How low, you ask? Kansas GOP forces through illegal map by endangering children

This week’s scandalous behavior of the Republican leaders in the Kansas Senate should concern every voter who values fair play and honesty in government and politics.

At issue? A new congressional district map, required by the U.S. Constitution.

Tuesday, the Kansas Senate overrode a veto by Gov. Laura Kelly and approved a blatantly partisan, gerrymandered congressional map. They did so by flipping votes that opposed the override Monday, including the vote of Sen. Mark Steffen, a Hutchinson Republican.

Just hours earlier, a Kansas Senate committee endorsed Steffen’s plan expanding use of unproven and potentially dangerous medicines for COVID-19, while loosening vaccine requirements for kids. The same measure could help Steffen escape scrutiny for his medical practices, including the use of ivermectin for COVID.

It was a clear payoff to Steffen for changing his vote.

It’s a scandal beyond imagining. Republican leaders are so thirsty for congressional power they would endanger children and let a colleague off the hook for potentially dangerous medical decisions.

Let’s review.

In late January, GOP legislators approved the so-called Ad Astra 2 map, which splits Wyandotte County between two congressional districts and incomprehensibly puts Lawrence in the mostly-rural 1st District.

The Ad Astra map was and is designed to cheat Kansans out of any chance for fair representation in Congress. It dilutes minority votes. It mutilates any concept of putting similar communities in the same districts. It was an obvious effort to ensure Republican victories in each of the state’s four congressional districts.

Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the map on Feb. 3, forcing the Kansas Senate to reconsider it Monday.

Republican leadership embraced the cheat of the Ad Astra map long ago. But they seemed to lack the needed 27 votes for the override on Monday, so they cheated again, holding the override vote open for hours so they could browbeat recalcitrant colleagues into supporting the map.

It didn’t work, at least on Monday. Four Republican state senators — John Doll of Garden City, Dennis Pyle of Hiawatha, Alicia Straub of Ellinwood and Steffen of Hutchinson — voted against the map. Doll called it a “political circus.”

Sen. Pyle was equally blunt. “We can do better,” he said.

Arm-twisting and vote-trading over an issue this important is galling and unacceptable. Fair congressional maps should be the goal of every state legislator. Any attempt to use the map for leverage on unrelated issues should offend every voter in the state.

Some Democrats in the state Senate said Monday that the Ad Astra map would likely end up in court. That seems likely, but is small comfort. The U.S. Supreme Court seems overwhelmingly friendly to gerrymandering.

Fair maps in Kansas shouldn’t have been this hard. The answer to population growth in Johnson County is to split Johnson County, not Wyandotte County. Lawrence, a Democratic stronghold, should not be a part of the 1st District under any circumstances.

Gerrymandering is as old as the republic. Radical Republicans are trying it in Missouri, too, although, to their credit, mainstream GOP senators have resisted those efforts so far. Good for them.

Kansas Republicans should take note. Pushing through an absurd gerrymander, and vote-trading to get there, should anger every Kansan who supports fair and open government.

This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 12:04 PM.