February 16, 2008 08:14 pm
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By Greg Grisolano
ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com
TOPEKA, Kan. — It has been dubbed “Trousergate,” and the incident involving State Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, has prompted colleagues in the Senate to consider stripping him of another leadership position within the party.
The motion came after Barone allegedly was caught leaving a retreat for Democrats with sensitive polling data stuffed down the back of his pants.
“This incident is beyond the pale, in my opinion, because the instructions for everybody were the poll wasn’t to leave the room,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka.
Barone was one of about 80 Democrats, including legislators, party leaders, staff, and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who were attending a retreat on Dec. 19.
Once the presentation concluded, Barone took his packet — which was numbered to help organizers keep track of them — tucked it in his pants, and headed for the door, alleged Tim Graham, Hensley’s chief of staff.
“He folded it up, stood up, looked both ways, buttoned up his coat and headed toward the door I happened to be standing in front of,” Graham claimed.
Graham said that when he and state party leader Mike Gaughan confronted Barone at the door, he acted surprised.
“He said ‘What?’ and we said, ‘The poll that you stuck down the back of your pants,” Graham said. “He didn’t try to deny it. He’d been caught red-handed. He was the only person in a room full of people that we had any problem with.”
Barone said he knew the documents were not supposed to leave the building, admitted to tucking them in the back of his pants, but said he had no interest in leaving with them.
“I did place the poll in the small of my back as I have done with bulky papers for 40 years,” he said in an e-mail to Graham, “so that I could continue to review some areas that I did not clearly understand after returning from a bathroom break.”
He also dismissed the effort to remove him as political.
“This is just part of the continuing rhetoric to discredit me and my work up there (in Topeka),” Barone said. “There is obviously, and has been for some time, an agenda to diminish my perceived effectiveness.”
‘Privileged’
Graham described the information in the polling packet as “privileged,” but said he didn’t want to speculate on why Barone may have tried to take the document out of the room.
“This is the information that gives us an advantage over our rivals,” he said. “I don’t want this info in the hands of anybody else who doesn’t need it.”
Barone, who represents Southeast Kansas, serves as the ranking member of the commerce committee.
Previous clashes with party leadership resulted in his demotion last year as ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee. He was later removed from that committee altogether.
As caucus chairman, Barone is in charge of scheduling and chairing meetings, and providing an agenda calendar.
Hensley, who labeled Barone “a liability” last year after removing him from the Ways and Means leadership post, said the latest episode of Barone’s behavior has been the talk of both parties in Topeka.
“If you go out in the hallway and say ‘trousergate,’ everybody knows what you’re talking about.”
The motion to remove Barone as caucus chairman was proposed by Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, three weeks ago.
Kelly didn’t respond to questions, but sent an e-mail to the Globe, which stated: “I made the motion to remove Sen. Barone as Democratic Caucus/Agenda Chair simply because I felt his actions were a betrayal of the trust that needs to exist among our caucus members and our leaders.”
The motion also included a provision to split Barone’s position as minority caucus chairman into two parts, agenda committee chairman and caucus chairman, which is the way things were before the two positions were consolidated in 2004.
That motion was tabled amid what Graham described as “confusion” between the senators who were nominated to fill the vacancies.
“I truly believe that had the motion been to simply remove Barone, instead of replacing him with one of his colleagues, the vote would have happened and he would no longer be (chairman),” Graham said. “Given the fact that neither of the senators who were nominated to replace Barone were expecting the nomination, I think some confusion ensued.”
Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, said he “respectfully declined” the nomination to fill one of the vacancies that would be created by Barone’s ouster.
He also said, “There’s not a majority (that want to remove Barone). I don’t think there’s six of our 10 votes to do it.”
Haley added: “Some are calling for a cease-fire to this internal civil divisiveness, so we might better focus on a more successful, optimistic session.”
Hensley said he doesn’t plan to pursue an ouster.
“At this point, we’ve had an airing of the issue, and I think that was absolutely necessary.”
Haley said he and Barone have worked well together in the past.
“He’s very knowledgeable,” Haley said. “I’ve learned a lot from him. I don’t believe, just because we are Democrats, we should line up on the same side of an issue.”
As far as Barone’s “aggressive” leadership style, Haley said the senator gets results.
“Whatever people will say about him, he’s no wimp,” Haley said. “Some people really like that in a leader.”
Decision pending
State Sen. Jim Barone said Friday that he will wait until the end of the 2008 legislative session before announcing whether he plans to run again. He serves as the senator for the 13th District, which covers Crawford and Bourbon counties, and a portion of Cherokee County.
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