If you are a moderate or traditional Republican pining for the days of Governors Bob Bennett, Mike Hayden, and Bill Graves, then Ed O’Malley is your candidate.

If the field does not narrow quickly, Kris Kobach will win the GOP primary in a walk, leaving only the Democratic nominee and wild card Greg Orman standing between our lawsuit-losing, anti-immigration firebrand and the Kansas governorship.

Kobach ally Donald Trump won Kansas by 20 points, so his defeat by even the best Democrat is far from certain. Meanwhile, Orman is depending on an infusion of independent votes that nearly all political scientists find highly implausible. In truth, Orman may cost the Democrats precious votes. This may leave Kobach the last man standing. Kobach’s economic and educational policies would largely mirror Brownback’s.

On paper, the strongest alternative to Kobach is Governor-any-day-now Jeff Colyer, who has proven quite effective at fundraising. However, Colyer will have trouble disassociating himself from the unpopular Brownback Administration in which he served, and from policies he has consistently supported. Nor is Colyer much of a public speaker. Pundits may be reminded of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the political scion, mainstream darling, and fundraising powerhouse. The conventional wisdom predicted Bush would be the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee. Yet Bush was unprepared for this age of reality-TV politics and backlash against “the establishment.” In the primaries, Bush did not even make the first cut. Colyer may face a similar fate. Furthermore, Colyer has not distinguished himself during the on-again, off-again, will-he-or-won’t-he saga of Brownback’s new job, stepping aside quietly while the outgoing Governor gave the State of the State Address this month. This is not the kind of aggressive, no-sissies leadership that Republicans expect.

Other Republicans have trouble differentiating themselves. Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer is running on his qualifications as a CPA—outstanding for his current job, but too technical for a governor. Former state representative Mark Hutton promises to bring together the GOP factions, but that is a tall order given the vehement opposition of moderates to Brownback’s legacy. Hutton also lacks statewide name recognition or much political experience. Former state senator Jim Barnett is a possibility, but he would have to overcome the legacy of a decisive defeat by Kathleen Sebelius in 2006. Barnett has often identified as a moderate, but he has a history of vacillation on the moderate-conservative question. Can he project the “here I am, take it or leave it” persona that Republicans demand in the Trump era? Finally, libertarian businessman Wink Hartman is a dark horse with no prior service in public office.

Only O’Malley stands as unequivocally and unabashedly moderate. As a legislator, he helped negotiate a school finance formula that was fully funded for several years. O’Malley has proven a constant, vocal critic of the Brownback-Colyer-Kobach legacy, and unlike several others, he has no ties to Brownback. O’Malley’s base includes the vote- and contribution-rich Johnson County, which he once represented in the statehouse, and Wichita, where he now leads the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), making quiet, behind-the-scenes contacts around the state. O’Malley seems able to seek input from across the political spectrum without trying too hard to be all things to all people.

The GOP field needs to narrow sharply, and soon, or it is Kobach’s to lose. One candidate stands to inherit the Graves, Hayden, and Bennett mantle as a true and consistent moderate. The GOP field should narrow to a Kobach-O’Malley race, and it should do so posthaste.

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

“It costs too much to eat healthy food!”

Many people have said this to me during my years as an Extension agent. But as a frugal home economist and a person who raised two kids for nine years by myself, I respectfully disagree.

Several years ago I developed an Extension presentation called “Be Waist and Wallet Wise.” I wrote the program because I’d heard countless people say that it was too expensive to eat a healthy diet. I didn’t believe it was true and I set out to collect as many tips for low-cost, healthy eating as I could find.

Now, several years later, I continue to believe that it is possible to control costs and eat healthfully at the same time. And, thanks to budget-minded, health-conscious audiences across the state, I’ve added to my original list of healthier, less-expensive examples.

If you’d like to host this presentation for your group, just give me a call at the Hays office of the Cottonwood Extension District– 785-628-9430– and I’ll be glad to make arrangements to come and share. In the meantime, here are a few ideas that might be helpful as you try to eat well on a budget.

Online Grocery Cost Calculator
How much is a reasonable amount to spend on food for a family like yours? Now you can find out with a few clicks.

Figure your food costs with the online calculator at the helpful website from Iowa State Extension called Spend Smart. Eat Smart: www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsavings/fooddollar/. To do the calculation, you’ll be asked for the ages of family members and the number of meals each person eats away from home each week.
With a touch of a button, you’ll see the estimated cost of groceries for your family based on the USDA Low-Cost Food Plan. When reading the report, keep in mind that this information is based on nationwide averages, and it excludes non-food items purchased at grocery stores. I was happy to find that my grocery bills are below the national average for my size family– how about yours?

Is fruit really too expensive?
One of the examples from my lesson is the cost of fruit—bananas to be specific. Their cost rose pretty dramatically a few years ago and the price has never gone down.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when I could buy bananas for 20 cents a pound. Today, the cost of bananas is about 59 cents a pound. That’s nearly a 200 percent price increase. It’s no wonder families are tempted to buy snack food to satisfy their hungry members instead of fruit.

So, being curious, I decided to do a comparison. I bought 5 small bananas that together weighed 1.5 pounds for a total cost of 88.5 cents. That meant each banana cost 17.7 cents.

Next, I strolled over to the snack aisle and looked at a package of name brand flavored tortilla chips. The regular size bag cost $3.99. The bag said it contained 12 servings, meaning each serving cost 33 cents. Wow, almost twice as much!

Next, I wondered how many bananas could I buy for the cost of a bag of chips? The answer– twenty-two bananas! For a family of four, each member could have a banana a day for more than 5 days for the cost of one bag of chips.

The lesson for me was that the price of bananas may seem rather expensive, but when you calculate it per serving (a small banana is one serving), the cost is reasonable after all.

Bananas taste so good and cost so little, it may be hard to eat just one. Hmm, that sounds like the start of an ad campaign— “I bet you can’t eat just one.” Oh, right, that’s already been used by a national snack company to encourage us to spend nearly $4 for a bag of chips!

More resources for eating well on a budget
You are not alone in trying to eat a balanced diet on less money. Books, the internet and social media are full of ideas for food shopping, menu planning, home cooking and recipes. Here is one more resource from K-State Research and Extension to add to your repertoire. Check out the KSU website called Eating Well on a Budget at www.ksre.k-state.edu/humannutrition/nutrition-topics/eatingwell-budget/index.html

These resources are compiled by trained Extension nutrition experts whose job is to provide reliable, unbiased information to help you make good decisions for your family. You’ll find a wealth of helpful information to increase your ability to improve nutrition while controlling food costs.

I hope you’ll consider these examples and check out some of the additional Extension resources. Maybe then you’ll find you no longer have to say “it costs too much to eat healthy food.”

Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.