University Daily Kansan / Wednesday. October 31. 1990
Attorney General
9b
Bob Stephan (R)
Age: 52
Hometown: Wichita
Education: B.A. in political science and J.D. from Washburn University.
Bob Stephan
Background: District judge in Sedgwick County for 13 years. Attorney General since 1978.
Stephan: Extend focus
Environment his next issue
By Carol Krekeler
Kansan staff writer
Attorneys general should branch their governmental interests into areas that are not always within the bounds of law. Attorney General Rob Stephan said
Stephan, who is running for his fourth term as attorney general on the Republican ticket, said that he was fired from a job activist since he took office in 1978.
Stephan said that his office had initiated legislation to provide child care for state employees.
"It hasn't passed, but it will," he said. "I'm proud of the fact that I initiated that movement."
Stephan finds people who are concerned with the same things he is, he said, and they put together packages that would come to consider when it is in session.
If he is re-elected, his next focus will be on environmental issues, Stephan said.
He said that he would like to be involved with a task force on environmental issues.
"I'm not funded as the attorney general to deal with anything environmental, although I think I ought to be," he said. "These are matters we just haven't dealt with. This group would initiate legislation and put pressure on the government to clean up waste that needs cleaning
up."
As attorney general for the state, Stephan said that he was responsible for every area of the law in which the state was involved
"It's a very multi-faceted office." Stephan said. "I think a wide-breadth of legal experience is needed."
Stephan said that the attorney general needed more than criminal law experience to issue opinions for the stage.
When the attorney general issues an opinion on a state issue, local governments and citizens are not bound to it by law. Stenan said.
"My opinion can be very forceful though," Stephan said, citing court cases when his opinion won over those who tried to go against it.
Stephan issued a controversial opinion this year that said local city and county governments could requalify city districts because of home rule.
Under home rule, a city may enact laws when no state law counteracts them.
Stephen said that he did not think local governments should produce laws on abortion. They could if they wanted to because of a 1989 Supreme Court decision abolished abortion legislation in the hands of the state government, he said.
"I don't volunteer most of these opinions," Stephan said. "People request them."
Stephan said that many legislators had asked him to issue an opinion on the topic because the state was not
"You can't continually neglect your responsibilities," he said. Stephan said much of his job involved consumer protection.
taking action on the subject.
"You can't continuously negate
"We are trying to enhance protection against consumer fraud on the elderly," he said. "They're a target group."
"Victims are still hung out to dry." Stephan said, referring to the lack of laws that reprimand those who victimize people in cases such as rape.
Stephan said that victims' rights were another area on which he would focus his attention.
Stephan said that he did not think a 1982 harassment charge filed against him would have much effect on his chances of winning this year's earl's award.
Stephan, Bob Alderson, the first deputy attorney general, and Betty Johnson, his administrative assistant, were accused of sexually discriminating against a female employee.
"Everybody seems to think I was the only one involved. I wasn't. There were three of us," he said. "That case was handled no differently from the cases against every state employee, except I've been charged with allegations and Democrats alike in the Legislature for their personal darts."
Stephan and the employee settled the suit out of court. He filed for bankruptcy because of the out-of-court judgment, he said.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Bert Cantwell (D)
Age: 58
Hometown:
Edwardsville
Education: B.A. in judicial administration and J.D. from Washburn University.
Background:
Background Wyandotte County Sheriff, 1976. President of the Kansas Sheriff's Association, 1977. Private practice lawyer 1983 - 1987. Member of the Kansas Racing Commission which oversees pari-mutual racing in the state, 1987 - present.
Bert Cantwell
Cantwell: Focus locally
Candidate says review of KBI structure needed
By Carol Krekeler
Korean staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Integrity needs to be brought back to Kansas, said Bert Cantwell. Democratic candidate for attorney general.
Cantwell said he thought that the manner in which Attorney General Bob Stephens's administration had taken action was a key issue in the campaign.
Cantwell said the 1962 incident in which Stephan was brought up on sexual-hassarment charges by a state employee in his office was enough for Stephan not to be re-elected.
"I think that's official conduct of him. That's not his free time," he said.
Cantwell said that he thought the state had many problems and that more focus should be on local law enforcement.
"We do have a crime problem," he said. "It's safer to be out in a community than it is to be on a college campus."
Cantwell said local law enforcement people needed to cooperate more with each other.
"They need to share resources that includes man power -share
"
Bert Cantwell
We do have a crime problem. It's safer to be out in a community than it is to be on a college campus.
Ben Cawell Democratic candidate for attorney
general
”
information and share the intelligence they have," he said. "The attorney general would then be in a position of assisting them."
The attorney general should be there for local governments when they need to solve law enforcement problems, he said.
Cantwell also said the structure of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation needed to be reviewed.
"I think we ought to look at the priorities of the KBI right now," he said.
lottery and racing commission, he said.
