2018 General Election Lost 48 — 46
Did you know they have strip clubs in Kansas? I’ll come back to that
Here are some other things about Kansas.
- Barack Obama’s mother and grandparents were from Kansas. His mother was born in El Dorado, Kansas and lived there until she was thirteen.
- Those who suggest the Civil War could have been avoided through compromise might recall the Kansas-Nebraska compromise of 1854. Kansas and Nebraska were to choose for or against slavery through “popular sovereignty”. The result was a civil war about slavery in each territory. Southern sympathizers destroyed Lawrence KS (founded to oppose slavery by Amos Lawrence, factory owner of Lawrence MA), disarmed the citizens of Lawrence (so much for the Second Amendment), destroyed the anti-slavery presses and burned the Free State Hotel abolitionist assembly place and fortress (so much for the First Amendment). We could also remember the Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA in 1912 and consider whether progressives in one generation are necessarily rogressive in future generations.
- The Second Congressional District, which this note is about, runs north-south, along Kansas’ eastern border with a bubble to exclude Kansas City. It contains Topeka (the state capital), Lawrence (home of the state university where the founder of basketball went to coach after leaving the Springfield, MA YMCA), but not El Dorado which is a little west of the Second District.
Paul Davis http://www.pauldavisks.com is a Kansas kid. He has had political ambitions for a long time. His mom was a schoolteacher. His dad taught public administration at the University of Kansas. Davis went to the University of Kansas and then to Washburn University Law School, the law school in the state capital and a great place to build connections.
Now, at forty-five, he is running for Congress. He is no longer a boy wonder. After a stint in a Topeka law firm, he became Assistant Director for Government Affairs for the Insurance Commissioner — Kathleen Sibelius. You could remember her as the Governor of Kansas. You might even remember her as the daughter of the Governor of Ohio. You certainly remember her as the Secretary of Health and Human Services under Barack Obama.
As Sibelius was getting elected Governor, Paul Davis was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives. In 2008, still in his thirties, Paul Davis became the minority leader. In 2014 Davis, at age 42, ran for governor against the incumbent Sam Brownback. Now, and maybe then, Brownback could be described as the least popular governor in the country. Brownback had led a great experiment in Republican principles regarding taxes and public services. By 2014, Kansas’ economy was in sufficiently bad shape that 100 Republican officials supported Davis’s campaign. That support was not enough. Davis lost by 3 points, but carried the Second Congressional District.
Here comes the strip club part. There was one scandal Paul Davis could not shake. This straight arrow, ambitious guy and law firm associate went with a senior partner to a strip club the firm represented. The roof fell in. While Davis was on the receiving end of a lap dance (I can just imagine the partner telling him I’m going to arrange for you to have a good time), the police raided the place on a tip about drug sales. Campaigning for governor, it did Paul Davis no good to explain that he was not married at the time. It did him no good whatsoever to explain that he was only twenty-six at the time. Nor was it helpful to explain that he was taken there by his boss. His straight arrow reputation probably made the scandal worse.
At a time when we have gained some additional consciousness about the sexual harassment of women, we have not turned to a broader discussion about sexual exploitation. If we were having that broader discussion, we might understand why Paul Davis could not shake the strip club scandal. We might not even be disappointed that he could not escape it. Except, of course, he was running against Sam Brownback whose administration amounted to an economic crime against the poor and the middle class.
Paul Davis is back. Running for congress. He is still wearing Truman-like rimless glasses. He has a psychologist wife and a daughter. He has an open, formerly Republican, seat to run for and a district he carried in the run for governor. He has a record he describes in his face book page as “moderate,” one that could sell in a district with the state university and the state capitol. In the House of Representatives, as Minority Leader, he sponsored
- legislation to ensure safer workplace environments.
- a constitutional amendment for equal rights to prevent discrimination based on sex.
- legislation to expand rail service from Kansas City to Fort Worth, Texas (As a childhood reader of Zane Gray, I love a railroad on the route of the Thundering Herd)
Support for labor, support for women, support for infrastructure. Those are his interests. And ours. Regardless of the scandal he could not shake. Consider providing Paul Davishttp://www.pauldavisks.com some support. He knows something about politics. He is raising money. Complaining that the system in Congress is not working, he is running against Nancy Pelosi as well as against Paul Ryan. Let him do just that. He will be an asset in Congress. Make a donation. Make a monthly donation even if it is small. That really helps.
