Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas Will Be Nominated as Religious Ambassador
July 27, 2017 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
In the ambassadorship, Mr. Brownback would lead the Office of International Religious Freedom, which is under the umbrella of the State Department and charged with promoting religious freedom as a foreign policy objective.
Mr. Brownback’s popularity has plummeted in recent years as the state slashed services and struggled to meet its revenue projections, problems that many attributed to Mr. Brownback’s signature tax-cutting doctrine. Despite Republicans’ dominance in Kansas, the party suffered losses in last year’s legislative elections.
Kansas lawmakers rolled back Mr. Brownback’s tax policies this year, with Democrats and moderate Republicans banding together to override the governor’s veto and raise taxes. Mr. Brownback has also clashed with some members of his own party on Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which he vetoed this year.
Mr. Brownback’s policies were seen as a test of the Republican doctrine that lowering the tax burden on businesses would attract employers to the state and help the economy grow. It was being closely watched by conservatives across the country to see how it might affect Kansas. But the growth never came.
Mr. Brownback will leave Kansas at a time of uncertainty over funding for public education. The Kansas Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on the constitutionality of the state’s new school funding mechanism.
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“He leaves behind a legacy of failed leadership,” said State Representative Melissa Rooker, a moderate Republican who has frequently opposed Mr. Brownback’s policies. She said she did not know what to expect from Mr. Colyer, a Republican and an ally of Mr. Brownback’s, because he was not involved in the day-to-day dealings of the Legislature.
Representative Jim Ward, the Democratic leader in the Kansas House, said he was “not surprised” to hear of the appointment, which has been rumored in Topeka for months.
“I’m not going to miss him,” Mr. Ward said. “He has left a state in carnage and destruction.”
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Mr. Ward said that he believed the governor “had the background” for his new role, but that “he hasn’t embraced diversity” consistently in Kansas. “Hopefully, this job that he’ll step into, he’ll realize that Americans are of all kinds of faith,” Mr. Ward said.
Representative Ron Ryckman Jr., a Republican and the House speaker, said Mr. Brownback was “uniquely qualified” for the ambassadorship. “I wish him all the best in his new post and would like to express my gratitude for his extensive service to the State of Kansas,” he said.
Kris Kobach, the Republican secretary of state, who is running to succeed Mr. Brownback, said, “He is the first truly conservative governor that Kansas has had in the last 40 years, and so he definitely made history in that respect.”
Mr. Kobach added, “On the other hand, though, he faced a real battle at the end to preserve the tax cuts, and I wish he had won.”
In announcing the intended nomination, the White House noted that Mr. Brownback, a former United States senator and congressman, “worked actively on the issue of religious freedom in multiple countries and was a key sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.”
Mr. Brownback, a father of five who comes from a farming family, has also been a lawyer, a state secretary of agriculture and a one-time presidential candidate.
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