6/9/2008

By CHRIS GREEN

and SARAH KESSINGER

Harris News Service

Energy issues, from gas prices to global warming, are expected to play prominent roles in elections this fall.

For the latest on global warming, Kansas officials have invited a prominent scientist, who first raised the nation's awareness of climate change, to speak this fall in Kansas.

James Hansen from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies will give the keynote address in September at the 2008 Kansas Wind and Renewable Energy Conference in Topeka.

Hansen, who urges state and national leaders to curb greenhouse gases, is best known for testimony to Congress in the 1980s that helped spur understanding of humans' effect on rising global temperatures.

The conference and trade show, organized by the energy programs division of the Kansas Corporation Commission, will be at Topeka's Ramada. Online registration will be available soon at http://kcc.ks.gov/.

No rush job

The state Democratic Party this past week was quick to criticize House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, for saying health care reform could take a couple of decades.

Neufeld was responding to critics who said the recent legislative session failed to expand health coverage for Kansans.

"They seem to think it was a one-shot turkey hunt," Neufeld told KHI News Service. "This is a 20-year project. We started debate on some very important topics."

Neufeld's spokeswoman said Friday that Democrats apparently misunderstood the statement.

"The speaker didn't say anything about waiting 20 years for health care," said Sherriene Jones-Sontag. "He said health care reform is a long-term issue."

Jones-Sontag said Neufeld was only reassuring members of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, who had recommended reforms to the Legislature, that they had not failed in getting them accomplished.

"Any complicated issue, such as health care reform, school finance and immigration, requires a lot of study and debate to decide what the best direction for the state is," she said.

"Kansans want it done properly and thoroughly. They don't want the Legislature to do a rush job and end up making our health care system worse."

But Democratic leaders said the speaker's heavy focus on coal-fired power plants this session diverted attention from issues such as the uninsured.

Calling all candidates

Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh will bang the gavel at noon Tuesday to mark the filing deadline for candidates in this year's state elections.

Any last-minute filers can fill out paperwork Tuesday morning at a special place on the first floor of Memorial Hall in downtown Topeka.

Those interested in running must register and submit a fee or petition to the secretary's office. Details to run and a complete candidate list so far are available at www.kssos.org.

Candidates will be eligible to run in the Aug. 5 primary elections. Winners will move on to the Nov. 4 general elections.

All Kansas legislative seats are up for election this year as well as seats for the U.S. House and one U.S. Senate position. Also open to candidates are the even-numbered state school board seats, district attorney positions and some district court judge and district magistrate judge positions.

Why Kansas mattered

It turns out that Kansas and other smaller states played significant roles in Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's coronation as the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee this past week.

A Washington Post analysis notes that Obama used his overwhelming victories in less populous states, such as Kansas, to offset the advantages rival Sen. Hillary Clinton gained in bigger battlegrounds, such as New York and California.

Obama piled up delegates in states where Clinton paid scant attention while remaining competitive with her in most bigger states, even though Clinton claimed the biggest prizes.

The Post notes that Obama's focus on Kansas began three months before Clinton, and his staff here eventually outnumbered Clinton's 18-3. The decision might have helped carry Obama to his 73 percent to 25 percent victory over Clinton in the state's Feb. 5 Democratic caucus.

Such wins proved crucial toward turning the delegate math in his favor.

"On Feb. 5, Obama won more delegates in Kansas and Idaho than Clinton won in New Jersey," the analysis stated.

Playing the odds

The 11 developers hoping to build and manage four state-owned casinos found one aspect of their fates left to chance this past week.

A state review board charged with picking the winning groups conducted a random drawing to determine what order developers would outline their proposals later this year.

The chairman of the Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board, Matt All, drew envelopes out of a box, opened them and read off a prospective developer's name.

The groups who had their names drawn first will get to present first in their respective gaming zones. Those presentations will occur when the board meets in the home county of each proposed casino later this summer.

All, a former chief counsel to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, joked that it was fitting for the board to conduct a lottery for casino presentation order.

But he said he was disappointed that officials didn't have a more elaborate set-up for the occasion.

"I was hoping for ping pong balls," All said.

Running again

Former Dickinson County Attorney Eric Rucker launched his campaign to become the top prosecutor in Shawnee County this past week.

But to win the job, Rucker must unseat fellow Republican Robert Hecht, who was elected Shawnee County District Attorney in 2000, in the GOP's August primary. The winner will face the victor of what's now a two-person Democratic primary in November.

Rucker, who now lives in Topeka, became Dickinson County attorney in 1993 before leaving the post in 2003. He went on to become the chief of staff for then-Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline.

After Kline was defeated in his 2006 re-election bid and then appointed Johnson County district attorney, Rucker followed Kline to work in that office. Now Rucker, a former county commissioner in Shawnee County, wants the county's top prosecuting job.