By Peter Cohn
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 6

Delegates: 42

Chairman: Tom Sawyer

Hotel: Marina Beach Marriott Resort (Marina Del Rey) (310) 301-3000

1996 Election:
Dole – 54%
Clinton – 36%
Perot – 9%

Kansas was not even on the Democrats' electoral map in 1996, when home-state Republican Bob Dole was the Republican presidential nominee. Dole cruised to a 54 percent to 36 percent win over President Clinton in Kansas.

The Republicans' nomination of Texas Gov. George W. Bush for president this year is not a confidence booster for Kansas Democrats. When the candidate's father, George Bush, was the GOP nominee, he carried the historically Republican farm state by 13 percentage points in 1988 and 5 points in 1992.

But the very long odds against state Democrats' chances of carrying the state for Vice President Al Gore does not mean that party activists are not spoiling for a fight.

Former state Democratic Party Chairman James Parrish contended that George W. Bush "has had one silver spoon handed to him after another," adding, "He doesn't have a clue."

Parrish, now an attorney in Tecumseh, went on to say that if Bush wins, it would "border on a national disgrace."

Kansas Democrats chose their convention delegates on June 17, long after Gore had clinched the nomination, so the vice president has solid support from the state's contingent.

"Gore has a good record on women's issues and Social Security," said attorney Constance Shidler, the Democratic Party treasurer in Johnson County, located in the Kansas City suburbs.

She said she trusted Gore to safeguard the nation's retirement security program, "not the Republicans, who want to waste the surplus on large tax cuts for millionaires."

A similar populist tone was struck by delegate Ivan Dunn, a machinist and union member from Hutchinson. Dunn said he was a Republican until Ronald Reagan's victory for president in 1980, which he contended was the onset of an era of "busting the budget, economic downturn and wasteful spending."

A delegate for former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas in 1992, Dunn is a self-described "strong supporter" of Gore.

Dunn explained that his allegiance to Tsongas stemmed from his concerns that Democratic front-runner Bill Clinton was lacking in morals, and said that the president's recent actions have not disproved Dunn's early impressions.

"Clinton will hand over [to Gore] the mantle of the good things he's done," especially the booming economy, and "leave out the bad parts of his personality" that led to his impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives, said Dunn.

Steven Brown, who works for Sprint Corp. in Prairie Village, a Kansas City suburb, is on the board of directors of the National Stonewall Democratic Federation (NSDF), an organization of gay Democratic activists.

He said he was initially for former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, who ran to Gore's left during his brief bid for this year's Democratic nomination, but changed his mind after Gore agreed to meet with Brown and other NSDF members over coffee at his private residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory.

"Our prime concern from the beginning was to elect a Democrat, because God help us with a Republican in the White House," said Brown, the only openly gay member of the delegation.

He decided to back Gore a week after the December meeting, encouraged by the vice president's stated support for expanded hate crimes legislation and employment protections for gays and lesbians, among other issues.

The Kansas delegation is headed by state party Chairman Tom Sawyer, a former longtime state legislator who, in 1998, made the sacrifice for his party of running against the overwhelmingly popular Republican Gov. Bill Graves - who won a second term by 73 percent to 23 percent.

KANSAS NOTABLES: State Democratic Party Chairman Tom Sawyer, the delegation chairman; former Gov. Joan Finney; state Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley; state House Democratic Leader Jim Garner; state party Secretary Teresa Krusor.