It wasn’t until his hometown hospital was threatened with closure that state Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, began to show some backbone against the policies of Gov. Sam Brownback.
With the announcement that Mercy Hospital was closing, Sen. King suddenly discovered last fall the logic in expanding Medi-caid, noting that $1.6 million in annual reimbursements to the local facility might make a difference.
For the last four years that money has been sitting on the table, only to be summarily dismissed by Brownback and Republican legislators who are too proud to have anything to do with the Affordable Care Act.
One can’t help but wonder if Mercy Hospital could have kept its doors open had it had access to those funds from the get-go. It closed its doors on Oct. 10, 2015, leaving a town of 9,000 without a hospital.
Then, only weeks before he announced his decision Friday to not run for re-election, Sen. King worked to repeal the tax break for private businesses and corporations. Working to get that $250 million back on the Kansas ledger is a sure sign King had split from the Republican majority.
With nothing to lose, perhaps King felt emboldened to serve his constituents.
It’s hard to believe that King, only 40, and Senate vice president, is calling an end to his political career, but his recent boldness certainly has burned some bridges with those who call the shots — most notably Americans for Prosperity and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce.
Perhaps King is betting Kansans are getting fed up with Gov. Brownback’s policies and hopes to catch a wave of moderate support somewhere down the road.
THE REGISTER has never endorsed term limits for politicians, but Sen. King’s recent moments of clarity illustrate their merit.
If a legislator’s days in office were numbered — and they were freed from the pressure of special interest groups — then perhaps they would keep the people, and not their re-election, as their focus.
The danger there is that we would lose the knowledge that can only come with experience and lobbyists — who would become the “experts” — would have even greater influence.
That alone speaks volumes about politics today: That we have to consider the lesser of two evils for what would be best for Kansas.
— Susan Lynn
