The Washington Post profiles Kansas governor Sam Brownback, declaring, “in Kansas, as nowhere else in the country, tea party fervor is reshaping government. The same political forces of the Republican Party driving the confrontation over taxes and spending in Washington are now completely in charge in Kansas.”
Two facts are strangely unmentioned in the article. The first is that Kansas’ unemployment rate is 6.5 percent, more than two percentage points lower than the national average. For what it’s worth, the rate is down two-tenths of a percentage point from last month. Kansas’s unemployment rate has been consistently below the national average, peaking at 7.6 percent in the summer of 2009. But perhaps the disinterest in government spending is reflected, in part, in a state population that feels like they’re doing better than most and see less need for big-spending state programs to deal with the Great Recession.
The second missing fact is Brownback’s approval rating. Apparently pollsters don’t hit Kansas very often; it’s one of three states Public Policy Polling hasn’t hit this year. Back in July, it was 47 percent with 45 percent disapproving. The article certainly suggests that Brownback’s moves are controversial, ruffling feathers, and possibly unpopular, but it would be nice to get some data to support that assertion.
No where do you see the internal lunacy of liberalism more than in their application of the "man of action" theory. When Obama pushed through a wildly unpopular health care bill, the Left lauded his political courage and then stopped talking about his poll numbers. When a Republican governor pushes through reform legislation, the Left dwells on his alleged unpopularity and suggests he is a fascist.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a politically active resident of Kansas, I can tell you that (surprise!) WaPo is exaggerating. It's encouraging that some state employees have been cut, but WaPo doesn't mention that Kansas was tied for first in the nation in number of public employees per capita when Brownback took office. Even with his reductions, I'm sure we still rank very high in that measure. There is no lack of interest in government spending here. State spending has actually increased since Brownback took office, and Kansas (like many other states) faces huge problems with an over-generous public employee pension plan and overfunded schools. We have a higher overall tax burden than any of our neighboring states, including supposedly "purple" Colorado.
Kansas has a three-party system: conservative Republicans, liberal Republicans (the folks WaPo refers to as "moderates"), and Democrats. The latter two groups have generally controlled the levers of power here for decades, and they still control the state Senate and the judiciary. Last year's elections put the conservatives in charge of the governorship and kept them in control of the state House, but we still have a long way to go.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThomas Frank hardest hit.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs a Kansan, I can say that the liberal local media are certainly trumpeting the WaPo article, which fits their horrified stance toward the Brownback Administration. He campaigned as a conservative and, to their shock, is actually governing as a conservative. He has taken some unpopular positions - perhaps needlessly so in some cases - and it's reflected in his poll ratings, but another election is three years off, and Democrats have nobody in sight that could mount a credible challenge. The main battleground for 2012 will be the State Senate, where "moderate" Republicans currently are in charge, but will face conservative primary opposition in key districts. As for the "Tea Party" being in charge, that's silly. Many conservatives in Kansas don't even identify with the Tea Party (I don't), and as Jim points out, the Senate and judiciary are not even in conservative hands, much less Tea Party hands. I differ with Jim on school funding. The schools are not overfunded in my view, and this is one of the issues that has cost Brownback some of his support.
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