July 11, 2008 07:45 pm
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By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
The Republican primary contest between Lynn Jenkins and Jim Ryun in the 2nd Congressional District in Kansas suggests how apprehensive this year’s GOP candidates for national office are about an anti-Bush backlash detected among voters in 2006.
Jenkins is running for Congress in the middle of her second term as state treasurer in a district former U.S. Rep. Ryun lost to challenger Nancy Boyda two years ago in an election sweep that regained control of both the House and the Senate for Democrats for the first time since 1994.
The winner of the GOP primary contest Aug. 5 will face Rep. Boyda, who is unopposed for the Democratic nomination, in the November election.
“I’m like a lot of Kansans,” Jenkins told the Globe in a telephone interview this week. “I’m frustrated by what I see happening in Washington, D.C. Clearly, the Democratic leadership is failing us as we speak, and the Republican leadership before that made some mistakes. I’m running to restore some sanity to Washington.”
Made some mistakes?
“They squandered the opportunity and ran the national debt up to an all-time high during Jim Ryun’s tenure,” she said.
Jenkins acknowledges disappointment with the Bush administration’s fiscal management and failure to stick to the party’s conservative roots on government spending. She’s been taking Ryun to task for his voting record’s synchronicity with Bush and alleged “wasteful pork-barrel spending,” such as a much-publicized “bridge to nowhere,” “teapot museum,” swimming pool in California, and tomato farm in Ohio.
On this, Jenkins may seem as borrowing a page from Boyda, who hammered Ryun in 2006 for his links to a House majority that she painted as corrupt and ineffective.
Ryun, who spent five terms in Congress, remains proud of his voting record, generally regarded as one of the most conservative in the House, and says Jenkins is distorting that record with her “pork-barrel” accusations.
“I voted for the transportation bill because it affected Kansas highways,” Ryun told the Globe.
The “bridge to nowhere” was one of various provisions others inserted after his vote in favor of the core bill, he said. He said he voted against the amendment that contained the bridge and, the truth is, the bridge has never been built.
“I have a proven record for voting for lower taxes and fighting for lower taxes,” Ryun said.
But he has not always been in lockstep with President Bush or his own party, he said. Ryun said he voted against the president on the House immigration bill, Medicare Part D and the “No Child Left Behind” program because that’s what Kansans wanted. He said state educators in particular have praised him for standing up against his party on the latter issue.
Both candidates are confident they can regain the seat for Republicans. The district had been regarded as a GOP stronghold and Boyda’s upset was one of the more surprising across the nation in 2006. Most Republicans are quick to attribute Boyda’s close victory to a low turnout, although it also seemed to signal that voters previously loyal to the GOP may have become disenchanted with the party’s direction.
Jenkins and Ryun consequently have been busy trying to address grass-roots support through their campaigns. They report starkly different findings at the grass-roots level.
Ryun, who began running again early in 2007, said the response he gets most often is: “We don’t know why you lost, but we want to see you back in again.”
He believes he may have been hurt by a less-than-formidable ticket two years ago. That will be different this year, he said, with John McCain at the top and Republican Sen. Pat Roberts running for re-election.
Jenkins said Kansans are telling her that Ryun lost touch with them. She believes that people did not vote for Boyda so much as against Ryun.
“His time had come,” Jenkins said. “They felt that he forgot about them and took their votes for granted. Even worse than that, they couldn’t name one thing that he accomplished that affected their personal lives or their families.”
Ryun ticks off several accomplishments over his 10 years in office, including securing 10,000 new military jobs in Kansas and a $500 million annual boost to the state’s economy through the Department of Defense’s Base Realignment and Closure program. More specifically, he helped to bring the 1st Division back to Fort Riley, to strengthen the role of Forbes Field in Topeka and to expand Fort Leavenworth’s role in the military, he said.
He also claims to have led the fight for the $1,000 child tax credit and voted to give average Kansas families $2,000 a year in tax relief. He said he has assisted low-income families by supporting a pay increase and housing projects for military families.
Jenkins points to her record of cutting taxes as a state representative from 1998 to 2000 and as a state senator from 2000 to 2002. As state treasurer, she boasts of her championing of Learning Quest, the state’s education-savings program, and efforts to increase tax deductions for contributions made to the program by both single filers and married couples.
Significant differences have yet to surface between the two candidates on the war in Iraq.
“Regardless of what led us into Iraq,” Jenkins said, “the situation we find ourselves in today is there are crazy people in this world, and they want to harm Americans.”
As long as there are, the U.S. must defend itself, she said. While getting our troops home would be an important goal for her, it cannot be done at any sacrifice to the security of the nation as a whole, she said.
“I support the troops and I look to the generals to decide on the ground what should be done,” Ryun said.
He said concerns with its costs have been and must continue to be balanced by concerns with national security.
Lynn Jenkins
Lynn Jenkins, 45, was born in Holton, Kan., and lives in Topeka. She was elected state treasurer in 2002 and again in 2006. She holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting and economics from Weber State College, and has been a practicing certified public accountant since 1985.
Jim Ryun
Jim Ryun, 61, was born in Wichita, Kan., and lives in Lawrence. He is a former five-term congressman, having served the 2nd Congressional District from 1996 through 2006. Ryun holds a bachelor of arts degree in photojournalism from the University of Kansas, is a former Olympic athlete, and is founder and current president of Jim Ryun Sports Inc.
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