Kansas Board of Education

Sometimes, races like the State Board of Education get lost in the shuffle. With 165 legislative seats, four seats in the US House, the US Senate, the President and competitive DA races in Shawnee and Johnson County, the media and political parties and activists only have so much attention to go around.

However, here in Kansas, the BOE's low profile races can have high profile consequences. Therefore, here at LeftBrain, we will try to keep you all informed with regular updates about the board races here in Kansas.

District 2: Mary C Ralston (R) vs. Sue Storm (D):

Ralston was able to defeat uber-conservative blogger Brandon Kenig in the primary. Storm is a former legislator. This seat was formally held by moderate Republican Sue Gamble, who went on to lose to nutter Mary Pilcher Cook in a state Senate primary. Obviously, we prefer Democrats, but at the end of the day either of these candidates will maintain the pro-science majority.

District 4: Carolyn Campbell (D) vs. Bob Meissner (R):

Meissner is a crazy, plain and simple. Check out Carolyn Campbell's web site, send her some money or volunteer for her campaign. Meissner hates Darwin.

District 6: Christopher Renner (D) vs. Kathy Martin (R, inc.):

If you look up radical right-wing Christian nut job in the dictionary, Kathy Martin's picture will be next to it. She ousted a moderate Republican incumbent in 2004 and hasn't looked back. She got a scare from a mod in the primary, winning by only a couple points, so this seat is winnable and Chris Renner is a credible candidate, but Martin always seems to pull it out, so Chris will need all the support he can get. You can check out his web site here.

District 8: Walt Chappell (D) vs. Dennis Hedke (R)

Same song, different verse. Chappell will support the teaching of science in science class, Hedke won't. Chappell's Web site is here.

District 10: Paul Casanova (D) vs. David Dennis (R):

Dennis is a pro-science candidate, but even after his opponent "decided not to campaign," his primary was still very close. This is not a good sign. Either way though, it looks like this seat is a guaranteed pro-Science vote.

Idle hands = Intelligent Design

Sometimes in Kansas we forget about the importance of our state school board elections.

Every couple of years, the conservatives take over the board again and do something so unbelievably absurd that it would be almost comical if the consequences weren't so real.

After moderate (read: sane) voices took over the board once again in 2006, we run the risk of it happening once again.

Though we were able to throw at corrupt wackos like Connie Morris and sack anti-public school voucherfile Bob Corkins, unless Kansas' voters are again shown what is at stake, we run the risk of doing it again.

With moderate Republican Sue Gamble opting to run for the State Senate instead of another term on the school board and Democrat Bill Wagnon (Democrat Carolyn Campbell - a former president of Topeka USD 501 BOE - has filed to run in this district) opting not to run again, we now have two open seats that were once held by moderates.

Though those seats, in Topeka and Johnson County, should be relatively safe from the grasps of conservatives, the seat of nut-job, anti-evolutuion, anti-sexual education Kathy Martin needs to be reclaimed.

Martin, who is from Clay Center, represents a large district which includes Salina, Manhattan and much of North-Central Kansas.

What can you do to prevent this from happening?

For starters, you can head over to Kansas Families United for Public Education's web site. Become a member and donate to their cause.

Second, if you live in districts 2 (parts of Johnson County), 6 (Manhattan, Salina, Atchison, etc) or 10 (SW Sedgwick County, Sumner County, Butler County, Cowley County) and care about public education. Run for the school board!