Court's defenders benefited from voters' frustration with state fiscal woes
By John Hanna
AP Political Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas voters appeared to be blocking a push from conservatives to give Republican Gov. Sam Brownback a chance to remake the Kansas Supreme Court and ousted some of his allies from the Legislature in a backlash over the state's budget problems.
Five of the Supreme Court's justices were on the ballot in Tuesday's election for a yes-or-no decision by voters statewide on whether they remain on the bench. Four were appointed by previous governors and strongly criticized by conservatives, abortion opponents and critics of rulings overturning death sentences in capital murder cases.
But the court's defenders benefited from voters' frustration with the state's fiscal woes. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since GOP lawmakers slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback's urging in an effort to stimulate the economy.
With returns looking favorable for all of the court members on the ballot, Chief Justice Lawton Nuss issued a statement saying, "we will continue to make rulings without fear or favor, under the law."
In another sign of voters' discontent, at least nine Republicans in the Kansas House lost their seats to Democratic challengers.
The down-ballot races became the state's most notable contests this year because they represented a referendum on the term-limited governor. Fellow GOP conservatives control both legislative chambers, and ousting Supreme Court justices would allow Brownback to appoint their replacements.
The campaign against the justices began with murder victims' families, but abortion opponents also wanted to move the court to the right before it decides a lawsuit against a first-in-the-nation state law against a common second trimester procedure. Other conservatives worried about the court issuing a potentially expensive ruling in a school funding lawsuit by early next year. A gun-rights group even joined the ouster campaign.
"I felt it was probably time to clean house," said Randy West, a 56-year-old aircraft worker and Republican in Wichita after voting to remove all of the justices.
The ouster efforts targeted Nuss and Justices Carol Beier, Dan Biles and Marla Luckert. Nuss and Luckert were appointed by moderate GOP Gov. Bill Graves, and Beier and Biles by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
Brownback's only appointee on the court, Justice Caleb Stegall, also was on the ballot and was retained. GOP conservatives urged voters to keep him.
Justices face voters every six years. Since Kansas began using its current selection system in 1960, no court member has been ousted. Nuss, Beier, Biles and Luckert all received at least 62 percent of the vote in 2010.
Kansans for Fair Courts, the group leading the campaign to keep the justices, warned in a television ad that the court could become dominated by "Brownback clones." The message resonated with even some GOP voters like Peter Hyde, a 46-year-old real estate agent in Fairway.
"I think Brownback is single-handedly trying to destroy Kansas as a state," said Hyde, whose great-uncle was a Missouri Supreme Court chief justice.
The political backlash against Brownback's allies was clear in the August primary, when 14 GOP conservatives lost legislative seats.
Republicans who lost their House seats included Rep. Jan Pauls, of Hutchinson, a 25-year legislative veteran who left the Democratic Party two years ago as a strong opponent of abortion and gay rights. Yet Democrats were also failing to knock off GOP senators.
Republicans went into Tuesday's election with big enough supermajorities in both chambers that the GOP will keep majorities even if Democrats make huge gains. But Democrats hoped that conservatives will no longer control each chamber by themselves, allowing Democrats and moderate Republicans to form governing coalitions.
Brownback and his aides have argued for months that the state's budget problems result from downturns in agriculture and energy production that have affected multiple states. But even some Republican voters concluded that Brownback's tax-cutting experiment failed to deliver the promised economic growth.
Published: Thu, Nov 10, 2016
