Coming up on IGI, Governor Laura Kelly wins a historic second term in office, and there are a lot of issues for her to address.

The Kansas Governor joins us.

So stay with us.

This program is brought to you with support from a Lewis H. Humphreys Charitable Trust and from the friends of KTWU.

♪♪ Hello and welcome to IGI.

I'm your host, Washburn University professor of Political science, Bob Beatty.

44 years.

That's how long it had been in Kansas since a Democrat had won the governor's office with a Democratic president in the White House.

Laura Kelly broke the streak in November, winning reelection to a second term by a 2.2. margin over Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt.

Governor Kelly's winning streak continued as she won her legal bet made months ago on the Kansas City Chiefs, winning the Super Bowl, turning $15 into quite a bit more.

Here to talk to us about those wins, current issues and why she's bullish on Kansas is Governor Laura Kelly.

Thanks so much for being here.

I'm delighted to be here, Bob.

And I'd like to make one correction.

Yes, it was $165.

They gave me my original $15 bet back.

Okay, Very nicely done.

I was thinking about this show, and I think the last time you did an IGI, it was March of 2020 and then COVID hit.

So thanks so much for coming back and joining us.

I'm glad it's been a little while.

And before we got into some other things, I did want to ask about Super Bowl.

Of course, you were lucky enough to to see a Super Bowl in action, see the Kansas City Chiefs.

What was that like?

Most people don't get to go to a Super Bowl.

No, they don't.

And I've never been before.

I hope I get to go again next year.

It was completely awesome.

I was seated on the five yard line where that final drive occurred and it was just a thing of beauty.

I was very excited and I was very lucky to be there.

And you've been to sporting events before.

How's the Super Bowl different?

I've never been.

Or is it different?

Is it just a football game?

But but a lot more people are watching.

Well, it's it's a whole lot of people.

And there's an excitement in the air that I mean, you feel a little bit sometimes at Allen Fieldhouse, but you just need to multiply that by ten to get the level of excitement.

And it was definitely a holding on that last drive on on the right.

A no comment.

That's not that's not my professional field.

Well, yeah, there's obviously the Chiefs winning is absolutely fantastic and I wanted to revisit the election a bit.

You know, I'm a bit of a political nerd, some would say junkie.

And it was a really it was a close election, but it was it was fascinating election.

And so we had Attorney General Kris Kobach on a while back on this show.

I asked him why he thought the election turned out as it did for governor.

He said, well, Governor Kelly, the Democrats had more money.

I, I think maybe you may have a different answer.

Why do you think you won the election versus Derek Schmidt?

Well, we did have a whole lot more money, but that's because people believed in our cause and in what we had accomplished in the previous four years.

You know, I made a lot of promises to Kansans in 2018 when I was running for governor, and we actually fulfilled those promises.

You know, we've fully funded our schools.

We're now paying for infrastructure program, brought our transportation programs back.

We've sort of resurrected our social services safety net so that we've got fewer kids in our foster care system and those are in are getting better services.

So on and on.

You know, obviously our economic development success, I think, really caught the eye of a lot of people.

Those are the kitchen table issues.

They want to talk about jobs, They want to talk about education.

They want to talk about transportation.

So you did.

So you had the money to then convey your message.

Exactly.

And, you know, there are some politicians, some leaders that I think the term is bombastic or they're controversial.

That's not exactly.

Maybe you disagree.

You can tell me your style.

But what I noticed from the very beginning, I went to that state fair debate and I was so surprised.

You were really fired up for, I thought for this campaign and for for someone who is not, you know, a quote unquote, bomb thrower.

And I thought, wow, she the governor is really ready to go.

I can't say for sure.

It looked like a bit like your opponent was even a bit surprised.

Were you geared up for this reelection?

You you're like, let's I'm really ready to go.

And put everything into it.

You know, I would not have run for reelection if I didn't think I could win and I would not have run for reelection if I didn't think I needed to win.

You know, we have done a lot of good things in my first term, but there are a lot of things that need to be done and I need to be here to get those done.

We also need some time to let cement into sort of the culture of Kansas, a lot of the changes that we've been able to make.

So you thought that second term was just vital to what it is?

Absolutely.

To do.

And, you know, I don't I don't get in the weeds too much about strategy.

I love looking at campaigns, what works and what doesn't.

I wanted to show maybe one last time, maybe the iconic clip or TV ad called Middle of the Road so our viewers can see it.

Before I ask you a question about it.

I'm back here in the middle of this road.

Last time I told you what we've already accomplished by governing from the middle.

Now, here's what we'll do next.

We'll attract even more new businesses.

Like the major Panasonic plant that's coming to Kansas.

