Will Brownback change course?

When Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, lost in Tuesday’s primary, he conceded that the voters “have spoken and they wanted to go in a new direction.” The question is whether Gov. Sam Brownback was listening and is willing to change course.

A statement from his office the morning after the election was not encouraging.

After moderate Republican challengers defeated Brownback-aligned conservatives in races throughout the state, Eileen Hawley, Brownback’s spokeswoman, tried to downplay and deflect the meaning of the results.

“Kansas is not immune from the widespread anti-incumbency sentiment we have seen across the nation this election season,” she said.

The problem with that spin is that the anti-incumbency sentiment in Kansas was focused nearly exclusively on conservatives. Moderate incumbents won their primaries.

In fact, many primary races were very much a referendum on Brownback’s policies and the budget problems he created.

In Johnson County, GOP moderates defeated House and Senate incumbents, campaigning on support for public education and against Brownback policies endorsed by the incumbents. There were similar results elsewhere in the state, as conservative incumbents were weighted down by their ties to Brownback and his policies.

Sedgwick County was an outlier, as all incumbents won their primaries – including Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ty Masterson, R-Andover, one of the architects (and chief deniers) of the state’s budget mess.

Brownback could lose even more of his grip on the Legislature after the November elections. Democrats are fielding strong candidates in several races – such as longtime Wichita school board member Lynn Rogers, who is running in Senate District 25.

The new lawmakers won’t be the compliant yes-men that Brownback has controlled in recent years. They will demand changes, including votes on expanding Medicaid and eliminating the tax exemption on pass-through business income. And if the Kansas Supreme Court rules that the state is not adequately funding public education – as seems likely – the new lawmakers won’t throw a fit and threaten to defy the court.

Brownback could still veto policy changes, which perhaps might survive an override attempt. But rather than dig in and become even more hardheaded, Brownback should show some humility and flexibility.

A recent poll found that only 15 percent of Kansans were satisfied with Brownback’s job performance. Tuesday’s election was another strong statement of disapproval.

Brownback should learn from these results and accept what voters had to say – that they want a new direction.

This story was originally published August 7, 2016 at 12:07 AM with the headline "Will Brownback change course?."