Allen Countians who met Sam Brownback, Republican gubernatorial candidate, in Riverside Park Saturday got a good dose of big-time politics.
Brownback, in the U.S. Senate since 1996, was in Iola as part of his 32-city “Road Map for Kansas” bus tour.
Well before the bus pulled into the park, local GOP activists decorated the entrance with campaign signs, balloons and flags. Nearer his arrival at 12:15, statewide campaign handlers zipped into action, setting up a microphone and speaker’s stand and ushering the crowd to a position advantageous for a camera crew that was filming clips to be part of campaign ads.
When Brownback arrived, he spent a good share of his time greeting about 60 awaiting him, including several local supporters he knew well.
Glen Searcy worked with Brownback when he was Kansas agriculture secretary and Craig Mentzer was a fraternity brother at Kansas State University. Bob Talkington and Brownback are long-time friends, dating to their days in state government, Talkington in the Senate and Brownback with the agriculture department. There were professional acquaintances from more recent times, as well as a handful of people whom he met for the first time.
BROWNBACK’S vision for Kansas is to grow the economy, promote excellence in education, protect the family and reform government, he said.
Brownback said he thought rural free enterprise zones should be established to reverse a trend that has seen “80 percent of our rural communities lose population.” Among things he would propose is a citizens review board, much like the citizens rate review board for utility rate increases, that would study government regulations and propose elimination of those that “drive business elsewhere.”
“I want to grow private sector jobs, many of which we’ve lost between 2000 and 2010 while the number of government jobs, which aren’t sustainable, have grown,” Brownback said.
He would target reading skills for fourth graders to improve excellence in Kansas education.
“Only 25 percent of (Kansas) fifth graders are reading at grade level,” Brownback said. “If you can’t read in fourth grade, your world starts collapsing; if you can, your world expands.”
He also would take steps to improve the graduation rate in Kansas high schools, to have students “ready to go on to college, tech school or into a job.”
As for state government, Brownback said it should be put on a measurable scale, such as with industry where production is required for a person to maintain his job.
A handout fleshed out several issues.
Taxes. He opposes tax increases and signed the Americans for Prosperity’s “The No Climate Tax” pledge. The group’s mantra is, “A climate bill should not be a vehicle for hiding a tax hike.”
Health care. Brownback supports market-based solutions to address the cost and accessibility of health insurance. In March he supported a Kansas constitutional amendment that would establish a foundation for legal challenges to any health care mandate passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
Energy. “We need to make more and use less,” he said, adding he would support increased generation of power by wind, as well as expanded bio-fuels production, which would be an avenue for Kansas farmers to market grain.
Life. Brownback is pro-life. As a member of the U.S. Senate, he helped to pass into law the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and worked with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy to enact protections for unborn children with Downs Syndrome and similar conditions.
Public safety. He supports law enforcement having the latest tools to investigate and prosecute crimes, noting that sentencing and corrections policies should prioritize the protection of citizens from violent criminals.
BROWNBACK spent most of his hour in Iola talking with supporters individually.
His visit to the area — the Linn County Fair in Mound City was his next stop — was somewhat of a homecoming. He was born in Garnett, grew up at Parker and attended Prairie View High School, LaCygne, before going on to Kansas State, and then climbing the national political ladder.