We'll always fully fund our schools and we'll keep cutting taxes for families and seniors.

And I'll get it done by working with both sides.

I think, you know, I've always been pretty middle of the road and I always will be.

So I've studied Kansas politics and campaigns.

I'm making the argument that Bill Graves had had the most iconic TV ad in Kansas gubernatorial history is called Load Them High and Tight.

I remember to all my students and there hasn't been one since.

And what I mean by one iconic meaning, something that transcends a campaign, a catchphrase, or a term that then encapsulates that candidate.

And for Bill Graves, it was, you know, loading a truck and that he would be an efficient governor.

This this campaign and your ads and the phrase continues, as you know, it's being Republicans talk about it still.

I think it's now entered the top two in Kansas history.

So, you know, you don't have to reveal the names or anything.

But tell us about how not just obviously the idea of middle of the road, but the actual idea of you standing in a road.

How did that come about?

Or do you remember that first time you heard that idea?

Well, I had some very good people working on my campaign.

And, you know, they came up with the idea of, you know, visualizing, you know, the way that I'd governed in a way that would resonate with people.

And I think that's what it was.

I have always, you know, from the time I first ran for the state Senate back in 2004, for all the way till today, you know, I always been sort of middle of the road.

I always been the one working alongside or with folks from the other side of the aisle to to reach consensus and to come to an agreement on on good policy in a way to move Kansas forward.

So I think it was just a very, very good team of professionals who could take what I had done and put it into a form that would resonate.

And when they pitched it to you, you thought and said, All right.

But yeah.

I wasn't I have to tell you, I wasn't crazy about going out on a freezing March morning or whenever it was that we did the first ad, it was very cold and we had to, you know, you know, you have to keep some time to reshooting, reshooting.

We had to stop to let cars through.

So it will all sorts of things that went on.

So I can't say it was the most fun thing I've ever done, but I do think it's probably the most effective.

Yeah, it's interesting because it almost the first time that the first ad ran where you're in the road and then the drone shot goes back, it almost immediately brought a response from the other side.

Are you you weren't middle of the road.

And in terms of strategy, now they're debating your claim using the footage from the ad.

And then, of course, that went on the whole the whole time.

So, yeah, kudos to any strategic team that can get a phrase like that in terms of.

One last question on the campaign.

Was this a campaign where from day one until Election Day, you just put it in your head down straight through?

Or was there a moment, a turning point where you thought, you know, I think that could make a big difference or I think I think I feel that that I'm going to win this because of this.

Well, I never assume I'm going to win.

You know, this was my sixth campaign.

I always run as an underdog, you know, for for good reason.

You know, And clearly, you know, I have got to convince people from the other party, the independents, to trust me.

And to vote for me and to allow me to continue to serve as their governor.

So there was never a point in the campaign where I felt I'm going to win or I'm going to lose.

It was always just, you know, keep my eye on the ball.

You stay on message letting people know what we been able to accomplish and then see what happens that Tuesday night.

Governor John Carlin and I'll paraphrase something he told me once he he once said that that one of the reasons he wanted that the second term in office was because he learned so much in his first term that he thought it'd just be a much better governor in his second term.

What did you learn in your first term that you think will help you a lot as you have four more years?

That's a good question.

You know, I really do feel bad that I was able to come in day one on my first term knowing what I needed to do and pretty much how to do it.

Obviously, there were learning curves along the way, But, you know, I'd had 14 years in the state Senate.

You know, I had worked very closely with a lot of folks in the state house, and I knew the condition that Kansas was in in 2018.

And I knew the kinds of things that we were going to have to do to pull us out of that.

And so we sort of started day one, moving along, put together a terrific team.

I mean, I will always put my cabinet up against any governor's cabinet.

I have some of the very best experts in there of particular fields running each of our state agencies.

And, you know, together with that team, we've been able to to move Kansas forward, want to do pretty much the same thing here in the second term.

I do think that given that it's my second term and the last time I ever be on a ballot, that there are some things that I couldn't do my first term just because, you know, I, I had to face reelection and be careful.

But things like the water issue, you know, very contentious issue.

We've been talking about it for decades.

We need to get something done, something substantial done to be able to sustain the quality and quantity of our water for generations to come.

I think I've got the political capital now that I can expend on a contentious process or a long drawn out process that that will be to get all of the stakeholders around the table and really build that strategy.

Break down a lot of the barriers.

That's not a sexy issue, but for some it certainly is, your generic voter it may not be.

Do you honestly think, I should't say honestly, do you believe that that the water issue can make some progress because it's been stalled for previous governors?

You know, I have to believe that we have to make progress on it.

You know, Kansas can't survive, quite honestly, you know?

Right.

