KANSAS CITY (AP) – Kansas City voters have stalled a plan to create a special taxing district to fund expansion of a streetcar line beyond downtown.

Unofficial results from Tuesday’s election showed 60 percent of voters rejecting the proposal for funding to build a streetcar system beyond a two-mile starter route.

The Kansas City Star reported the result means city officials will not put proposed sales and property tax increases to help pay the local share of a $515 million transit plan on November’s ballot.

Mayor Sly James said he was disappointed by the defeat. He said the city will try to find other ways to expand the streetcar line but he conceded that the city currently has no backup plan for pursuing the project.

By Jim McLean
KHI News Service

TOPEKA — Conservative groups failed Tuesday in a coordinated effort to unseat several moderate House Republicans.

The Kansas Chamber and Americans for Prosperity-Kansas funded direct-mail campaigns against Reps. Barbara Bollier, Mission Hills, Stephanie Clayton, Overland Park, Blaine Finch, Ottawa, Russ Jennings, Lakin, Tom Sloan, Lawrence, and Kent Thompson, Iola.
The fliers charged that the moderates had helped advance President Obama’s “radical agenda” by voting against measures to block parts of the Affordable Care Act and repeal the state’s renewable energy standards.

Despite a flood of negative mail in the final weeks of the campaign, all of the targeted members survived their primary challenges, according to final but unofficial results. Several won by wide margins.

Jennings, a former commissioner of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Authority running for a second term in the House, was singled out for his leadership of a coalition of Republicans and Democrats that beat back several attempts to repeal the state’s renewable energy standards.

He said the standards, which require utilities to generate a certain amount of their power from renewable sources, are largely responsible for the development of wind farms in his district and across the state.

“I was punished for voting my district,” Jennings said. “I was No. 1 on their hit list. But I stood my ground for the people of my district, and they got it.”

Jennings garnered 65 percent of the vote in his win over challenger Stan Rice.

Clayton, Finch, Sloan and Thompson all received 60 percent or more in their wins. Bollier received 59 percent in her victory over challenger Neil Melton, a Prairie Village banker.

The moderates got help from several organizations formed to counter the influence of AFP and the chamber, both of which have ties to Wichita-based Koch Industries.

The Kansas Values Institute and the Kansas Traditional Republican Majority political action committee spent thousands on mailers defending the moderates and criticizing their opponents. One targeted at Neil Melton, the Prairie Village banker who challenged Bollier, said he would be nothing more than “another yes man” for lobbyists seeking to dismantle Medicare and cut funding for schools to pay for “more corporate tax breaks.”

The results of this year’s House races sharply contrast with those recorded two years ago in a host of Senate primaries, when the same conservative groups succeeded in defeating several moderate Republicans, including Senate President Steve Morris.

Asked to explain the turnabout, Jennings said, “I think voters may very well have some buyers’ remorse about what happened two years ago.”

Jeff Glendening, executive director of AFP-Kansas, said in an interview prior to the election that the organization’s mail campaigns don’t advocate the election or defeat of particular candidates. Their purpose, he said, is to educate voters about how their representatives are voting on issues critical to preserving the free market and limiting the size and cost of government.

“It’s about getting our issues out,” he said.

Many conservative House incumbents hung on to their seats, but a couple didn’t.

Voters in Geary County didn’t return Allan Rothlisberg for a second term. He lost to Lonnie Clark of Junction City. Clark will face Democrat Tom Brungardt, of Milford, in the November general election.

Also, it appeared that Josh Powell won’t be returning for a second term. Unofficial but final results showed him trailing Topeka attorney Fred Patton by 34 votes. If that margin holds, Patton will face Democrat Christine Huntsman in November for the right to represent that 50th District.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A federal indictment accuses five western Missouri residents of taking part in a $2.6 million conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says the indictment was unsealed Tuesday after several defendants were arrested and made initial court appearances.
The indictment alleges that all five conspired to distribute more than 50 kilograms of meth from January 2010 until last week. Investigators said the scheme brought in $2.6 million.
Thirty-seven-year-old Sabrena Lynn Morgan and 38-year-old Elgin Eugene Dothage are also accused of using their home in Kearney as the distribution center. The other defendants are from Lathrop, Grandview and Kansas City.
The defendants did not have lawyers Tuesday.

SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Thousands of people from around the world are gathering in southwest Missouri for the centennial celebration of the Assemblies of God.

KOLR-TV reports the denomination holds its international congress every three years in a different country. This year’s congress is being held at JQH Arena in Springfield.

Organizers expect about 10,000 people to attend, from the Springfield area and from countries as diverse as Mongolia, India, Switzerland and China.

Nearly 3,000 hotel rooms in the Springfield area have been booked for the gathering, which opened Tuesday and runs through Sunday.

ERIE, Kan- A Kansas man died after a police pursuit and crash just before 8 p.m. on Tuesday in Neosho County.

The Kansas Highway patrol reported a 2008 Chevy Silverado driven by Timothy Wayne Charboneau, 23, Erie, failed to yield to the Erie Police Department southbound on Pryor Road one mile south of Erie.

The truck left the roadway to the right, broke through a guardrail, became airborne and entered the Neosho River where it came to rest on its top.

Charboneau was pronounced dead at the scene. He was transported to Frontier Forensics in Topeka.

Details on what prompted the pursuit have not been released.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas tourism officials are studying the feasibility of developing a $50 million outdoor recreation center near Lawrence that would include whitewater rafting, zip lines and other high-adrenaline activities.

The Lawrence Journal-World  reports Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism officials are hosting leaders of the North Carolina-based U.S. National Whitewater Center this week to see if a project at Clinton Lake State Park is worth pursuing.

Wildlife secretary Robin Jennison says the state needs to be more aggressive in offering nontraditional outdoor activities to keep up with the changing tastes of tourists. He says a Clinton Lake development could also include hiking trails, canoeing and kayaking.

Jennison says the project would be the second-biggest thing the state has done for tourism, behind only the NASCAR track in Wyandotte County.

DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three-term Sen. Pat Roberts dispatched tea party favorite Milton Wolf on Tuesday, adding Kansas to the list of states where tea partyers have tried and failed to knock out Republican Senate incumbents this year.

 

The Senate GOP establishment is now basking in a solid string of wins following triumphs in Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi.

 

Establishment Republicans are upbeat about Thursday’s primary in Tennessee, where they expect two-term Sen. Lamar Alexander to turn back a challenge from state Rep. Joe Carr.

 

Three months to Election Day, the GOP is increasingly optimistic about gaining the six seats necessary to seize control of the Senate, no longer worried that not-ready-for-prime-time candidates will stumble in the general election.

JIM SUHR, Associated Press

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri inmate has been put to death for raping and killing a neighbor in 1995, the first lethal injection in the U.S. since an execution in Arizona went awry last month.

The Missouri Department of Corrections said early Wednesday that Michael Worthington was executed by lethal injection at the state prison and was pronounced dead at 12:11 a.m. He is the seventh Missouri inmate executed this year.

He had been sentenced to death for the 1995 attack on Melinda “Mindy” Griffin during a burglary of her Lake St. Louis condominium.

The U.S. Supreme Court and Missouri’s governor declined to block the execution. Worthington’s attorneys had cited the Arizona execution and two others that were botched in Ohio and Oklahoma, and the secrecy involving the drugs used in Missouri.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An accountant and industry executive has won the Republican nomination for Kansas insurance commissioner.

Ken Selzer, of Leawood, emerged from a field of five candidates in Tuesday’s primary. His nearest rival was Eudora health insurance consultant Beverly Gossage, followed by state Sen. Clark Shultz of Lindsborg.

Selzer will face Democrat and Overland Park businessman Dennis Anderson in the November election.

Three-term Republican Commissioner Sandy Praeger didn’t seek re-election after breaking with most of the GOP and praising the federal health care overhaul.

Selzer is a critic of the law. He is a certified public accountant and an executive managing director of Aon Benfield, a global company providing coverage for insurance companies against catastrophic claims.