New Kansas House speaker to incoming members: Avoid cliques

The newly elected speaker of the Kansas House has a piece of advice for freshman lawmakers: Avoid the cliques.

Rep. Ron Ryckman, R-Olathe, the House budget chairman, will officially be elevated to speaker in January. House Republicans chose the Johnson County businessman Monday to lead them in the upcoming session.

“One of the things I’m stressing is just to take off the jerseys … and try to avoid your cliques,” Ryckman said Tuesday when asked his advice for freshman lawmakers.

The cliques, as he calls them, are the competing groups within the Kansas Republican Party. Moderates and conservatives have battled for control of the party for decades.

The conservative wing has been dominant in recent years under Gov. Sam Brownback, but more moderate Republicans made major gains in this year’s election and could cast deciding votes as the Legislature grapples with the state’s budget shortfall and works to craft a new school finance formula.

“The Legislature’s really divided in thirds,” said Leo Delperdang, a newly elected Republican House member from Wichita, referring to the balance of power between moderate Republicans, conservative Republicans and Democrats. “But I can see two of the thirds forming a majority and making things happen.”

Kansas faces a nearly $350 million budget gap for the current fiscal year and a more than $580 million budget gap for the following year. Addressing that will be the major task of the legislative session.

Delperdang said he thinks conservatives and moderates can form a consensus to solve the state’s budget problems.

“They’re going to have to,” he said. “They don’t have a choice because if they don’t – and you can quote this – there’s going to be a bloodbath in two years.”

All 125 seats in the Kansas House and the governorship will be up for election in two years.

Susan Humphries, another newly elected Republican House member from Wichita, said she loves Ryckman’s recommendation against falling into cliques.

“That just makes perfect sense,” she said. “And I don’t even know what the basis of the cliques would be. And I’ve asked different people, ‘So you say you’re moderate, what does that mean? How might that be different than me?’ I don’t really even know how people fall into those categories.”

Humphries said she was optimistic about the Legislature’s ability to address the budget shortfall.

“I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom,” she said. “I think there’s a way forward and I think we need to roll up our sleeves and work hard for the people of Kansas.”

However, Humphries said she is not sure what that way forward is yet.

Democrat Elizabeth Bishop said she’s hopeful that lawmakers can reach a bipartisan solution to the state’s budget problems.

“I think you can see with this particular class of freshman representatives from both sides of the aisle that’s what we’ve been about,” she said.

New lawmakers of both parties attended a budget briefing Tuesday as part of their orientation ahead of the legislative session.

“They’ve kind of forewarned us of our issues and our challenges,” said Greg Lakin, a new Republican House member from Wichita. “But it was really presented in a positive way as it’s something that can be fixed and we’re just going to have to get to work.”

Ryckman said he wants to make changes to the House’s culture to help facilitate a budget solution that people can support across the spectrum.

“I think a lot of it starts with building trust with the different caucus members and providing a climate where there’s a lot of listening … where we can come together and have pragmatic solutions that do solve our budget issues,” he said.

“We’ve got to create a culture and a climate that listens to everyone and gets different points of view out there,” he said.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 7:44 AM with the headline "New Kansas House speaker to incoming members: Avoid cliques."