Tuesday’s primary election will change the Kansas political landscape. Sen. Sam Brownback’s decision to step down from the U.S. Senate drew two of the state’s congressional delegation into a bitter race to win the Republican nomination for the seat. Regardless of who wins, First District Rep. Jerry Moran or Fourth District veteran Rep. Todd Ti-ahrt, one will retire from Kansas politics and both districts will have new representation in Washington for the first time in 14 years.
Assuming that either Tiarht or Moran will be elected in November, the winner will become the first freshman senator from Kansas since Brownback and Pat Roberts began their senatorial careers in 1996. The current pair re-placed Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum. Dole resigned his long-held seat to run for the presidency; Kassebaum step-ped down after three terms. Both had reached positions of power — Bob Dole led Senate Republicans for years — and gave Kansas more clout in Washington than it had enjoyed since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.
Sen. Roberts moved from the House of Representatives to the Senate in 1996. He was first elected in 1980 and will begin his 31st year in Congress in January. He will be the only member of the Kan-sas delegation with any seniority.
The Kansas House delegation will all be newcomers, with Second District Rep. Lynn Jenkins, who is running for her second term, the senior of the batch.

THIS YEAR’S elections will change how Kansas is governed profoundly. Gov. Sam Brownback will be much more conservative than Gov. Mark Parkinson. While it is presumptious to predict how Brownback will deal with the continuing shortfall in state income when he begins to prepare his budget, he has been consistently opposed to tax increases and an advocate of smaller government at the federal level. Austere is likely to be the color of the day.
And the depth and breadth of that austerity and social conservatism will be more profound because the Legislature will be at least as conservative as it has been under Democratic governors Kathleen Sebelius and Parkinson. There will be no vetoes standing in the way of radical initiatives. Bipartisan will become a word seldom heard in capitol corridors.

IN WASHINGTON, Sen. Roberts will be un-disputed dean. He has not been as doctrinaire a conservative as Brownback and it remains to be seen where Jerry Moran will place himself on the spectrum once he must vote on the actual bills that come before him. (This is assuming that the polls giving Moran a solid margin over Tiarht prove accurate Tuesday and that Kansas stays Republican in November — an outcome as assured as tomorrow’s sunrise.) But there has been little to be found in Rep. Moran’s 14-year record to indicate he is eager to employ the philosophies of Nancy Kassebaum or Jim Pearson — both true moderates — in determining his political priorities.
With the decision of Rep. Dennis Moore to retire, the four Kansas representatives will be-come four solid votes for the conservative Republican leadership — unless Rep. Moore’s wife, Stephene, wins Tuesday and again in November, victories to plead for, if only for the sake of variety.

From a moderate’s viewpoint, the bright corner in this picture is that all of the responsibility for governing Kan-sas well will rest squarely on the shoulders of a conservative governor and a legislature to match. As this reality sinks in, those elected by the people to take Kansas forward may come to see more virtue in the middle way.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

I’ve always been of the opinion that in general, what’s good for Kansas businesses is good for Kan-sas residents. Until recent years the same could be said for the Kansas Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber used to conduct listening tours prior to the beginning of each legislative session. They would float the Chamber’s position, which had been developed through committees to the general membership in each region of the state. They would poll the membership and refine their position before submitting their legislative agenda to the board for approval.
It appears that the state Chamber has been taken over by a few special interest groups with an agenda that is questionable in my mind, and has alienated many of its present and former members. The majority of these special interest groups have no ties to southeast Kansas.
I harbor no ill feelings toward Bud Sifers, to the contrary, I’ve heard him speak at two tea party rallies, and have the same concerns as he regarding government regulation and spending. However one has to ask why so much effort and money is being put into an election in District 9 by outside interests to defeat incumbent Bill Otto, who has voted the best interests of Kansans knowing he would face a firestorm from the state Chamber this election. As recent anti-Otto campaign ads will attest, Bill hasn’t always voted the way big business and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce would like, but I consider that a testimony to his impartiality.
I know he struggled with the state sales tax issue, and in the end, he voted what his conscience told him was in the best interests of both Kansas businesses and Kansas residents. When I enter the voting booth next Tuesday, I’ll do the same by voting for Bill Otto, and I urge you to do the same.

Walter H. Wulf Jr.
Humboldt, Kan.

If you work in the field of education, with social service agencies, in the construction industry, Bill Otto voted for you, so please vote for Bill Otto.

Joan Perez,
Humboldt Kan.