by Martin Hawver
There
will be no ceremonial clocking-out with his timecard for Gov. Sam
Brownback, but at 3 p.m. Wednesday Brownback officially resigns and Lt.
Gov. Jeff Colyer ascends to the governorship with a swearing-in ceremony
in the Statehouse and he gets to start being the face of Kansas—or
hoping he is.
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| Martin Hawver |
That
swearing-in is going to mean a dramatic change in lifestyle for Colyer,
who has been a dutiful lieutenant governor. “Dutiful” for a lieutenant
governor means don’t speak first, don’t criticize the boss, and don’t
stand between the governor and press cameras.
It’s
a major shift and Colyer has said there will be a “different tone” in
the governorship, maybe in the whole state, when he is sworn-in. He’s
not saying just days away from his swearing-in what that different tone
is going to be, or even whether he liked the tone when Brownback was
governor, just that it’s going to change.
But
it’s for sure that after Colyer takes the oath and moves across the
hall into the big office with its own bathroom that he is going to have
to make Kansans aware that he’s the governor now, things are different,
and that there are things he wants to do for Kansans that haven’t been
done before.
And he also needs to quickly announce some noticeable—and for his political future—attractive changes in Kansas.
Because
after he takes that oath, it’s all about winning the crowded Republican
primary election and then the general election to get a term of his
own.
Now,
while he and Brownback have said that they worked together on the
budget for the remainder of this fiscal year and next, most Statehouse
regulars think that Colyer within days of taking the new office will
have some amendments to the Brownback/Colyer budget released earlier
this month.
Little
things, presumably, though Colyer is going to have to quickly do
something attractive for the K-12 budget. Brownback said he wants to
spend $600 million over five years to increase school funding. That’s a
long time and spread out as it was proposed, even lawmakers who like the
tone of the proposal don’t know where they’ll get the money for it.
It’s
the time for a new governor/candidate must come up with some ideas that
are his own and that mark him as leading the state, not just filling
out the term.
Those
new ideas— “tones?” –are what the crowd at the swearing-in is going to
be listening for. Nobody’s looking for massive tax changes, either up
or down, with revenues from last year’s income tax increases still
uncertain…or when they’ll show up in the state treasury.
There
are little things that might appeal to the voting public that he can
propose as indicators of the Colyer leadership tone. Whether it’s naming
bridges after former state leaders/heroes, or requiring safer helmets
for high school football players, or knee-length cheerleader skirts,
there are relatively cheap initiatives out there.
But
at 3 p.m. Wednesday, we start seeing a new Colyer, and his GOP primary
opponents are going to be busy discarding whatever he comes up with and
labeling him “Brownback 2.0” for campaign purposes. Likely those GOP
primary opponents and Democratic candidates for governor can agree on
that tactic.
Key
is that Colyer is going to have to move quickly to amass a body of work
this legislative session that he can call his own and take credit for
or find something in the Brownback/Colyer budget that he can say he
didn’t really care for and wants credit for changing.
The new tone? We’ll see whether Kansans start humming it or not…
Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver's Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com
