A special legislative session looks increasingly likely for Kansas, although it’s not yet guaranteed.
Senate President Ty Masterson says he has at least 27 signatures from lawmakers in his chamber to proceed. 17th District Senator Mike Argabright of Olpe has not said whether he has signed the official petition.
In the House, Majority Leader Dan Hawkins hasn’t said whether he has the 80 signatures needed to put the special session on the calendar. One vote he’s not getting is from 60th District Representative Mark Schreiber, who tells KVOE News the main issue at play — redrawing the state’s Congressional maps — is a “non-starter” for him.
Starting with Texas and moving to states on both sides of the political spectrum, several other states have already moved this year to redraw Congressional maps and more such conversations are likely ahead.
The other stated goal is to possibly reverse course on gender marker changes for drivers licenses after the Kansas Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, thus letting the Kansas Department of Revenue return to past policy letting people mark their personally identified gender if they choose, rather than their birth gender. Schreiber has been an outlier among Republicans on gender issues, consistently voting against the majority, and he says that won’t change here.
Another concern for Schreiber? Conversations may not be limited to the two stated topics.
13th District Representative Duane Droge of Eureka has not said whether he plans to sign the petition or already have. 76th District Representative Brad Barrett of Osage City has signed the petition, supporting a proposed constitutional amendment to cap annual property assessment increases at 3 percent while not supporting a redraw of Congressional boundary lines at this time.
Schreiber says a decision from the House may well be coming this week with plans already floated to start a special session Nov. 7.
Lyon County has exclusively Republican representation in both the House and Senate. The Statehouse has Republican supermajorities in both chambers.
