skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I guess even Harvard sometimes can't find a decent speaker.
Harvard University's School of Government announced today that Gov. Sebelius will speak at their commencement this May. I couldn't help but laugh a little bit. If you've ever seen her speech at the DNC or her response to the State of the Union, or really anytime she gets in front of the camera, you'll laugh a little too. She's about as dry as a western Kansas county after a coal plant's been built. (That's so my liberal readers can understand just how boring she is.)
As future leaders, I certainly hope this year's graduating class doesn't take her speaking style to heart. I can't handle anymore monotone liberals.
I've finally gotten to take a few minutes to look at Tim Barker's campaign finance reports and there's a few things that I think can be deduced.
First, the timing of the loan seems somewhat important to me. The loan itself is interesting, but the motive behind it I think is more important. Did he loan himself $100,000 because he plans on self-financing his campaign or did he do it to inflate his numbers so that he can continue trying to raise money?
I personally think it's the latter. If he planned to self finance he would have made a large donation to himself in the last reporting period and made a splash. And I'd think it would have been larger than $100K. Also, as I alluded above, the loan is dated 3/31/09, the last day of reporting. That seems to indicate to me that he needed to shore up his numbers for this period.
However, if I'm wrong and he plans to just pay for everything himself, then yea, $100K is a big deal. But it's not enough by itself, it'll take at least nine more of those, if not more. The question then becomes, how much does the guy have? I don't think he has that much. Which brings me back to the motivation behind the loan.
I've only checked a few of Barker's donors, and only the ones without a Pratt address, as I'm going to assume a lot of those are personal contacts not based on political views. However, those I did check either have no prior information or are tied to moderate Republicans or Democrats in some way. A few have given to Kansas Traditional Republican Majority, so somewhere along the line Barker knows a few people. Either that or he's getting his money's worth out of his consulting firm, Dublin Group. Will he be able to convince donors he has a chance now that both Tracey Mann and Sue Boldra are in the race?
Only time and several more finance reports will tell.
Now the real work begins.
While legislators should be commended for not raising taxes so far to fix the budget problems they created, the session isn't over yet and the real fight lies straight ahead. New budget numbers are due out today and let's just say it doesn't look pretty.
House Minority Leader Paul Davis has already called for a tax increase and you know Sebelius is just foaming at the mouth to get more money out of Kansan's pockets. No word yet if she plans on paying her share or not.
Tax increases virtually never happen during the regular session. No one wants that kind of scrutiny over a long period of time. No, tax increases come quickly in an attempt to push them through before constituents get word of it. Plus, a few days of bad coverage is nothing like going through House and Senate Committee hearings with day after day of coverage of a tax increase.
The focus on this issue I think will be in the Senate. So far some key moderate Republican's seem to be holding fast, including Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt. The question is whether or not that's just talk or if they will actually stand for something. Sen. President Morris and Vice President Vratil certainly aren't shy about raising taxes. Vratil basically blamed the budget problems on too few taxes a while back, rather than on the out of control spending legislators have authorized. I won't place a bet on which side will win out.
So while I appreciate all of the work that's been done so far to keep taxes from rising, it's time to tighten the belt and let the real work begin.
