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Wednesday, October 24, 1990 / University Dally Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Unknown positions
Vague independent gubernatorial candidate doesn't live up to hopes of an option to others
Voters will have to wait and see about Christina Campbell-Cline, the independent candidate.
They'll have to wait until she has time to study the issues, to explain her positions and to propose solutions to the problems Kansas faces.
Campbell-Cline has little name recognition, unless she is addressed as The Independent. She is the candidate people hope is worth voting for in an election where neither of the major candidates is appealing. Few know much, if anything, about Campbell-Cline or her positions on key issues.
She is a certified public accountant with a practice in Wichita. She also denies any party affiliation and has absolutely no government experience. Instead, she falls back on her business and auditing experience when considering economic and political issues in Kansas.
Campbell-Cline is an auditor at heart. He thinks that there is tremendous waste in government and that government programs need to be audited. Ten percent of the budget could be eliminated without sacrificing services to Kansans, she said.
She says she hopes "to stop this human tax roller coaster that has the people in bond."
She says the tax tiasco of last year crippled small businesses in Kansas. Campbell-Cline said she would call for an emergency measure to provide tax relief to small businesses and the elderly. She also would give small businesses the money that now is being used for economic development.
The lottery has great potential as a financial salvation in Campbell-Cline's eyes. She would use lottery revenues to finance the third year of the Margin of Excellence, which she said she supported. But at the same time that she emphasized the importance of higher education, she stressed the need to cut state spending.
Education should be emphasized almost as much as the tax problem, she said. She opposes the constitutional amendment that was passed to regulate education under the control of the Legislature.
She would begin educational improvements at the early grade levels, a seemingly sensible solution if dropout rates, crowded classrooms and underpaid teachers at all grade levels fall low on the state's priority list.
Social and Rehabilitation Services also could benefit from a good auditing, Campbell-Cline said. She questioned why almost 20 percent of the state's fiscal 1990 budget went to welfare programs. she is convinced, she said, that funds are being misused and that something is terribly wrong with the managers in the program. she said she could offer little solution to rebuild the faltering agency until she had all the facts.
Kansas' new highway program could benefit from a good auditing, just like SRS, Campbell-Cline said. She thinks the new highway program has put the state deep into debt.
Campbell-Cline still is waiting for more facts about environmental concerns in Kansas. She seemed to be certain, however, that corporations are most responsible for destroying the environment and that regulation should be under federal control. She is concerned about "two big holes" in the atmosphere, and she is financing about the heat, she said. She is running and financing her own campaign, so she doesn't have the time to study solutions carefully.
Voters also will have to wait to find out Campbell-Cline's stance on abortion. She said this: "I am a Christian. I feel that God has let me know that I am not God. This is his department, and I am to leave it alone." She declined to elaborate.
Voters would just have to wait and see what she would do as governor if any legislation about abortion were to cross her desk. Evasiveness may be appropriate from Supreme Court justices, who must remain impartial until they have heard a case, but Kansans deserve to know more about their gubernatorial candidates.
Campbell-Cline says she represents the change Kansans are seeking, the option to Joan Finney and Mike Hayden that voters are searching for
Unfortunately, Campbell-Cbll represent one more option that voters should avoid.
Kjerstin Gabrielson for the editorial board
Good idea, bad timing
Voters should have write-in option for governor
prohibits write-in candidates for governor.
That has not always been the case.
Because of an outdated law, voters are stuck with Mike Hayden, Joan Finney or Christina Campbell-Cline. Kansas
Since the 19th century, state law had required that blank spaces be printed in the gubernatorial section of each ballot to allow voters to select somebody not listed.
The Legislature changed that during a peculiar political bitkrieg in the spring of 1973. Early in that session, lawmakers began dabbling with election reform. They quickly approved a bill that made several technical changes but still permitted citizens to write in candidates for governor. Gov. Robert Docking signed that bill into law on Feb. 19.
The law did not long endure. In April, the Senate adopted a sweeping election-reform bill, which replaced the version passed only two months earlier. The House passed the new bill the next day, and the governor signed it a week later.
That second bill grabbed headlines across the state. The new law changed the governor's term of office from two to four years. And it made the governor and lieutenant governor to run as a team.
result from mismatch writing in names for governor and lieutenant governor running as a
In the shadow of these high-profile issues was a little-discussed clause that ended the write-in option for governor. That restriction was intended to eliminate confusion that could
During the 17 years since that session, nobody had seriously challenged the legality of limiting voters' options.
Until yesterday.
Amid growing public dissatisfaction with this year's gubernatorial nominees, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in federal court yesterday arguing that a write-in option was necessary to safeguard voters' freedom of speech and equal protection. Earlier this year, similar restrictions in Indiana and Hawaii were declared unconstitutional.
