Sam Brownback has nailed down one plank in his campaign to be governor of Kansas. What the state needs, he says, is a State Office of the Repealer. The Repealer — not exactly the same as the Grim Reaper, but armed with a scythe, nonetheless — would cut away silly, needless and bothersome state laws.
Talking to a reporter in Kansas City, Brownback said “people just love this idea. They feel like they’re getting their brains regulated out of them.” He gave the example of citizens in Saline County who celebrated when a strict anti-fireworks ordinance was repealed.
“It was kind of like, ‘I got a little piece of liberty back,’” he said.
The senator quickly added that creating a State Office of the Repealer wouldn’t add another state salary. He’d give the assignment to someone already on the payroll. Like the lieutenant governor, perhaps.
Maybe the senator was feeling a bit bored and came up with the idea to add some whimsy to his standard stump oratory. Don’t expect to see the plank expanded into an official white paper, replete with footnotes. It has a short half-life.
Still, it is vintage Brownback: Getting rid of things has always been high on his priority list. He ran for Congress on a promise to do away with the Department of Education and other branches of the federal government (no, not agriculture, heaven forbid). And there are a lot of dusty laws on the books that haven’t been used for years and should be repealed. Some state is always discovering that it still forbids dueling or has statutes regulating buggies or specifies how many hoops a hoop skirt must have or limits what kind of work can be done on the Sabbath. Quick, Mr. State Repealer, off with their heads!
To be serious for a moment, Sen. Brownback has a challenge to face. He has been running against things since 1994 when he was first elected to the House of Representatives. As governor he will need to make a 180-degree turn-around in attitude and philosophy.
The chief executive officer of the state is the one who proposes. The opposers-in-chief should be the opposition party.
Governors must have a positive agenda; a set of goals to be accomplished; a passionate desire to make improvements, get things done.
When a governor gives his state of the state speech to the Legislature, he says these are the things I want to accomplish, this is how I want to build the state of Kansas, let’s get cracking.
Looking for things to abolish, to reject, to tear down, can get you elected and re-elected to Congress. But that is not the vision of a better future for Kansas that voters will find appealing in a candidate for governor.
They want a guy or a gal determined to plow through difficulties to reach the stars.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
