7B
Female lawmaker overcomes minority status in the House
Branson's main concerns are health care and education
By Jill Jess Kansan staff writes
Jessie Branson is a minority in the Kansas Legislature.
As a female Democrat in the House of Representatives, she is outnumbered on both counts.
However, in her fourth term in the House, Branson does not let her minority status stand in the way of trying to get things done.
"I don't believe people look at me as Republican or Democrat," Branson said. "They look at the work I've done on the job, hard, people respect your efforts."
She said she had a special insight into issues because she was a woman.
Branson's key causes are education and health care. This year, she campaigned for a program for handicapped preschoolers and an education finance bill that would benefit Lawrence schools.
"Perhaps it is an asset to be a woman; if you have experienced these things, you know how to deal with them," she said.
She said her experiences had drawn her to these causes. Branson has a degree in nursing and worked in a hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif., and at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She also has worked as a volunteer nurse with the Red Cross.
Branson met her husband, Vernon,
a doctor, at the Med Center.
"People laugh when I tell them, but we actually met in a linen closet when he was in med school and I was in nursing school," she said.
Since that meeting, Branson and her husband have reared four children; two have entered the medical
field, one has entered the art history field, and one is mentally retarded and lives in a group home in Lawrence.
Branson, 67, has been surrounded by politics always, even when she was young.
"I can remember as a small child going with my dad in the horse and buggy when he was going to work at the polling sites," she said.
She never had considered running for office, however, until she was approached in 1880 by local party leader James B. Ford. Democrat to run against Republican
Wint Winter Jr., now a state senator.
Then she was not sure that she wanted to run, but now she has found that she enjoys the work, despite the stretch. She also sometimes stretch to 15 hours a day.
"I honestly enjoy very much working with and responding to people," she said. "My only regret is that I have not staff and can't do more for people."
Branson has lived in Lawrence for 35 years. A Kansas native whose roots date back to 1856 when her great-grandfather homesteaded in Atchison, she was born in the Atchico farming community of Cummings.
She said that she and her husband loved Lawrence and that she enjoyed serving this community.
"We love Lawrence so much that we would never want to be anywhere else," Branson said. "Serving in Lawrence keeps you on your toes."
She said Lawrence was envied by the rest of the state as a forward-looking, prosperous community.
Just as much as she loves Lawrence. Branson loves chamber music, although her work in the Legislature has kept her away from
Although the daily drive to Topeka during the session gives Branson time to listen to music, she said that she missed hearing Bach and Mozart played live.
"I made a pledge when I entered the Legislature that I would attend one concert a month; now I'm lucky to have every three to four months," she said.
But Branson gives time to music in other ways. She is vice president of the local union of the Federation of Music Teachers in the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra.
She plays piano, cello and harpsichord in addition to singing. Also, she has studied with former KU dean of fine arts James Moeser.
She hopes that someday she will be able to return to the world of music.
"If I ever stop being in the Legislature, my husband and I would like to go to places where Bach and Mozart wrote," she said.
But Branson doesn't see herself leaving the Legislature just yet. Up for her fifth term this fall, she is confident that she will be re-elected.
"I think I'd be really hard to beat," Branson said.
She has several things she still wants to accomplish before giving up politics.
She said she wanted to increase state aid for public education and do more work with social issues such as programs for the handicapped.
Branson also would like to involve her interest in music with her interest in the Legislature. A state chamber orchestra or concert orchestra is one thing that she sees Kansas lacking.
Even though she is confident about the coming election, the campaign will still be hard work for Branson. She said she would go door to door in her district, trying to talk to all of her constituents.
"I think that it's really the only way to effectively campaign and know what's on the minds of my constituents." Branson said.
She said that the election brought out more partisan efforts in the Legislature, but that she was not worried about her status.
"You work harder when you have a good idea," Branson said. "That's the only difference."
She also said people were bound more by issues than by party.
"You always find a coalition of Republicans and Democrats who carry the same philosophies," she said.
University Daily Kansan / Thursday. April 28, 1988
As one of 34 women out of 165 legislators, Bransson said she was in the minority more because she was a woman than because she was a Democrat. But she said women in the Legislature had made difference on a number of issues, including pre-children's issues and poverty.
Women are gaining respect in the Kansas Legislature, she said, and for the most part, the men and women are getting along.
"There's still some of the good-old-boy attitude." Branson said. "But I like to think of myself as on an even keel with the men."
She said that someday she would like to see the Legislature be 50 percent women, but she had one problem with young women serving.
"I guess I'm old-fashioned enough that I don't think women should run when they have small children," she said.
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