Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has hit the home stretch of her second term. She will give only one more State of the State speech after this one, and Wednesday evening found her in a contemplative frame of mind, looking far forward in describing the state’s needs.
The premise of her speech was that of a century’s quarterly report, looking back 25 years and looking ahead 75. Such perspective has a way of short-circuiting conventional political bickering, and Kelly did her best to avoid the partisan sniping of Senate President Ty Masterson’s response.
“We’ve often been so focused on whatever’s needed immediate fixing — our schools, our infrastructure, our foster care system — that we haven’t always spent as much time talking about what lies ahead for Kansas,” the governor said. “Not just next year or the year after, but in the decades ahead — the Kansas we’ll leave for our children and for our grandchildren.”
This highlights the perplexing contradiction at the heart of Kelly’s address: She proposed a list of prudent, almost boring proposals that will be immediately distorted by Republicans as wild-eyed liberalism.
• Less bureaucratic, more affordable early childhood care? Of course.
• Strong, sustainably funded public schools? Makes sense.
• Better-managed, enduring water supplies for farmers? Crucial for everyone.
• Affordable, high-quality health care for all those who can’t afford it? A moral necessity.
None of these goals should be difficult to support. Sure, conservatives and liberals may differ on the means, but reaching compromise just makes sense. As former U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum showed over her three terms, legislation can be strengthened through collaboration. If you spoke to them in private, legislators from both parties would say exactly the same.
“Our job is to lift up the commonsense, smart, reasonable ideas that will help Kansans — and then meet in the middle to get them done,” Kelly urged the audience toward the end of her speech. “I’m not asking you not to love your political party — I’m just asking you to love your state a little more.”
Yet, here’s a prediction: Masterson and his counterpart in the House, Speaker Dan Hawkins, will find some way to distort or undermine the governor’s requests.
Neither man can afford Kansans learning the truth — that both are ideological extremists in thrall to GOP big-money interests. You could see Masterson laying the groundwork in his paint-by-numbers response, simultaneously claiming interest in bipartisanship while using words like “radical” and “extreme” to characterize her.
The rest of the time, he slathered praise on once and future President Donald Trump. Over the course of 1,220 words, Masterson mentioned Trump six times by name. Kelly? Only twice.
Unfortunately for her and the state, Kelly bears a degree of responsibility for this situation.
Yes, she was elected twice to the state’s highest office. Yes, majorities of Kansans tell pollsters they approve of her policies. Yes, she has razor-sharp political instincts when it comes to the daily grind of running a state. Yet the governor has demonstrated limited powers of persuasion. Kansans have failed to bolster the number of Democrats in the House and Senate, where extra members would make a profound difference.
