In a storyline that is hard to make up, Kansas Republicans may be facing a fairly minor fight on their hands. Ray Merrick, famous for yesterday saying this:
“Government employees produce nothing. They’re a net consumer. And you got that cost forever and ever and ever because they’re on the KPERS (pension) plan, they’re on all the government insurance and everything,” Merrick said. “That is employment to Democrats. Hire more (government employees). And that was Kathleen; she’d brag about her employment number, ‘Oh, I got a lot of people employed.’ Yeah, you got a lot more government employees employed. That doesn’t stimulate the economy.”
http://www.kansas.com/...
Finds himself challenged for Speaker of the House. After all, if you start making statements like that, you know you'll face challenges. The issue is, he's being challenged from.. I guess his right? Or maybe somewhere off the table in this comparison.
Virgil Peck has decided to Challenge for Leadership. In case you've forgotten, this is Virgil Peck:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
State Rep. Virgil Peck made the explosive remarks Monday during a debate on how best to control 500 feral swine in Kansas.
"Looks like to me, if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a (solution) to our illegal immigration problem," he said, according to The Wichita Eagle.
GOP Rep. Marc Rhoades condemned the remarks during the discussion by the state's House Appropriations Committee.
"I know that the preface to your question was an attempt at humor, but I would ask that in the future you refrain from comments that could be deemed inappropriate," said Rhoades, the committee chairman.
Peck was unapologetic.
"I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person," he told the Lawrence Journal World, adding that his constituents are upset with the state and federal response to illegal immigration.
Democrats at the time demanded he step aside and resign his seat.
http://www.kansas.com/...
Still, Peck proved his point by winning his general election in House District 30 with 70% of the vote.
http://www.kansas.com/...
Peck is unlikely to win as Speaker of the House, a seat that Merrick is an almost lock to hold but the fact that there is such a wide array of Republicans - from moderates we see here in Kansas City to potentially bordering on homicidal mania - to merit a challenge may be the kind of thing that makes Kansas Politics 2014 interesting - in all the wrong ways.