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Published October 13, 2008 11:37 pm - TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican Lynn Jenkins has made her vocal support for President Bush’s tax relief policies the center of her campaign to unseat Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda in the 2nd Congressional District. As a legislator, Jenkins voted for what critics called the state’s largest tax increase to close a shortfall in Kansas’ budget. But as a congressional candidate, Jenkins signed a pledge to oppose higher taxes. In Kansas 2nd District, GOP hopeful championing Bush cuts The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. — Republican Lynn Jenkins has made her vocal support for President Bush’s tax relief policies the center of her campaign to unseat Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda in the 2nd Congressional District. As a legislator, Jenkins voted for what critics called the state’s largest tax increase to close a shortfall in Kansas’ budget. But as a congressional candidate, Jenkins signed a pledge to oppose higher taxes. Jenkins has tied her campaign to a bread-and-butter issue for the GOP nationwide: making permanent the tax cuts that President Bush successfully pushed through Congress during his first term. “If I’m elected, I will make that my first priority,” Jenkins said during a recent interview. “These provisions — a long time ago — should have been made permanent.” Many Democrats, however, want to allow the tax cuts to expire. They contend voters want Congress to focus on tax relief for the middle class and small businesses and shrink federal budget deficits. Last week, Jenkins launched a television ad saying Boyda had supported “the largest tax increase in history,” a reference to votes by Boyda in 2007 and 2008 for budgets that would have let the Bush tax cuts expire. Boyda and other Democrats contend such arguments are unfair and have worn thin with voters. Boyda has said repeatedly that she supports tax relief for the middle class but believes the federal government must get its budget in order, too. She and fellow Democrats also suggest GOP arguments ring hollow because the Bush-backed tax policies championed by Jenkins don’t start expiring until October 2010. “What she’s saying is that, if I don’t cook dinner for my family for a week from Wednesday, I’m a bad mother,’” Boyda said during an interview. Boyda defeated five-term GOP Rep. Jim Ryun in 2006, riding a national wave of discontent with Bush and the war in Iraq. Jenkins served in the Kansas House and Senate before beginning the first of her two terms as state treasurer in January 2003. The race in the 2nd District, which covers most of eastern Kansas, is arguably the state’s hottest this year. Voter registration in the district is 3-to-2 in favor of the Republicans, and Jenkins describes it as a tossup. Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said taxes remain an important issue for voters across the nation. “It’s reinforced by what’s going on in the economy,” Ayres said. “Raising taxes would make an already weak economy worse and create real political problems for anyone promoting the idea.” Republicans’ argue allowing Bush’s policies to expire represents a tax increase because individuals and businesses would pay more money than they do now. The Congressional Budget Office projected in March that the difference would be $1.27 trillion from 2011 through 2015. 
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