Kansas GOP wants Gov. Kelly to meet in the middle, but only shoots from the far right | Opinion

Ty Masterson is feeling cranky about Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.

Kelly’s veto pen is running hot these days — she has vetoed 15 bills during this session of the Kansas Legislature, the most of any governor in three decades. Masterson, the Republican Kansas Senate president, says that means the governor has broken her promise to govern from the middle.

“As Joe Biden prepares to launch his reelection bid, it is apparent that the governor seems to be following in his footsteps by doing whatever the radical left asks of her, rather than honoring her pledge to meet us in the middle,” Masterson said this week.

That’s a remarkable charge. It’s also pure nonsense.

Most human beings understand “meeting in the middle” to involve some movement by both sides. I want what I want and you want what you want, and then we both give up a little bit so that we can come to some acceptable common ground.

In what sense, then, have Kansas Republicans kept their end of meeting in the middle?

Was it when they passed legislation targeting the tiny number of transgender student-athletes in the state, even though Kelly won reelection last fall against a GOP gubernatorial candidate who made that non-issue the flagship of his campaign?

Was it when they passed a so-called “flat tax” bill that would deliver its biggest benefits to the richest Kansans while potentially setting the state up for a repeat of the fiscal crisis that dominated the tenure of Gov. Sam Brownback?

Or maybe it was when they approved an effort to defund Kansas public schools — and weaken the communities that rely on them — by diverting money to families that would rather send their kids to private schools or educate their kids at home?

What exactly has the GOP given up? How has the party modified its agenda to find some bit of common ground with Kelly?

With Masterson leading the way, Republicans in the Kansas Legislature have governed in 2023 as if there isn’t actually a Democrat sitting in the governor’s office — as if they have unbroken authority to do exactly what they want without any need to consider the opposition.

And maybe they don’t need to. After all, they have a veto-proof majority in both the House and Senate. If Republicans can keep their team together — always a big question, not always answered in their favor — they really can pass whatever laws they like without bothering to consider how Kelly might react.

But in doing so, they’re ignoring the message that Kansas voters have been sending for more than a generation.

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Kansans are more moderate than our “red state” reputation suggests. Kelly’s election and reelection weren’t outliers — Democrats regularly win the governor’s office in this state. Conservatives rarely do.

Brownback was the only conservative Republican to win a majority of gubernatorial votes in the last 30 years, and that was only during his first term. (Bill Graves won two terms comfortably, but he was decidedly a moderate.) The right’s standard-bearers — men like David Miller, Tim Shallenburger and Kris Kobach — have taken their shot at Cedar Crest and missed.

Of course, the same electorate that keeps rejecting conservative gubernatorial candidates has also empowered a Kansas Legislature that is dominated by the right. That could say something about the GOP’s ability to draw legislative maps to its advantage. Or it might suggest that voters are confused about what they really want from their state government.

Or maybe it just means that Kansas voters really do want their leaders to meet in the middle.

It takes two to tango, but Ty Masterson and Kansas Republicans don’t really have much interest in the dance. They presented the governor with a “take or leave it” agenda from the far right’s wish list.

She left it, and now they’re trying to paint her as a radical. Don’t be fooled.