If we do not resolve this, you know, water is absolutely essential to the lives of Kansas and the economy of Kansas.

So we've got to do it.

We have no choice.

But it'll still be hard.

There was an exit poll for the voters who voted in the 22' election in Kansas.

It was done by Fox News.

And it's traditionally a very, very good poll, an exit poll on the voters.

And here's a few of the results.

First of all, 59% of the voters said they were Republican or identified as Republican.

So a lot of unaffiliated voters who say they identify with a party, 59%, so almost 60% of the voters essentially on Election Day, considered themselves Republican.

So that's who we're talking about.

That's the universe of those 60% who are Republicans.

But of the whole entire poll, you had a 56% job approval on schools and COVID policy, 63% said it was about right in Kansas during COVID or it didn't go far enough.

So basically, they didn't think it was bad.

This one's interesting.

69% of all voters said racism in policing is a problem.

69%, I found that interesting.

69% wanted to legalize recreational marijuana, non-medical.

So we'll get to that later.

Recreational and 71% believe their votes were counted accurately.

Okay, we have those numbers and there are some other things, but it's a Republican electorate who likes the job.

You've been doing over 50% and is willing to is open to a number of interesting issues.

And yet, by all reports, the legislature is more conservative.

Mm hmm.

People ask me this all the time, and and we're thinking about it.

How do we square that?

You you won almost close to 50 50% of all legislative districts, Senate and the House.

And yet it's a 69% of all legislators are Republican.

And many of them the leadership is arguing it's even more conservatives.

How do we square that?

Well, it has to be done through the ballot box, you know, And, you know, we know that in the time that I've been involved in politics here in the state of Kansas, we've really watched the legislature go from a very moderate, thoughtful, commonsense, you know, to representing Kansans as a whole.

And that was, what, 2005 when I came in and worked very closely with the moderate Republicans from the other side of the aisle to get good policy passed.

That's changed a lot.

And I think a lot of that has to do with some gerrymandering that occurred, setting up districts that are very difficult for anything but a Republican to win and and oftentimes a very conservative Republican to win, because those those races are determined during the primary often.

And that's when you tend to see you are more conservative with folks coming to to vote.

We can talk about the August election if you want to, but generally, that's when you your see more conservative folks come up.

So then the conservative candidate during the primary rises to the top and then floats through the general election where there's often not even a Democrat opposing them.

So that's how I think we've gotten to a legislature that is far more conservative than the Kansas population as a whole.

I was struck by those numbers, and I thank you for your input on that.

It's Women's History Month, so I did want to ask you, there have been some women, whether you knew them or not, leaders that influenced you and what barriers may may continue for women in the United States, especially in public life.

When I think about the woman who probably influenced me most in just my approach to life and work and leadership, it probably was an author of a book called Games Mother Never Taught Me.

I read this in my early adulthood, and it really was a look into corporate management and what women did that held them back.

What men did that promoted them.

And I just learned a whole lot of things there that have really influenced the way that I have approached career opportunities and certainly in my political career.

So I think her name was Betty Linehan.

Hannigan In real life, or a real person who did things, probably Billie Jean King way back.

I played tennis not very well, but I played tennis nevertheless when I was younger.

And Billie Jean King really was a role model.

I mean, you probably remember the battle of the sexes.

Very famous.

Yes.

And so I really looked up to her.

I liked the way that she just barreled through the barriers.

Yeah, that was a seminal moment.

Certainly not just in sports history, but American history.

Well, let's move on to the topic of education.

What are your priorities?

Yeah, we'll stick with this year, but obviously you're going to be here for four years of it.

But in terms of Kansas and in education policy.

Specifically, education policy well.

You would you like to see happen?

Sorry.

Yeah.

Well, I continue to propose fully funding K through 12 and I will do that every year that I am governor.

But this year I also I actually did it last year, but it didn't, it didn't take with the legislature.

So this year in my budget, I have proposed starting down the path to fully funding special education.

You know, right now we should be funding 92% of the additional costs of special education.

I think we're right around 70%.

So I have proposed another 72.4 million in this year's budget and then in subsequent years budgets until we get to that 92%.

I might say, though, that, you know, the federal government owes us some money, too.

I mean, they they pledged, I think, 1975 when the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was passed, that the feds would pick up 40% of special education funding there.

If they're at 20%, I'd be surprised.

So they need to step up and do their part, which would then make our 92% less.

But I'm not going to wait on them.

I'm going to go ahead and continue to push this through.

So do you think that might be done this this session?

I'm hoping so.

You know, there's a lot of game playing going on right now in the legislature, and they're certainly using special education funding as a negotiating tool.

