used to help accomplish the second and third of those goals. Temporarily banned in 2011, earmarks allowed members of Congress to direct money toward specific projects in their districts. Decrying an Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” that was never built, earmark critics labeled the process as corruption and halted it. Has Congress has become less corrupt since 2011? Few observers think so. Instead, the ban made it harder for Congress to do its job. Democratic Congressional candidate Paul Davis favors making the earmark ban permanent, but this is the wrong approach.

Successful earmarks financed highway improvements, other bridges, recreational trails, government buildings, museums, flood-control projects, and more—not to mention the jobs involved. Furthermore, earmarks allowed Congressional leaders to direct some money to the districts of members who were wavering on key votes: greasing the wheels to pass important legislation like budgets. The whole thing added up to only 1% of federal spending. Granted, the process was sometimes abused with “Christmas tree” bills that were nothing but excuses to load up on earmarks, but that calls for a more-targeted reform, not a complete ban.

Congress has not passed an annual budget since 2009. Instead, we lurch along on month-to-month (sometimes week-to-week) continuing resolutions. The return of earmarks would hardly solve all of Congress’ problems, but it would restore to leaders in both parties an important tool for breaking up logjams, while funding valuable public works projects and creating jobs.

Democrats once represented fair prices, good jobs, and investment in public works. They still can. To that end, Hensley should keep up the push for a grocery tax cut, while Davis needs to re-think his stand on earmarks.

Michael A. Smith is a Professor of Political Science at Emporia State University.

Greg Orman is the best choice for Governor and I am confident that the majority of Kansas voters will recognize that fact by the end of the summer.

I got to know Greg and his family while volunteering on his 2014 campaign, and I have formed a friendship with the Ormans.

Janice K. Lee’s op-ed on Feb. 28, 2018, was not only off the mark, it was filled with anger, and it was beneath the former State Senator. The personal attacks and negative assumptions of Greg Orman are the exact kind of politics that turns people off from the political process.

43% of voters preferred Greg Orman in 2014. That’s closer than any Democrat in Kansas has come to beating an incumbent Senator since 1974. Anyone who didn’t know what Greg stood for in that race was not paying attention. Many voters stuck with Pat Roberts because they were convinced his seniority in the Senate and a Republican majority benefited Kansas more than Roberts’ poor voting record hurt us. Other voters were persuaded by the unprecedented number of negative ads and postcards during the final month of the campaign, funded by dark money flowing from supporters of the national GOP who were desperate to keep a Republican in that seat.

Greg Orman ran a respectable campaign in 2014; he will use what he learned to win this race for Governor. He has excellent statewide name recognition, proven fundraising capability, and a vision for Kansas — to be revealed over the coming months — that is exactly what we need.
I don’t see any other strong candidates with real solutions running for governor. On both sides there are candidates who I believe to be good people for which I have respect, but I just do not have the confidence in them.

I noticed that former State Senator Janis K. Lee’s op-ed doesn’t name specific candidates she prefers. Her op-ed clearly is intended only to bash Greg Orman. She says there are “strong candidates,” but any candidate who can’t get elected due to lack of name recognition or lack of funding is not a “strong” candidate.

The gridlock in Washington D.C. exists in Topeka, too. When Kansans demanded change in 2016, Greg Orman was doing his part to help. I don’t know what Greg wants to share about what he did; like the support the rest of us gave to campaigns for the Kansas Senate and House, the work is behind the scenes and not the subject of news articles. Those of us in the trenches (beyond merely the Democratic candidates Janis K. Lee supports) are aware of the role Greg Orman played.

When Janis K. Lee touts the bi-partisan cooperation in the Kansas Legislature that reversed the Brownback tax plan and put our state on the road to recovery, she needs to take note that she is complimenting the vision of Greg Orman and other Independents who supported the campaigns of moderate Republicans and a few Democrats to make that possible.

The fight against the Brownback/Colyer agenda began after the 2012 election, for those who don’t recall. That’s when PACs dedicated to replacing reasonable, good longtime legislators with people who would toe the ALEC and AFP line got involved in the GOP primaries, and we ended up with a Kansas Legislature eager to rubberstamp Brownback’s policies which have been disastrous for our state. Grassroots organizations started springing up in 2013 as a response, and many of us rallied behind one Democratic ticket in 2014 in an effort to unseat Brownback. Greg Orman supported grassroots efforts in addition to running for U.S. Senate. I don’t see that kind of rallying happening now for any candidate but Greg Orman.

Greg’s book, A Declaration of Independents: How We Can Break the Two-Party Stranglehold and Restore the American Dream, is excellent and needed. Anyone wanting to know Greg’s background, values, views and vision should read it. As for his appearances on national television shows, which have been numerous since 2014, I’m sure the other candidates (except for Kris Kobach) only dream of such coverage. National media pay attention to Greg Orman because he is saying and doing things that are worthy of national attention. Fortunately for us, Greg is a much more positive representation on the national stage for Kansas than the reputation we’ve acquired since the Brownback era began.
Greg has been interviewed since January by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Kansas News Service, the Kansas City Star, etc. and has shared some details of his vision for Kansas and his stances on various issues, including an op-ed in the Hays Post. It’s only March; there will be eight more months of interviews, op-eds, announcements and many opportunities for Kansans to meet Greg Orman and ask him questions in person.

What I see in Greg Orman is a Kansan eager to find a way to do his part to make a difference. That started in his childhood, when Greg was raised in a single-parent household with 5 siblings, receiving free or reduced-price lunches while attending public schools, and continued as he worked his way through college with the help of guaranteed student loans. Greg developed his interest in business from his father, a small business owner who valued his role as an employer and contributor to the community. His whole extended family has shown a passion for public service and giving back. They are some of the most generous people I’ve met.

Janice K. Lee has made assertions about what Greg Orman wants. Those assertions reveal merely how little she actually knows about Greg Orman.

Cindy Kelly
Wichita