Looks like a couple weeks when the Statehouse is going to be virtually empty as Democrats, then Republicans, hold national conventions online; no crowds, social distancing can be done by zip codes, and there aren’t going to be any free-drink receptions for reporters covering the events.
And at the Statehouse, it’s going to be quiet, with lots of issues to be considered, planned, schemed, but nothing really major in the way of events and only one or two interim legislative committees considering legislation for the upcoming session.
The under-the-sheets action will be, of course, considering just what the pandemic has done and will do to the state’s revenues which are predicted to be about $600 million or more below estimates that lawmakers are comfortable working with, and nobody wanting to talk out loud about how to make that revenue stretch to cover the needs and wants of Kansans.
So, what’s being quietly discussed—or specifically not discussed out loud where it might show up in the news?
The budget, of course, and whether there’s enough money to keep basic services for most Kansans, and especially the poor, the ill, and their children, in place, along with the standard law enforcement and education funding for elementary and secondary schools…and higher education in an era when there is growing legislative interest in short-term, job-skills post high school.
But the focus is most strong in the next couple weeks on the national political conventions, where former Vice President Joe Biden has chosen Sen. Kamala Harris as his running-mate, and there is still some insider wondering whether President Donald Trump will keep Mike Pence as his vice president, or maybe…not.
For Kansans, that national ticket for both parties will undoubtedly trickle down to votes for Kansas House and Senate candidates…and later this week we ought to know just who those legislative candidates are going to be after the state canvass board checks and rechecks votes from border to border to see who will be on the November ballot. That’s not all settled yet, but soon we ought to know who survived that handful of close legislative primary elections.
And there’s going to be more politics springing up when we learn just where the counties have spent about $400 million in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act money that the state’s Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas (SPARK) Task Force has handed them. Look for every dime to be examined not only for recovery benefits, but to see just what groups got the federal money—and their political leanings if they can be discerned.
Oh, yes, and there’s the reopening of schools in many districts and colleges and universities and whether they trigger a new increase in COVID-19 cases which will ripple from the schoolhouses and campuses into the state as a whole, with the now predictable economic damage to the economy—and yes, again—state revenues.
Lots of low-key activity that might grow to become major import to the state and the remaining two years of Gov. Laura Kelly’s term as governor and the tilt of the Legislature next session.
The national political conventions? Essentially a diversion for most Kansans, who already know who gets their vote. But in a strong Republican state, that pandemic and the administration’s response to it may move votes, especially in the U.S. Senate race.
And while all that’s going on, we still need Kansans to take fill out the Census forms so they get counted.
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Lots of activity, and strangely, most of it to be observed from home on the TV in the next couple weeks…when some of us who have had their loafers on the ground for 16 national political conventions just try to get comfortable on the sofa…and pay for our own drinks…
(Note: The At The Rail column will be on hiatus the next two weeks while Statehouse activity is expected to be minimal; in non-pandemic presidential election years, The Rail column at this time provided coverage of Kansas delegates at their Republican and Democratic conventions.)
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver's Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com