University Daily Kansan, June 30, 1980
Page 3
Charlton, Amison vie for new 46th district seat
By DAN TORCHIA
Staff Reporter
Betty Jo Charlton would like people to stop referring to her as Msike Glover's campaign manager. Her candidacy in the 46th District House of Representatives should solve the problem. Charlton said last week.
"Most newspapers still refer to me as that, even though I haven't been it since his first campaign," she said. "I would have known for what I've done by myself."
For Charlton, currently the 44th District representative, comparisons with Glover are inevitable. She worked on all his camperms from 1970 to 1978.
When Glover resigned last year, she was elected by the district's precinct chairmen to replace him.
THE 46TH DISTRICT was created by
Betty Jo Charlton
the reapportionment bill passed last year. The 44th District, which contained the University of Kansas, was shifted to the west and made smaller. The 46th replaces the eastern part of the 44th, and includes the campus.
Charlton will represent the 44th District until the 1981 session. The new district is almost the same as the old but with a different number, she said.
"For many people, I am the incumbent," Charlton said.
Going to the capitol as a representative was like being a total newcomer, though she did have experience in Topeka, she said. She worked in Glover's office for two sessions and was a legislative aid to Gov. John Carlin.
"I didn't go up there cold," she said.
"Still, it was different. I could relate to
someone who came in with no experience at all."
Charlton's Republican opponent, Willie Amison, also has to tie a Glover. Amison ran against him in 1978.
"The first campaign was a learning experience," said Amison, an elementary school teacher. "I'm not a rookie, but I'm not a veteran either."
AMISON DID NOT make a decision on running until a few days before the firing deadline, though he said he had been thinking about running.
"Before, when I was in insurance, it was pretty easy to take care of," he said. "Now with class, I wanted to make sure I could do it."
"Actually, the kids in school were instrumental in my decision. They said, 'We think you should do it. You would be good.' "
Willie Amison
Amison, a former KU football player, said he would enjoy dealing with people in the district if elected. Charlton will be a tough opponent, he said.
"One thing sports taught me is that you don't underestimate your competition," he said. "I'm going to try as hard as I can."
State government could take more control of programs currently handled by the federal government, he said. It would also make it more responsive to the peoples' needs.
Amison said he would work hard in office if elected, and was interested in working with problem areas such as the elderly, education and minorities.
"I don't have the answers but I have a lot of questions," Amison said, "And a lot of energy."
Senate research bill pushed
By ERNIE DAVIS
By ERNIE DAV Staff Reporter
In the past, Student Senate has had to deal with problems as they arose because they lacked the resources to foresee them.
So Mike Gordon, co-chairman of the Finance and Auditing Committee, would introduce a bill this fall that would create a student organization to study problems before the Senate has to deal with them.
The idea for the research organization came from George W. Bush, who was a student body vice president last summer. But the idea was shelved last fall because other Senate candidates, important, Gordon said last week.
HE SAID MOST of the research organization's work would be done by students enrolled in independent study of institutional research courses, volunteers, and work-study students.
A full-time coordinator would be hired to run the organization and offer guidance to researchers, Gordon said.
A student governing board, made up of student senators would make general policy decisions. The faculty would also use the organization, Gordon said.
None of the University's peer institutions have such an organization.
"But why can't we lead the way?" Gordon said.
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has a Student Center for Educational Research and Advocacy that costs $100,000 annually, according to Kevin George, SCERA student coordinator.
SCERA is divided into nine teams, each studying different areas of student issues. The nine areas are resource, anti-racist, academic, publicity, residential, public policy, females, women and student affairs.
ACTING ON AN ON issue only when something happens to make people aware of it causes additional measure for the Senate, Gordon said.
For example, during last spring's budget hearings the Senate did not foresee the financial needs of student organizations. As a result, some students requested funding from the Senate had to have their budgets cut.
Gordon said the Senate was working on an activity fee increase for fiscal year 1882, which begins next year. "There would take effect in the fall of 1883."
Acting in response to events costs more in the long run than the research organization would, Gordon said, because the University could provide cheaper student service.
He estimated the organization's cost would be 30 cents a student each semester.
Gordon is still working on the details of the bill.
