(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Aug. 8, 2016)
It’s probably a little early yet for most Kansans who watched the Kansas House and Senate primary elections to prepare for a dramatic change in culture brewing for the upcoming legislative session.
Yes, there were maybe a dozen House and Senate Republican primaries in which very conservative members were bumped in the primaries by more moderate Republicans. And Democrats, politically correctly, pointed out that some of their most persistent foes are now off the legislative payroll. Relatively good news for them, of course.
But the general election is where the real change happens, and when the long division takes place that determines whether there are going to be the massive tax increases needed to finance the level of state operations that most Kansans want…the more money for schools, for highways, for subsistence and health care for the poor and their children and their grandparents.