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President Donald Trump endorsed Kris Kobach ahead of Tuesday's Kansas Republican gubernatorial primary. The endorsement doesn't come as a surprise, but should Kobach win, it could cost the Republican Party a governor's seat in deep red Kansas.
The 2018 campaign for Kansas governor has produced a large field of candidates - from elected officials, businessmen and even high schoolers. The race for the Republican and Democratic nominations feature some of the top figures in both parties, as well as those who have been off the political scene for years.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's retirement is giving the Kansas governor's race an odd twist by complicating the bid of a major Democratic candidate who's trying to rebuild his party's brand with rural voters but is hindered by his anti-abortion past. Former state Agriculture Secretary Joshua Svaty argues that Democrats can't break an eight-year losing streak in all statewide races without pulling more votes from strongly Republican rural areas.
Kansas corrections officials and the company picked to build a new state prison have bolstered support for their plan among top Republican legislators, making it more likely their project will get the final go-ahead. Three key Republican legislators said after a briefing this week that they're more comfortable with a state Department of Corrections plan to have the nation's largest private prison operator, CoreCivic Inc., build the new prison for 2,432 inmates in Lansing, in the Kansas City area.
Damon Hininger, the president and CEO of private prison company CoreCivic Inc., follows a Kansas legislative committee discussion of a state Department of Corrections plan to build a new prison, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The department plans to have CoreCivic build the prison and lease it to the state for 20 years.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback announced on Friday Department for Children and Families Secretary Phyllis Gilmore, 72, will retire from In this "tell all" with Brian Hanni, the Voice of the Jayhawks, opens up about his current role at the University of Kansas. Kansas State senior Matthew McCrane is one of 20 place kickers in the nation to be named a semifinalist for the 2017 Lou Groza Award, the Pa TOPEKA, Kan.
Among many conservatives, there's a reflexive assumption that reducing the size of government is always a good thing. This is why politicians like Gov. Sam Brownback often declare their fervent opposition to "big government" and boast about their attempts to reduce spending, cull the number of state employees, etc.
Samuel Brownback, governor of Kansas and a former U.S. senator, appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as the nominee to be the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017.
Kansas is launching a project to help immigrants in one meatpacking town get driver's licenses, by offering them free translators when they take their exams. Meatpacking plants, the largest employers in western Kansas, have drawn a diverse population to the region, but the state offers exams only in English or Spanish.
In this Feb. 3, 2017, file photo, Ifrah Ahmed, left, and Mursal Naleye stand outside a new walk-in clinic in Garden City, Kan. Kansas is launching a project to help immigrants in the meatpacking town get driver's licenses by offering them free translators when they take their exams.
Kansas' revenue agency will unveil collection figures later today for April, a key month because of personal income tax payments. The monthly report from the Department of Revenue also marks the first since a revised, slightly more optimistic long-term revenue forecast was issued in April.
In this Jan. 18, 2017, file photo, acting Kansas Revenue Secretary Sam Williams discusses Gov. Sam. Brownback's tax plan with the House Taxation Committee.
Blame game - As the state's fiscal crisis continues to deteriorate and the Legislature moves toward the center, the Brownback administration has shifted into full blame-deflection mode. A recent newsletter from the Governor's Office attacked Democrats and "the media" but didn't mention all the Republicans who are demanding change.
A report released last week on improving the state's tax revenue estimates also proposed changing which agency is responsible for preparing the fiscal notes on tax legislation. Currently, the nonpartisan Kansas Legislative Research Department analyzes proposed tax bills in the Legislature to estimate the fiscal impact, positive or negative.
Two months ago, the Brownback administration asked all state agencies to demonstrate how they would handle a 5 percent budget cut. While administration spokeswoman Eileen Hawley called such requests "a common practice," the state's precarious fiscal situation had many agencies worried that substantial cuts were actually on the way.
Expect wailing and gnashing of teeth if the Kansas Supreme Court orders the state to increase funding to K-12 public schools - perhaps by more than $500 million. But the blame for such a ruling should fall squarely on Gov. Sam Brownback and state lawmakers, who put cutting taxes before adequately funding schools.
Four Kansas Supreme Court justices targeted for ouster in this year's election face anti-incumbent sentiment and a backlash over rulings that overturned death sentences for two brothers convicted of infamous multiple murders. Conservative Republicans hope to give term-limited GOP Gov. Sam Brownback a chance to remake a seven-member court they view as too liberal.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback announces that his administration is working on a new education funding system proposal and calls on leaders in Kansas and the education community to assist in developing the proposal during a press conference Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, at the Kansas Statehouse, in Topeka, Kan. TOPEKA, Kan.
Kansas' tax collections fell nearly $13 million short of expectations in July, and the report of the shortfall Monday came on the eve of a primary election in which Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's critics hoped to oust some of his legislative allies. The state Department of Revenue reported that Kansas collected $425 million in taxes last month.