Kansas Meadowlark

Mary Ca Ralstin recently appeared at a candidate forum with her opponent, Brandon Kenig, to discuss education issues in Kansas. While Ralstin is a passionate advocate for education, she seems to act like a Democratic Party activist while calling herself a Republican. Is this deception, or advancing one’s political agenda, or both?

At the candidate forum, why was Ralstin not asked about policy questions related to teachers having drugs at school? Unbelievably, in 2005 Ralstin supported a teacher dismissed for having drugs in a high school parking lot. Read the rest of this entry »

A friend would talk about his “favorite” State Senator and “favorite” State Rep, whom he considered to be fiscal conservatives and would be responsible spending tax dollars. This friend would suggest that State Senator John Vratil and State Rep Cindy Neighbor were fiscal conservatives. I would protest and ask: “What are their KTN’s scores that prove these legislators are friends of the taxpayers?”

Yesterday the Kansas Taxpayers Network (KTN) released their 2008 legislative vote rating Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Elizabeth Ann Sanders, a member of the Johnson County League of Women voters, asked the candidates in State Board of Education District 2 candidate forum: “Using the moderate-conservative continuum, how would you characterize … the majority of your political views, and please explain that characterization.”

In Kansas, the furthest left you can be politically is a “moderate.” The world “Liberal” in Kansas only refers to a city in southwest Kansas, and has nothing to do with political philosophy.

Dr. Sanders is a very smart woman Read the rest of this entry »

The Johnson County League of Women Voters (LWV) along with the Johnson County Community College (JCCC) hosted a forum recently for August primary candidates, which can now be viewed online. A recent Meadowlark article asked about the “tilt” in the panel discussions because the LWV is mostly a left-leaning group and is confusing “non-partisan” with “not political” in their promotion of the public forum.

The inclusion of Richard Voss on the panel to ask questions of candidates Steve Baru and Jeff Colyer in State Senate District 37 is a good example of the bias introduced by the LWV in this process. Remember: the JoCo LWV declined a request to provide transparency in how these forums were run. Read the rest of this entry »

The left-leaning Kansas City Star is confused about the political affiliation of Steve Baru, who is a candidate for State Senate District 37 against Jeff Colyer in the August Republican primary election. Recently the Star’s Prime Buzz blog asked about Baru: Republican or Democrat: You make the call.

The Star’s confusion isn’t surprising since Baru has run for public office as a Republican, Democrat, and an Independent. In the last two elections cycles Baru has been a “Republican for Moore” in support of Democratic Congressman Dennis Moore, and opposed other Republicans for Congress in earlier years. Has “Republican” Baru ever supported a Republican for Congress? What other political skeletons does Baru have in his political past?

What legal actions have been taken against Baru, and what public censures has Baru received as a financial adviser? Read the rest of this entry »

The Johnson County League of Women Voters is confused about the words “non-partisan” and “not political” and their concern for transparency in their candidate forums. (See the candidate forums online, or on local cable TV channels.) The JoCo LWV and Johnson County Community College sponsored these recent candidate forums.

The League is a completely political organization, supposedly interested in government transparency, but they declined requests to provide transparency about participation of their members in these recent forums.

The League should be commended for their public service in organizing these forums, but should be challenged about their use of JCCC government resources if they are not providing a level playing field to all candidates. This will be the first of several articles about the tilt in the JoCo LWV-JCCC candidate forums. Read the rest of this entry »

The Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission publishes a list of “Top 20″ Kansas Political Action Committees (PACs) every year, but this list is computed only using PAC contributions to candidates.  Why are PACs that raise a lot of money, spend a lot of money, or have a lot money in the bank not in the “Top 20″?

A Meadowlark PAC Ranking, which includes factors for money raised rank, money spent rank, and money in the bank rank, shows 10 Kansas PACs having more political clout than those published by the Ethics Commission. The Ethics Commission declines to change the way it computes its “Top 20″ PAC list even when their list doesn’t accurately reflect political strength.

Read the rest of this entry »

The KNEA recently sent out its “Educator Voter’s Guide” for the August primary election that is “for Kansas NEA Members Only.” Apparently, this piece was sent out by KNEA as its “KNEA News” instead of being a publication of its KNEA Political Action Committee. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week Jesse Waters from The O’Reilly Factor confronted Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on the streets of Philadelphia.

Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday the National Institute on Money in State Politics issued a report “No Small Change: Unitemized Contributions Add Little to Campaign Coffers”. This report said state-level candidate, party and ballot measure committees are reporting a small percentage of donations as unitemized lump sums.

But what about unitemized contributions to Political Action Committees? In the last few years the Kansas National Education Association PAC received over $500,000 in unitemized contributions — nearly 95% of all their contributions! Read the rest of this entry »