Kansas State Senator Chris Steineger, a Democrat from Kansas City, has reached out to the “other side” several times this year. He spoke at Americans For Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit in Wichita in January (see Kansas Senator Chris Steineger on Redesigning Kansas Government.). On April 15, he spoke at the tea party protest in Overland Park.
Kansas blogger Jason Croucher in his Kansas Jackass post KS-Gov: Chris Steineger Takes in a Tea Party, mildly criticized Steineger for his tea party appearance. The comments left to this post, however, were vicious.
Today Croucher publishes a message from Steineger in the post Steineger Addresses Concerns Over Tea Part [sic] Attendance. The senator might as well stop trying to reason with the rabid leftists who leave most of the comments on the Kansas Jackass blog. They weren’t persuaded.
Here’s a comment that provides a sampling of the sentiment: “My understanding is he spends most of the time going after government spending, particularly the Statehouse renovations. I’m not sure how that builds the Democratic party.” At least this person is honest in recognizing the role that government spending plays for Democrats.
As it happened, Senator Steineger had invited me to breakfast last Friday. He’s a reasonable person, I found, and we had agreement on some issues. I appreciate his efforts to reform Kansas government by reducing the number of counties and legislators, which I had written about in the posts Kansas Senator Chris Steineger on Redesigning Kansas Government and Redesigning Kansas County Government: Follow-up.
Steineger has publicly expressed his interest in being appointed lieutenant governor. Mark Parkinson would do Kansas a favor by selecting him.
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