By james art 
Campaign messages via TV ads, texts, digital ads and phone calls have flooded us over the past few weeks with targeted general slogans about smaller government, independent voices, transparency and lower taxes – normal campaign stuff.
The problem is that these talking points do not reflect what has happened in Topeka over the past two years. I’m sorry, but I’m not inclined to discuss normal issues with a party and candidates who have completely different backgrounds.
We’re used to seeing crazy lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Green or Lauren Boebert grab headlines in the national media, but many feel we don’t have the same level of conspiracy talk here in Kansas. It can be easy to overlook what’s happening in your own backyard. We tend to think that Kansas doesn’t have the same kinds of problems that we hear about in the District of Columbia or other states.
However, after watching numerous committee hearings over the past two years, let me disabuse everyone of that notion. Conspiracy-fueled activists work full-time in the Kansas capital, and GOP committee chairs are only too willing to put their extreme agendas on the calendar.
Senator Mike Thompson, who chairs the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee, is in a unique position to host a platform for fringe ideas. He heard and passed a bill to make gold and silver legal tender in Kansas to ensure that when the US dollar collapsed, Kansas would have alternative payment methods. He held special hearings on cannabis and invited so-called experts to make statements that would fit better in a movie like Reefer Madness than a medical conference or scientific study. In a special election commission hearing, he heard that it included testimony about hacked machines in Kansas, and in a regular session hearing he proposed a bill to eliminate the boxes and even advance voting. He believes that election day should be “election day” and has even said in the Senate that voting is a privilege, not a right.
Congressman Pat Proctor chairs the House Elections Committee and has held similar hearings for local election deniers. He tried to play both sides, giving oxygen to conspiracy activists while claiming he just wanted to ensure the election was secure. It’s like trying to convince people you’re a little pregnant. No middle ground can be found with election deniers. Proctor joined Senator Thompson for the special committee on the 2023 election, which also included a demonstration using a laptop to purportedly show how a machine could be hacked and votes could be reversed. Maria Zak (of Nations in Action) appeared at a legislative committee hearing in March 2022. She was invited to give a presentation about a wide and wild conspiracy of network machines transmitting data to voters in Italy, adding that a government official had been killed as part of a cover-up. Because of her investigation into the subject, she testified that she now fears for her life.
In addition, in the House Committee on Federal and State Affairs, there was a special hearing on strengthening gun rights. The proposed bill would use a strict scrutiny standard that would make it much more difficult to pass or enforce any firearms laws, including banning those with a violent history of spousal abuse from obtaining guns. That hearing included testimony from multiple lawmakers, including pro-spokesman Blake Carpenter (District 81), who argued that second amendment rights were not merely to protect against foreign tyranny, but were necessary as a potential remedy preventing current government overreach. From his testimony:
Rep. Rebecca Schmow said afterward, “Every time we discuss responsible gun owners in Kansas, you predict rivers of blood, parking lot standoffs, and general murder and mayhem breaking out across the state.” That comment didn’t age well; two weeks later there was a shooting at the Chiefs Parade in Kansas City that killed one woman and injured at least twenty-two.
In a typically sleepy hearing of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, several individuals testified that the conservation bill was generated by UN-backed groups conspiring to take over Kansas land, adding that we are not for socialism, collectivism or longing for our neighbors land. How dare the federal government call us stupid. Beware of these federal programs that are basically just handing out people’s own money. It comes with strings attached and one of those strings can be a snare.
Fear of foreigners also came up in both the Senate and House federal and state committees, where AG Kris Kobach backed Sen. Mike Thompson and House Majority Leader Chris Croft pushing bills to ban foreign legal and physical persons to buy land in Kansas. They apparently believe that Kansas is in a better position to check for threats from the US Treasury, CIA, FBI, US Congress and foreign relations committees. The party leadership also pushed anti-ESG bills that fear globalist financial companies dictating and undermining individual investment with a woke agenda.
Also on the House Education Committee, Chairman Adam Thomas heard a bill to propose creating a legislative panel to evaluate books and materials to check for what activists called “pornography” in libraries. To counter the so-called liberal indoctrination of students, hearings were held on numerous versions of “parental rights” bills. Another hearing was held to hear the benefits of having priests in schools as counselors to offer a different perspective.
There was unsubstantiated testimony before the Welfare Reform Committee about widespread recipient fraud in food stamp and cash benefit programs. Lobbyists argued that these benefits were nothing more than a voter registration and recruitment scheme.
The chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Senator Beverly Gossage, personally invited Dr. Stanley Goldfarb to speak, who continued to challenge the standards of the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He testified (without evidence) that the medical program allowed substandard students to be enrolled in the name of DEI, CRT, and inclusion. The HHS Senate also heard testimony about vaccine harm and asked that these requirements be removed from schools and day care centers. On the House HHS Committee, Chair Brenda Landweir held hearings on bills to eliminate gender-affirming care because she believed KU Med was sterilizing children and maiming children (a claim she made before in committee and repeated later on the floor, even after it was corrected) .
The Kansas Legislature is in session for only 90 days each year. Every day is important. One of the reasons popular policies — such as raising the minimum wage, Medicaid expansion, access to medical marijuana, child care tax credits, or targeted property and sales tax cuts — aren’t held for hearings is simply because committees are wasting time on the edge and frankly crazy ideas. That’s why we don’t have good accounts.
When a GOP candidate touts his commitment to traditional conservative values or describes himself as an independent, ask why he hasn’t governed that way. Even with a supermajority that allows them to pass any bill against the governor’s veto, they failed to pass tax cuts in the 2023 and 2024 regular sessions. Governor Kelly called them back in June to save them from their failures. The conspiratorial agenda has bogged down the system and prevented good versions of the most popular bills in the statehouse – tax cuts – from working.
Forget the GOP mailers and ads touting tax cuts, smaller government and good schools. Their record is littered with other extreme priorities driven by fears of international conspiracies, conspiracies and culture wars. The voters of Kansas are tired of a supermajority that wastes our time and money. It’s time to send people to Topeka who will prioritize the issues that Kansas residents struggle with every day.