Kansas senators seen as unfriendly to business

on

The Kansas Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee has made campaign contributions to the primary election opponents of eight Republican members of the Kansas Senate that it sees as impediments to private sector job creation, according to reporting in the Lawrence Journal-World.

According to its website, the Chamber PAC “supports and endorses incumbent state legislators and other candidates for state office who support the Kansas Chamber’s legislative agenda, promote the tenets of free enterprise and pledge to make Kansas a better place in which to do business.”

Following is the 2010 Kansas Senate roster with each senator’s score on the Kansas Economic Freedom Index for that year. The names of the senators whose opponents are supported by the Kansas Chamber PAC appear in boldface. You can see that as a group, these senators rank very low in their support of issues important to economic freedom in Kansas.

(Senator Chris Steineger is now a Republican.)

Senator Party Score
Holland, Tom D 0%
Francisco, Marci D 7%
Kultala, Kelly D 7%
McGinn, Carolyn R 7%
Morris, Stephen R 7%
Brungardt, Pete R 13%
Emler, Jay R 13%
Faust-Goudeau, Oletha D 13%
Hensley, Anthony D 13%
Kelly, Laura D 13%
Lee, Janis D 13%
Reitz, Roger R 13%
Schmidt, Vicki R 13%
Schodorf, Jean R 18%
Haley, David D 20%
Huntington, Terrie R 20%
Owens, Thomas (Tim) R 20%
Umbarger, Dwayne R 20%
Taddiken, Mark R 24%
Teichman, Ruth R 24%
Vratil, John R 27%
Marshall, Bob R 31%
Ostmeyer, Ralph R 31%
Steineger, Chris D 58%
Schmidt, Derek R 62%
Apple, Pat R 69%
Barnett, Jim R 69%
Colyer, Jeff R 69%
Donovan, Les R 73%
Kelsey, Dick R 73%
Petersen, Mike R 80%
Wagle, Susan R 80%
Lynn, Julia R 86%
Abrams, Steve R 87%
Brownlee, Karin R 87%
Bruce, Terry R 87%
Huelskamp, Tim R 87%
Masterson, Ty R 87%
Pyle, Dennis R 87%
Pilcher Cook, Mary R 93%

Comments

5 responses to “Kansas senators seen as unfriendly to business”

  1. Your list of KS State Senators is a year out of date.
    Tim Huelskamp is the KS US Representative for the Big 1st District.
    Derek Schmidt is the KS AG. (and a non State Rights attorney)
    Why not oppose Emler, Reitz, Umbarger, Taddiken, Teichman, Marshall, and Ostmeyer??

  2. BD

    Well, Neil, to answer your question, they haven’t yet developed opponents for them because the conservative oblast ??????? doesn’t meet until later this month in prayerful determination of the fate of these strays and may well wish to give them another chance.

  3. Anonymous

    The Chamber of Commerce is a mean-spirited organization. If this country’s political institutions fail to adapt to changing circumstances at home and in the world, then heads will roll with revolution one of these days. The poor and the declining middle class can lead the way to getting the notice of the “fat cats.”

  4. Westie

    It is interesting to note that the gop senate president Steve Morris actually has a slightly lower figure on economic freedom than the staunch statist dem minority leader Tony Hensley. About two political generations ago, W.F. Buckley Jr. ran for mayor of NY city and explained that the differences between the R & D candidates in his race (Buckley was the conservative party candidate) were biological and not political. What was true in NYC in the 1960s is just as true in the KS senate today. How sad.

  5. sheila

    Colyer, Barnett, and Schmidt should have gotten ZEROS! I guess Barnett did though, didn’t he? TEE HEE! And for their anti small business efforts, Schmidt is now AG and Colyer is LG. I was SOOOO hoping that Brownback would get us off the Feds hind teat, and stop the grant mooching from the Dept of HHS. Looks like it’s not to be. We may return most of the “Healthcare Bill” money, but we are sucking up everything else and promising to get Kansas in line with Federal programs.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.