Kansas state Sen. Barbara Bollier has never tried to look like something she is not. The Mission Hills Republican votes her district, which is moderate, and speaks her mind, conveying not only talking points but on occasion, original thoughts. Weird, right?
Both parties and our political system as a whole would be better off with more such independent operators.
But we cant say were surprised that Bollier is being punished by her party, which wants to expel her for showing she wont be dictated to.
Shes the kind of freethinking, sensible centrist that Kansas used to specialize in. But that was then.
Her crime, as you may have heard, was openly supporting Johnson County teacher Tom Niermann, a Democrat, over her fellow Kansas Republican, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, in his congressional re-election campaign.
For one thing, she feels that Yoder is not as accountable to constituents as he ought to be, and thinks the district needs someone who will actually talk to the people in the district. Someone more like Dennis Moore, the Democrat Yoder succeeded.
Strike two was that Bollier intends to support her fellow state senator, Democrat Laura Kelly, in this years governors race, if Kelly wins her primary.
That any true political moderate would be on the lookout for an alternative to either leading Republican gubernatorial candidate immigrant-obsessed Kris Kobach, or Jeff Colyer, who served alongside Sam Brownback, whose tax cuts did so much damage, is not exactly a bolt from the blue.
But Bollier had the temerity to be open about all of the above. Strike three.
As a result, shes already been stripped by Senate President Susan Wagle of her leadership role on the Senate Health and Public Welfare Committee. Its always fun to find out you got fired from your job for exercising your First Amendment right, Bollier said.
If elected officials have to fall in line and toe it, too, then public servants are nothing more than puppets of their leadership, and we might as well send robots to Topeka.
The senator has completely exposed herself and we will get her in 2020, Kansas GOP Executive Director Jim Joice wrote on what he thought was a closed Facebook page. And, he said, we will most certainly not be giving anyone who does this s— financial support.
Elegantly stated, sir. But its you who has exposed yourself, and it isnt a pretty sight.
The Kansas City Star
