By John Celock
HUTCHINSON, Ks. – Kansas’ leading anti-gay lawmaker may have switched parties earlier this year and now she’s facing off against a new challenger from her former party.
Democrat Brian Davis is gearing up for what he sees as a winnable race against state Rep. Jan Pauls (R-Hutchinson). Known for her anti-gay and pro-life views, Pauls announced in May that she was becoming a Republican after two decades as a Democratic lawmaker. Pauls said at the time that the Democratic Party had moved away from embracing conservative lawmakers.
Davis, who is backed by the Kansas Equality Coalition, a longtime Pauls opponent, told The Celock Report that he ran because Hutchison was lacking in representation in state government.
“I was approached by folks to run against Jan Pauls,” Davis said. “The more I started looking around at the district, the more I saw how disenfranchised we were. People don’t know who their legislator is and if they do, they are not happy with her.”
Davis comes into the race as Pauls makes her first run for office as a Republican. Top GOP leaders embraced Pauls, a former judge, when she joined the party. She had repudiated the Democrats at the time, saying her former party had given power to “those who advocate for abortion, the homosexual agenda, and even gun control.” While Pauls has been known for pro-labor views, she has long been one of the most socially conservatives lawmakers in Topeka. She has been credited with keeping the state’s sodomy ban in place and has been vocal in opposition to equality and abortion issues. She raised eyebrows in 2012 when after redistricting put her home in another district, she declared an abandoned church she owned in her long time district as her legal residence. A state board ruled that she could declare the church her legal residence.
Davis was quick to point out that he is the opposite of Pauls in the social department.
“What happens in someone’s bedroom is their business,” he said during an interview last month at his renovated loft blocks from Hutchinson’s downtown business corridor. “A woman’s right to make decisions about her body is between her and her doctor. I am 100 percent opposite of Jan Pauls on those issues.”
Davis said that with social issues rarely coming up when he talks to voters in this 42,000-person community an hour northwest of Wichita, he is surprised Pauls has made them a focal point.
“She’s so public about it,” Davis said of Pauls’ LGBT views. “It is like it is a stamp of pride for her. I’ve never once come across anybody who is that bigoted and that publicly bigoted about it.”
While Pauls enters the race with two decades of legislative experience, she also comes in after a narrow Democratic primary win in 2012 over Erich Bishop, the openly gay son of a former Ku Klux Klan member who was also backed by the Equality Coalition. Davis is viewed as a stronger candidate than Bishop. She easily defeated pro-gay, pro-choice Republican Dakota Bass in the 2012 general election.
Pauls did not return messages left by The Celock Report for comment on the campaign.
Davis said that while he is opposed to Pauls’ social views, he is not making it a focal point of his campaign. He indicated that economic and business issues are a top platform, including his opposition to Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) tax cuts. Brownback and the Republican-controlled state Legislature have passed large tax cuts, including to business taxes, saying that it would stimulate the state economy. Democrats have argued that the tax cuts have caused a budget crisis in the state, while Republicans argue that the cuts will grow state revenues with increased business creation.
“The experiment that Sam Brownback has put in place has failed and failed,” Davis said. “A lot of people say that the property taxes have gone up because of the tax cuts.”
Davis’ views are similar to many Democrats statewide, including Democratic gubernatorial nominee Paul Davis, the state House minority leader. Democrats have argued that declining state revenues have caused state cutbacks to local government, including in the area of education. Republicans say that they have increased state education aid, above cuts implemented by Brownback’s two Democratic predecessors. Brownback released a second term economic plan on Tuesday touting job and business creation in his first term.
Davis said that if he defeats Pauls he will focus on new state revenue streams and wants to fight for increased state aid to education. He noted he wants to diversify the state’ energy plan, with increased investment in wind energy and implement “fairness in taxation.”
Living blocks from Hutchinson’s downtown retail corridor, he said that he wants to reverse the decline in retail and jobs in the city. He said that he is concerned about young adults leaving Hutchison for other parts of the state and country and wants to create jobs to keep them in Hutchison and Reno County. Among these are expanding technology related jobs.
“There are a lot of empty buildings here in Hutchison and it is ideal for a tech company,” Davis said. “You need things for young people here to get the tech companies. The stuff you have in Wichita and Kansas City. Things to get young people here to stay.”