Kansas primary update

Phill Kline lost his bid for a full term as Johnson County DA. Having lost his re-election campaign for state AG in 2006, the county's Republican party installed him in the post, despite the fact that he did not carry the county in that statewide election. This move peeved a lot of people, and Kline pledged not to run for a full term. Then time passed and the lying scumsack filed for election. Hopefully now he'll take the hint and do something useful with his time. I'm sure that, given how he's run his campaigns, he'd have no trouble lining up a job mucking out stalls in any of the area's stockyards.

Robert Hecht, the DA for Topeka's county, also lost his primary. I don't know enough about that race to comment, but I do recall being very dissatisfied with his investigation of open meetings violations by then-AG Kline and the creationists on the state Board of Ed. in 2005.

Lynn Jenkins, Kansas State Treasurer, is currently in the lead over Jim Ryun in the Republican primary for the Kansas 2nd. Ryun was the incumbent in that seat from 1996-2006; Nancy Boyda beat him in 2006 in her second attempt on the seat, and is popular with voters. The primary candidates are split by fewer than 1000 votes with 31 precincts yet to report.

Mary Pilcher-Cook beat outgoing state Board of Education member Sue Gamble in a Republican senate primary; Gamble has been among the most forceful advocates of accurate science on the Board, and would have been a marvelous Senator; Pilcher-Cook is known for her anti-abortion activism. Former BoE member Iris Van Meter, an evolution opponent who did not seek re-election in 2006 has lost her bid for the state Senate. Outgoing creationist and former Board chairman Steve Abrams has won his state Senate bid.

Mary Ca Ralstin will be the Republican nominee for Sue Gamble's old Board seat. Having beaten crypto-creationist Brandon Kenig, she now faces off against Sue Storm. Both are excellent candidates.

Robert Meissner, who has made statements suggesting a willingness to water down evolution education, has beaten nutbar opponent Alan Detrich for the Republican nomination for the seat currently occupied by science supporter Bill Wagnon. Meissner will face off against the excellent Carolyn Campbell.

Kathy Martin, the incumbent Board member who advocated school prayer and theology classes while calling ID creationism "science-based and strong in facts," has eked out a narrow victory in her primary campaign against Bill Pannbacker. The margin stands at 1200 votes. Chris Renner will be challenging Martin in the general election.

In the race for former Board Chair Steve Abrams's old seat, David Dennis has a healthy lead over Marty Marshall. Dennis was the TfK endorsee, meaning science advocates are guaranteed to pick up that seat.

In the race for Carol Rupe's old seat, neither party held a primary, but it will be important to see Walt Chappell beat Dennis Hedke. Republican nominee Hedke's position on basic science remains ambiguous, which should not be acceptable.

So, the school board race came out fairly well, but not ideally. There will still be a few tough races, but two seats will stay in pro-evolution hands, one will definitely become pro-evolution, and two will have competitive races with a chance to replace another creationist. It could've been better, but not by much.

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Bob Meissner (www.drbobmeissner.com) is smart, fair and open minded. Please go to his site and help get him elected.

Is there something wrong with the air in Kansas that these nut-case religious types can't seem to get it through their skulls that public schools are not supposed to be influenced by religion? Public means Public. Evolution is science, not religion; creationism is religion, not science.

Keep your stupid religious convictions out of our public schools. I don't want my kids force-fed your religion in schools paid for with my tax money. That also means I don't want science diluted and watered down by your half-baked ideas about religion in public schools supported by my tax dollars. I want my kids to get a good science education, not one that you constantly tell my kids is no good because it doesn't conform to your Bible.

Meissner is a creationist, and would be awful for Kansas schools.

JayMagoo, it's not something in the air. It's the usual - a bunch of power-hungry folks find an issue that'll rile up the masses. Here in Kansas, the issues of gay marriage and abortion have run their course and voters just aren't getting as worked up about them. Enter evolution - "Them teachers are tellin' yer kids their granpappy wuz a monkey!" and you get a state school board that becomes hell-bent on redefining science instead of addressing the teacher shortage, declining enrollments, NCLB, educating the gifted/talented, etc.

I *wish* Kansas was the only state having this issue.

Josh,

As you can see, I'm behind on reading my blogs. Wanted to point out a couple of things to your readers on the primary fallout.

1.) Steve Abrams has not yet won his bid for Senator, just the primary. He will face a moderate, rational incumbent in November, Greta Goodwin.

2.) While we are sick about Sue Gamble's loss we have one more shot to win the Senate seat in the 10th District. Pete Roman. Don't forget Mary Pilcher Cook tried to enact an anti-evolution resolution when she was in the Kansas House.

Kathy Cook
Kansas Families for Education

By Kathy Cook (not verified) on 22 Aug 2008 #permalink