Russell Arben Fox: Kobach invited doubts by politicizing office

As someone who teaches and writes about politics as a career, I am used to hearing the same complaint every time election season rolls around: “Why must everything be so political?”

I understand the frustration that causes that plea to arise. Much of our political discourse – and particularly the angry parts that come out so strongly during elections – strikes many people as ugly and distasteful, and they want to get away from it.

I have to admit that I rarely feel that frustration. From my perspective, politics is a necessary part of civilized society, especially a society like our own that seeks to democratically govern itself.

Still, there is something to the complaint. Shouldn’t we hope that the part of politics that many people don’t like lasts only during election season, and then disappears for a while? Or, if not that, shouldn’t we hope that at least some part of our government will be free of constantly dealing with the ugly side of political sausage-making?

In theory, the solution is America’s civil servants and government administrators. More than a century ago, the Progressive movement in the United States enacted reforms to make certain that state officials would, as much as possible, be kept separate from the otherwise unavoidable costs of party politics and political deal-making.

However, that hope doesn’t apply if the official in question actually seeks political controversy – which brings us to Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

Of course, the office of Kansas secretary of state is not totally removed from politics. Kobach has had to respond to legal and political issues involving civil rights, immigration and more, in the same way that our Kansas insurance commissioner has had to involve herself in issues involving Medicare and the Affordable Care Act.

Still, it is one thing to have to respond to legal and political issues. It is another thing entirely to generate campaigns and lawsuits across the nation in support of stringent voter requirements, the prosecution of suspected illegal immigrants, and the success of the Republican Party.

When Kobach stated last week that former Democratic senatorial candidate Chad Taylor failed to make use of the wording specified in the law governing the withdrawal of candidates from an election, and thus insisted that Taylor remain on the ballot, he defended himself by saying that the language of the statute was plain.

But one has to wonder given that it’s well-understood that keeping Taylor on the ballot may hurt independent Senate candidate Greg Orman and help the Republican incumbent, Pat Roberts, and given that Kobach is part of Roberts’ re-election team, and given the enthusiastic support Kobach has given to Republicans and their agenda across the country.

Most Americans aren’t political junkies like me. Most make it clear, year after year, that they want to believe that the civil servants and elected officials administering the laws aren’t creatures of politics.

But when a smart, ambitious man like Kobach takes a straightforward procedural office like the secretary of state and turns it into an opportunity to push a specific political transformation across Kansas and beyond, well, it shouldn’t surprise him if voters look at his decisions and assume that, maybe for him, it really is all politics all the way down.

This story was originally published September 10, 2014 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Russell Arben Fox: Kobach invited doubts by politicizing office."