by Andy Marso, KHI News Service
Democrats gained enough Kansas House seats in Tuesday’s election to form a coalition with moderate Republicans to pass or block legislation.
But the fate of the Senate will hinge on a handful of Johnson County races that were still outstanding as of 7 a.m. Wednesday. The Kansas Secretary of State’s Office announced around 5 a.m. that counting had been suspended until 9 a.m.
Gov. Sam Brownback and conservative Republican allies have controlled the agenda since moderate Republican leaders were purged from the Senate in 2012.
Tuesday’s results suggest a shift back to the center in the House. Democrats gained at least eight seats throughout the state, increasing their numbers to at least 36. Most of their gains came in districts in or near Wichita and Kansas City. But the party also returned to western Kansas with the election of Eber Phelps, a former House member from Hays who regained a seat.
In one of the more high-profile races, Democrat Tim Hodge defeated former House Appropriations Chairman Marc Rhoades, a Republican from Newton who has been in the House since 2007.
Rep. Jim Ward, a Democrat from Wichita, said it looked like House Democrats and moderate Republicans would hold more than 63 of the 125 House seats.
“Democrats are going to do very well,” Ward said. “You put that with what the moderates did in the (Republican) primary and you’re looking at — at least on some issues like education, tax policy, maybe some budget issues — we may have a working majority.”
With the Johnson County races still outstanding, it was unclear whether such a coalition would have the 85 votes necessary to override a Brownback veto — a possibility raised by Rep. Russ Jennings, a moderate Republican from Lakin who is vying to be the next House speaker.
Five Senate races in Johnson County also could prove to be significant.
Without those results, Democrats had increased their Senate numbers by just one — from eight to nine. They added former school board member Lynn Rogers in a Wichita seat that is being vacated by Sen. Michael O’Donnell, a Republican who ran for the Sedgwick County Commission instead.
Rogers said voters had given him his “marching orders” throughout the campaign.
“What I kept hearing over and over again was that people wanted somebody to represent them that actually represented the 25th District,” Rogers said. “They want to see tax fairness and supporting schools and that sort of thing.”
Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley had said the party should gain three to eight Senate seats, but that proved difficult against the headwinds of a strong showing at the top of the ticket by Donald Trump.
Republicans ran candidates against only four of the Democratic incumbents in the Senate, but two of the Democrats — Sens. Tom Holland and Laura Kelly — had to hold off close challenges by conservative Republicans.
Senate President Susan Wagle, a conservative Republican from Wichita, has worked to unite the caucus after eight moderates flipped conservative Senate seats in the August primary.
One of those moderates, former Rep. Barbara Bollier of Mission Hills, said regardless of how the Senate shakes out, moderates would likely vote with Democrats on some issues and with conservative Republicans on others.
“We will have very different leadership at least in the House,” Bollier said. “It remains to be seen in the Senate. I don’t know how that will change, but it will certainly change, I think, how the votes will go and the swing.”
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