I'm hoping that when it's all said and done, though, that they realize that by funding special education, you know, they're helping all kids in Kansas, because right now what's happening is that we're taking kids taking funds from the general Education fund and using it for special education funding just to to fill in some of those gaps that absolutely have to be filled in, you know, for the kids sake, for the family sake, but also because they're their mandates.

Sure.

Let's move on to taxes.

It's a huge issue.

There's a lot of proposals, as you well know.

We all know that.

We've all been saying coming out of the legislature.

But we also know that according to certain rules in the legislature, they could just still keep appearing.

What what do you want to I mean, if you put it this way, it's the end of the session.

Let me ask, what would be your dream bill to sign or even before the end of the session?

But what is is going to be pretty firm in what you really, you know, have to hold firm on in terms of tax policies.

Yeah, You know, I have been a proponent of providing tax relief to Kansans, whatever we can.

You know, last year I pushed hard for the total elimination of the sales tax on food.

We got there sort of you know, unfortunately, they decided to delay it and phased in over three years.

I have proposed again, let's just go ahead and eliminate it and do it now.

Now is going to be July 1st at the earliest, because they've been dragging their feet just a little bit on this.

And we've we've also added diapers and feminine hygiene products to the list of sales tax exemptions.

So that we need to get done.

We can afford it.

The money's there and we need to get that relief to folks.

We also have proposed a sales tax holiday on school supplies so that for four days in August, you know, parents could go buy the school supplies, teachers could go buy the school supplies that they often have to have for their classroom without paying a sales tax at that time.

And then the other thing that we're looking at or that we have proposed is that currently if you are retired and you have retirement income of 75,000 US, you don't pay income tax, state income tax on your Social Security income.

We want to raise that threshold to $100,000 and then also eliminate the cliff, because right now, if you make $1 over 75,000, you pay it on all of it.

We want to eliminate that cliff.

So we've got those proposals and we know that we can afford these and that we can sustain these going forward.

And so that's what I'd like to see at the end of.

Many Republican legislators want to see a flat tax.

Are you prepared to comment on that idea yet?

Yeah, You know, I think you just need to run the numbers on flat tax to see that there's no way to make that work in terms of, you know, maintaining the revenues you need to run the state.

And also be fair, you know, the the level of the flat tax would have to be so high that many people would end up paying more in income taxes and very few would actually see any relief.

And that would tend to be those with higher incomes.

I've been told I just have 3 minutes, but I want to talk about the economic development successes which have been coming in since the Panasonic deal.

If you don't mind, mention a few of what you've seen so far and what may be down the road and also what's the key to getting those done?

Because it's a lot of money and a lot of jobs.

Right.

So what have been some of the highlights just in the last.

Yeah, well, we actually saw success in the economic development world before Panasonic.

You know, we won the Governor's Cup, which is the award for the most business in the capital investment per capita.

We won that before Panasonic even came across our radar.

We wanted, again, because of Panasonic, this this past year.

You know, we have worked very closely with the legislature in order to be to to attract Panasonic and later Integra Technologies out of Wichita.

You know, we really had to have the cooperation of the legislature to pass that APEX bill that we did last year, and that allowed us to compete for these megaprojects.

We will continue to to work with the legislature to come up with the tools that we need to to compete successfully on the economic development world.

They've been very good so far, and I'm hoping that they'll continue to work with us because it's in the best interests of everybody.

You know, we've we've now brought over $15 billion of new capital investment into our state.

That translates into 55,000 new or retained jobs in the state.

There's more where that came from if we do it right.

So I think what you're saying is good team.

You mentioned a good team that's working on this, but you're also saying that working with the other party, the parties, working together, Republicans and even with Panasonic, being able to keep it quiet in that case, that that cooperation is key.

Is that right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Key.

You know, I've always believed that there's no way to govern other than by working across the aisle in a collaborative sense.

And, you know, I think our success in economic development just reinforces that.

We have 30 seconds.

So is there something you want to tell the viewers that we haven't talked about, that you think's important?

Well, yeah, I think, you know, you mentioned recreational marijuana before.

I have proposed that we at least start with medical marijuana.

And I've been pushing for this since way back when I was on the health committee in the Senate.

You know, we need to provide that relief for our veterans and for our kids with Dravet syndrome and for people suffering from chronic pain.

So I'm hoping that folks out there will encourage their legislators, legislators to get that done.

Thank you so much.

That's all the time we have for this episode of IGI.

If you have any comments or suggestions for future topics, send us an email at issues@ktwu.org.

If you would like to view this program again or any previous episodes of IGI visit us online at watch.ktwu.org.

For IGI, I am thanking the governor.

I'm Bob Beatty.

Thanks for watching.

This program is brought to you with support from a Lewis H. Humphreys charitable trust and from the friends of KTWU.