The ACLU timing was terrible. With less than two weeks until election day, initiating a write-in option now would be a disaster. Voting had to have to be reprogrammed and ballots reprinted
But the intent of the ACLU lawsuit is splendid. Regardless of its outcome, the 1991 Legislature should make the return of the write-in a top priority. Kansans never again should have to pick a governor from three stooges. That's not a real choice.
More important, voters would lack time to adequately scrutinize any write-in campaigns, opening the door for the election of a virtual unknown.
Derek Schmidt for the editorial board
What should be the role of the Legislature in higher education during the next two years?
Elected officials must vocally support education
The University Daily Kansan has asked me to explain the reasons.
I role played in higher education by members of the Kansas House of Representatives. I would expand the question to include, "How can one legislator benefit the university and its faculty, staff and students?"
As legislator/advocate, I will promote the continuing state investments in human development activities, the most substantial of which is education. Government can raise the standards of life for all Americans by providing them with the human potential. In America, there should be no "throw-away" people. There is unattapped potential in everyone. Education is the avenue through
Legislators play three major roles vital to the success of our universities. They advocate university interests, they finance the state's universities and monitor the expenditure of public money and, as the elected voices of the people, they speak to the universities so they do not become isolated or out of touch with public sentiment.
which potential can be released.
Financing higher education is one of the more challenging problems facing Kansas lawmakers. We must keep Kansas competitive. Universities are in danger of seriously losing ground in keeping and attracting faculty, attracting graduate students, and increasing our educational infrastructure and providing quality education at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Remaining competitive will require not only the financing of the third year of the Margin of Excellence but will require seeing what we must do beyond that. Poll after poll reverberate that Kansasans rate education higher than five for state spending. Elected official should act on that public belief.
equally important. The bureaucracy of education is the subject of some criticism in Topeka. That criticism can only be countered with a systemwide commitment to accountability. As a legislator, I will ask for much in the way of public financial commitments, but I will also ask much from universities in the way of accountability.
Monitoring education spending is
Finally, legislators are the voice for the public at large. Legislators must speak out if public interests are at risk. Most important, elected officials must vocally support our university system. When leaders do not lead in this area, our society suffers. We suffer when we have leaders without vision. As a woman, I know the extent to which the government can make or break our society's role in human development. With leaders dedicated to excellence, we can maintain the historic traditions of Kansas as a place where education is our most important asset.
Barbara Ballard is the Democratic candidate for the Kansas House of Representatives in the 44th district.
Investments in education will benefit state
While some of the accomplishments and progressive initiatives in Kansas higher education in recent years have been impressive, there are ominous signs need for a re-evaluation of priorities.
Looking at the University of Kansas specifically, I could be convinced that all is well. KU ranks fourth nationally among public institutions in the number of Mellon Fellowships for graduate study and 15th for freshmen National Merit Scholars. There are also four modern classrooms, state-of-the-art laboratories and library facilities to an already impressive campus.
The Margin of Excellence improved faculty and student morale and enhanced the quality of all the courses offered, most for the two years it was financed.
In the last legislative session, not only did the Margin fail to receive its critical third-year financing, but in the session's final hours, existing budgets were slashed 1.75 percent. This raises serious questions in my mind about the state's commitment to higher education.
But all may not be so well at KU or the other Regents schools.
In the more competitive economic environment of the '90s and into the 21st century, education will allow industry to adjust to competition and
the changing marketplace. Education will be Kansas' edge in attracting industry and new jobs to the state
The role of the Legislature in bringing about change and renewed commitment in higher education must be delicately balanced to provide students with opportunities for improvement while avoiding intrusive, bureaucratic mandates. The Legislature can help focus the public debate on higher education and challenge the leadership of the institution's define and carry out their missions.
The Legislature can help ensure that every citizen — rich or poor, Black or White, immigrant or native
— has a meaningful chance for upward mobility through a college education. Today, too few Kansas minority students take part in education
North Carolina, one of KU's peer institutions, has an innovative program for encouraging that state's teachers to teach as a career. Students
selected to participate in that state's "Teaching Fellows" program receive four-year scholarship loans of more than $20,000. If they teach in North Carolina public schools for the first graduation, the state forgives the loans.
The program has provided a significant boost in attracting minority students: 20 percent of the 1989 Fellowship "Fellows" are minority students.
Programs such as this are excellent examples of the relationships among higher education, the quality of life and primary and secondary education. Investing in education programs improves the quality of K-education, which improves the quality of students attending colleges.
The next legislative session will be faced with some very tough decisions with predicted budget shortfalls of between $100 million and $200 million. Before other budget decisions are made, the Legislature must decide what investment it will make in higher education.
The future of our youth, our quality of life and our economic development efforts to attract new jobs and industries made by the leadership today.
Sandy Praeger is the Republican candidate for the Kansas House of Representatives in the 44th district.
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Three Imaginary Girls
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