ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
A Kansas third party, United Kansas, was on hand in Liberal Saturday morning to share information and its platform, and people were able to get a glimpse of those in the meeting’s opening statements.
“We appreciate the opportunity to come into this area and be able to speak about what we feel is a great opportunity not just to one part of the state or another, but across the entirety of Kansas,” United Kansas Chairman Jack Curtis said. “Both of my parents served in the military and instilled in me and my siblings the belief in a strong work ethic, serving others, and figuring out solutions to problems going on. It’s no stretch to say politics in Kansas right now is not working, and this is our solution. It was about two years ago when we began speaking about all the issues going on in government – there are so many, it’s almost too easy to make a list out of the major one. As we discussed all of that, Aaron [Estabrook] asked what we were going to do about everything, because it does no good to just sit around and complain, we have to find a solution. Out of those conversations, the idea of a new political party was born, and we’re looking into making United Kansas a modern party for a modern Kansas. From there, we’ve worked and rallied to find the best candidates possible to do the job at hand, and that’s how we actually met Sally Cauble, who I know is familiar with many people in this area given her roots and her time spent with the Kansas State Board of Education. We came together with the idea of setting up a new party with a new way of doing things to make sure this wonderful state we all call home is able to sustain itself into the future.”
United Kansas Vice Chair Sally Cauble was also on hand to speak.
“I spent 12 years serving on the Kansas State Board of Education, and during that time, I saw politics in action up in Topeka, and I ended up becoming somewhat disillusioned,” Cauble said. “I saw a decline in how Kansas was operating, how we were electing our officials, and how they represented us when they got to Topeka, and all of that disturbed me greatly, particularly when it came to public education. Scott Poor, who serves as the attorney for United Kansas, called me one day and asked ‘Sally, would you like to help us with an initiative? We think it’s time for a new party in Kansas.’ I told him ‘I’m still a registered Republican, but I feel left behind and like I don’t belong anymore.’ And in visiting with many other people, I found many others who are also disillusioned with their political party.”
Overall, Cauble said, the time has come to look at change.
“Change does not have to be bad, it can be a good thing. I read a book titled ‘We Need More Parties’ by Lee Drutman, and in this book, he has a wonderful way of presenting the issue happening in Kansas – with the Republicans, there used to be moderates and conservatives, and with the Democrats, it was about the same,” Cauble said. “But now, the parties seem to be only conservatives and only those on the far left, and there’s nothing for the people who are more in the middle, so there’s no balance anymore in the government. Mr. Drutman talks about how new parties can help with that imbalance. When Scott called me, I told him ‘I’m too old,’ but there’s actually a good mix of older people and newer people working for the party, and it’s great to show how we can be a party for all ages. And all we have to do is take care of business, which is what we’re about.”
Cauble added United Kansas is looking to truly be about the people.
“We’re not about party business, we’re about your business and what you as voters want us to do. We want this party to be for those who vote for our candidates and for those candidates to be able to represent voters instead of the party when they get elected,” Cauble said. “When Scott approached me, I told him ‘I can help on that.’ That’s how I went from being a photo on the Chamber of Commerce calendar wall to standing before this group. I hope we can share our enthusiasm, and I hope everyone is able to hear our message. Maybe there’s someone out there who would like to be a candidate. And I will ask, for those who believe you have to stick with a party in order to vote in the primaries, how’s that working out for you? That day and age is gone, and it’s not going to come back in Kansas, so we need to be smarter, we need to think outside the box, and this is a way we have come up with in order to do that.”
