St. Francis woman wins educational post

A St. Francis woman has been elected to the Kansas School Board of Education and a request for a 20 cent mill levy for the Rawlins County Health Center was defeated in the Kansas primary election Tuesday.

Connie Morris, a teacher from St. Francis received 60 percent of the votes for the 5th District seat with all precincts reporting. Incumbent and Board Chairman Sonny Rundell of Syracuse received only 40 percent of the votes.

In her campaign, Morris proposed barring the children of illegal immigrants from attending public schools, saying the cost of educating them was draining away state tax dollars. A Department of Education attorney said a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a Texas case would prevent the state from keeping illegal immigrants' children out of school.

"I'm aware of it, and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Morris responded.

Rawlins County voters defeated a request from the Rawlins County Health Center to increase its mill levy to 20 cents for 2003 and a 6-14 cent mill levy for 2004, 2005 and 2006 to fund operations of the facility. The vote was 791 against the increase to 568 in favor of the increased tax.

In the Cheyenne County race for County Commissioner, District 1, Republican incumbent Jane Brubaker defeated challengers Sam Beeson and Richard Bursch with 44 percent of the votes, compared to 28 percent for Beeson and 27 percent for Bursch.

Pat Glen, Republican incumbent for Decatur County Commissioner, received 177 votes compared to challenger Doyle Fredrickson with 80.

And in the Rawlins County race for County Commissioner, District 1, incumbent Charles Unger received 53 percent of the votes compared to challenger Chad Hayes with 46 percent. In the state-wide race, Tom Shallenberger and David Lindstrom received 42 percent of the votes in the gubernatorial race, soundly defeating opponents Bob Knight and kent Glasscock who received 27 percent of the votes, Dave kerr and Mary Birch, also with 27 percent of the votes and Dan Bloom and Eric Bloom garnering only two percent of support.

Phil Kline took the lead for the Republican race for State Attorney General taking 49 percent of the votes compared to David Adkins with 38 percent an Charles D. McAtee with 12 percent.

In the State Treasurer race, Republican Lynn Jenkins took 128,579 of the 223,490 votes, and Dennis Wilson received 94, 911.

Sandy Praeger walked away with the race for State Commissioner of Insurance with 55 percent of the votes.

Bryan Riley received 26 percent and David Powell received 17 percent.

Pat Roberts soundly defeated Tom Oyler in the Republican race for U.S. Senator taking 83 percent of the 234,004 votes.

Results from state wide elections had 88 percent of the precincts reporting. Local elections include information from 100 percent of the precincts.