Last night, I received an email from a candidate for Kansas' governorship, asking if I was able to volunteer for the campaign. Given the alternative, I gladly informed the candidate that I will help in any way.
The email was from the campaign of Tom Wiggans, who is running for the seat currently held by Mark Parkinson, who took over as Governor of Kansas when two-term Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius took a promotion - to serve on President Barack Obama's Cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Wiggans' background is in medical science. Born and raised in Fredonia, Kansas, Wiggans comes from a long line of family pharmacists. He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Pharmacy from the University of Kansas, and started a number of pharmaceutical research companies that continue to work to find cures for diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and Lou Gehrig's disease.
That sounds like a very impressive track record in an area where there is currently a lot of political attention.
Compare Wiggans to his competition, current US Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas). Brownback is a known hyperpartisan and anti-abortion zealot who fits the mold of the teabagger movement.
Brownback is one of the "Republicans for Rape" - the thirty Republican Senators who voted against Senator Al Franken's (D-Minnesota) amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill that did not allow defense contractors to take cases of sexual abuse to arbitration - and is famously a member of The Fellowship, also known as C Street or The Family, which is a group is evangelical Christian members of Congress with a twisted view of the message of Christ. Instead of being charitable and helping the poor, The Family preach that Christ wants an elite running the world, and the poor should suffer.
The Family is full of rank hypocrisy. Consider the recent stories of extramarital affairs involving US Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R). Both Ensign and Sanford. who were among the leaders in Congress' impeachment of President Bill Clinton, are connected to The Family.
Also, Kansans need to remember recent history: it wasn't that long ago that Phill Kline, who shares Brownback's extremist views to the point that they are ideological twins, was the state's Attorney General. Kline spent all of his time in office focusing on abortion cases, especially those involving the late Dr. George Tiller, who died this past summer in a domestic terrorist act. Kline now teaches at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.
If what Phill Kline did was controversial, someone like Sam Brownback, who shares his ideology, in the Governor's Mansion would be a thousand times worse.
To find out more about Tom Wiggans and his campaign, go to wiggansforkansas.com.
Comments
Did Tom Wiggans happen to mention that he had just moved back to Kansas this year? Kansas Watchdog has some really good information that shows he had a California address when he was giving money to Barack Obama as well as some Kansas candidates as recently as last October.
Joni, I just got out of the monthly Johnson County Democratic executive board meeting and a good number of my fellow E-board members have valid concerns about Wiggans. I only wrote about his candidacy because he's the first to have contacted me. When and if I hear about other candidates, I'll definitely write about it. For now, though, he has my support because I CANNOT fathom what a Brownback governorship would do to Kansas.
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