"I think those agents' time could be better spent assisting other law enforcement agencies in their investigations," he said. "Let the lottery and racing commission do their own investigations.
Fewer KBI agents should be focusing on background investigations of state agencies such as the state
"I think the KBI has gotten away from what it was originally intended, and that was to assist local agencies and fight against crime."
Cantwell also said that the attorney general would need to address the drug problem of the state.
"This is no longer just an urban problem," he said. "They are very much a rural problem."
Cantwell said that the police departments in rural areas were at a disadvantage because they did not have resources they needed in 'ight drugs.
"I think an attorney general that could understand this could be of great assistance," he said.
The attorney general also should endorse laws that would create a Kansas program to protect witnesses.
Secretary of State
★★★★★
Graves says main role is elections
Bill Graves (R)
Age: 37
Hometown: Salina
Background: Worked in the Secretary of State's office 1980 - 1988.
Education: B.A. in business administration from Kansas Weslevan College.
By Carol Krekeler
Most of the work in the secretary of state's office is somehow related to elections, he said.
Kansan staff writer
In the late 1800s, as the Legislature was forming in Kansas, the secretary of state authorized the use of a new form of
"As some things got bigger, like transportation and social services, they all spill off."
In many ways, the secretary of the state today has the same role. Secretary of State Joseph W. Romney
As the government expanded, the secretary of state assumed more complicated
"Many of the functions we do today are throwbacks to early development." Graves say.
Graves said his administration was in charge of election activities, such as filing campaign finance reports and nominations to the office, and tabulating votes on election night.
"We get involved, in one way or another,
'in every kind of election activity'. Graves 1834.
"I was opposed to federal legislation simply because, in a way, it's a state's right issue," he said. "I really think we're better off to develop our own program."
Graves said the program should be implemented by the state.
A program called "motor voter," which would allow people to register to vote when they renew their driver's license, is an idea that the state might evaluate. Graves said.
"It's a fairly new concept." Graves said.
"I happen to think it's a good idea."
A state plan to have a presidential preference primary in Kansas in 1992 may not be a good idea.
A presidential preference primary is a one-day, state-wide vote within parties to determine state party choices in the presidential primaries.
"The law is on the books, but there is no funding." Graves said.
Such an event would cost the state about $1 million, he said.
"The question is whether the Legislature will rethink its position, given where it appears on the budget situation scales," he said. "I have real mixed emotions about it."
Although more people get involved in the presidential primary nominations than they do in other primaries, Grays said he leared the financial repercussions of the idea.
"Any public official who can see where we are with the budget knows that coming up with an extra $1 million is going to be tough." Graves said.
Bill Graves
Dickens says he would talk more to media, cut spending
★★★★★
R.J. Dickens (D)
Age: 33
Education: B.S. in journalism and political science from K-State.
Hometown: Park City
Background: Journalist at the Manhattan Mercury. Currently works in telecommunications in Manhattan.
People do not get excited about the Kansas Secretary of State's office because they do not understand what it does, said Teresa Democrat nominee for secretary of state.
By Carol Krekeler
Kansan staff writer
"I would be my own press secretary," said Dickens, who once was a journalist. "I would set aside a certain time every day to provide for the media."
Dickens said he wanted to improve the office by providing better media access and
Dickens said he would reduce spending by hiring a press secretary only during election years and would also like to have same-day registration for Kansas voters.
On another election issue, Dickens said the presidential primary in 1992 would not be a major problem.
"You're going to see a parade of talking beads," Dickens said. "I think that there is
a workable caucus system."
In a presidential primary, Kansas voters individually choose delegates to vote for a candidate.
In a caucus, voters gather in their communities according to party affiliation and choose delegates as a group. City and county officials combined for state party presidential votes.
Dickens said the Kansas Secretary of State should meet with surrounding state secretaries to lay out a common set of rules for how state primaries should be run.
"The ideal is getting the candidates in front of the people," Dickens said. "It gives the people a chance to make an informed choice."
Dickens said candidates should be required to visit a minimum of seven counties in Kansas, one being under the age of 50, 50,000, before being able to win an election.
Dickens also said that the Kansas corporate report forms needed to be rewritten.
He also said each candidate would have to visit one county that none of the others had.
"I really don't think we need to know how many acres of arable land U.S. Sprint has under their parking lot," he said.
"Everybody still wants to do their ins and outs in Wichita and Kansas City and maybe Topeka if we're lucky," Dickens said. "If they want delegates in Kansas, I'm saying make them get out to Manhattan, and make them get out to Lawrence."
The forms are registration reports that all Kansas businesses must turn in to the Secretary of State's office to be considered a valid business in the state.
Dickens said that because some businesses did not own a piece of property, reporting land usage was not possible or necessary.
Eric Rucker
Jennifer Warner/KANSAN