Dole's seat tempts 6 Democrats
By IAN SIMPSON
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Six Kansas Democrats are jostling for advantage in a crowded primary race to select a candidate for governor. In groups, those with political experience working full-time on their campaigns, and those planning to spend little money to campaign, are divided.
The candidates are trying to buck history. There have been only three Democratic senators from Kansas in the 2016 election, Democrat McGraw, Wichita, who left office in 1989.
THE INCUMBENT, Bob Dole, is a tenacious campaigner who has a strong organization. He enjoys support from the public and financial contributions from oil companies.
The Democrates say Dole's bid for the Republican presidential nomination was detrimental to the state, and his championing of oil companies, especially his opposition to the windfall profits tax, make him vulnerable.
"Does Kansas want to elect a senator who does not want to be a senator, but who wants to be something else?" asked Bob Kennedy, former campaign manager for candidate John Simpson, Salina.
"Dole is nothing but a little Nixon," said Ed Phillips, Louisburg, a candidate.
John Simpson is the favorite to win the Aug. 5, primary. A former member of the Republican Party, Simpson resigned his seat in 1979 and changed his affiliation to Democrat.
SIMPSON HAS WORKED for nearly a year to build a sound organization. Last week, Simpson said he had visited every county in the state and had campaign organizers in 50 or 60 of several labor unions have endorsed him.
Last week Kennedy resigned as Simpson's campaign director because he thought Simpson was not putting enough of his own money into the race.
Simpson has extensive holdings in oil and land. According to a financial statement filed when he began his campaign, Simpson is worth $3.6 million. Simpson has spent $100,000 on research in the area of financial reports. He said he was prepared to spend $900,000 to beat Dole in the general election.
SIMPSON SAYS he supports energy conservation, the use of coal, increased expenditures for mass transit and, despite his oil interests, the windfall profits tax. He is against nuclear power.
"We've got to get on top of this economic situation," Simpson said, "or face greater problems than we already have."
Another candidate, Ken North, Mission, has concentrated his efforts on eastern Kansas, especially Wyandotte and Johnson counties.
North calls the proposed balanced federal budget "a myth." He favors increased military spending. North says market pressures will act to conserve energy and "strategic planning," including increased domestic production of conventional fuels, can solve America's energy crisis.
NORTH, A MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT, was an administrator in the Johnson County District Attorney's office and a campaign aid for former Gov. Robert Docking. North is running a "grassroots campaign" that relies on
volunteers. He said he would spend more than $50,000 in the primary.
James Mahar, Overland Park, is running a campaign designed for media attention. Mahar dramatized his concern with the energy shortage and the need "to get the country going again" by carrying a gas can and walking from Kansas City, Kan. to Topeka.
MAHER HAS CALLED for the establishment of a Western Hemisphere Baseball League to unite the oil-producing nations of the Americas. He sent a telegram, in English, to the organization of Exporting Countries meeting of oil ministers in Algeria and asked that the price of oil be lowered.
Maher says the use of synthetic fuels and conservation can lower gasoline prices to 70 cents a gallon.
One candidate, John Barnes, an engineer from Cherryville, said, "I don't intend to spend a lot of money. We work two weeks are what makes it or breaks it."
Barnes ran for secretary of state in 1976 and spent $260 while finishing second. His latest campaign will be a volunteer effort.
"I don't accept contributions from nobody," he said.
BARNES SAYS he opposes the windfall profits tax. He wants equal tax exemptions for salaried workers and a revamping of land use value appraisals for property taxes. He supports them as an alternate form of energy.
"I'll pull the primary by 10,000 votes," Barnes said. "How can they argue with the things I am asking?"
Phillips, a railroad conductor, supports legislation that will benefit blue-collar workers, farmers, and small businesses. He said he had no political organization.
Phillips is against the Equal Rights Amendment and gun control legislation.
He favors the development of synthetic fuels, and wants legislation that would forbid citizens from holding a political office in a lifetime.
"We've got to get rid of these political leeches." Phillips said.
The elder Lee could not be reached for comment.
He said, "The last two months my father has been under the care of a doctor in Ottawa. He was hospitalized for a short time at Ransom Memorial Hospital for treatment of a condition described as manic-depression."
THE SIXTH CANDIDATE, Howard Lee, Ottawa, a former postal worker, has little support and no campaign organization, according to his son, John Lee, the publisher of the Hays Daily News.