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How a tech-savvy grandma is trying to lead Kansas Democrats out of the wilderness [SPEW!]
Yahoo! News ^ | 10/21/14 | Holly Bailey

Posted on 10/31/2014 3:52:18 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows

TOPEKA, Kan. — Four years ago, Joan Wagnon was a 70-year-old grandmother preparing to retire after decades of public service. A centrist Democrat long credited as blazing the way for women in politics in Kansas, she spent 12 years in the state Legislature and four years as mayor of Topeka — the first and only woman to hold the job. After eight years as state secretary of revenue, Wagnon was preparing to hang it up when "the massacre" happened.

On Election Day 2010, Sam Brownback, a two-term, hard-line conservative U.S. senator and a 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, won the governorship in a landslide. It was part of a historic GOP sweep in the state in which Democrats lost every statewide office, every race for Congress and more than a dozen seats in the state Legislature. Out of the 125 state House districts, Democrats went from 49 seats to just 33, a historic low.

Around the state, Democrats were stunned and demoralized. While Kansas was considered among the reddest of red states, a place where the GOP had long ago claimed a clear advantage in voter registration, many elected Democrats had survived the political shift because of crossover support from moderate Republicans who voted their gut instead of the party line. With that support seemingly gone, many people wrote off the Democratic Party for dead.

But Wagnon, a nurturing but no-nonsense woman who has the get-it-done air of a Girl Scout leader, just couldn't believe that Democrats would roll over and die. Where was their fight, she wanted to know. Wagnon knew firsthand that it was possible to overcome long odds in Kansas. She'd run and won as a proud Democrat decades earlier in a conservative state where many still believed a woman's place was in the home...

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Politics/Elections; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: 2014election; abortion; deathpanels; demagogicparty; edklumpp; election2014; flushwagnon; hollybailey; jimgardner; joanwagnon; johnalcala; kansas; libertarians; medicalmarijuana; memebuilding; msnbc; newsweek; obamacare; orvillejohnson; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; sambrownback; vicmiller; zerocare
I wonder if Yahoo reported this hagiography to the FEC as an in-kind contribution?
1 posted on 10/31/2014 3:52:18 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows
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To: Slings and Arrows
But Wagnon, a nurturing but no-nonsense woman who has the get-it-done air of a Girl Scout leader...

Damn. Laying it on a bit thick, are we?

2 posted on 10/31/2014 3:53:43 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Billthedrill

The author’s going to need a new set of kneepads.


3 posted on 10/31/2014 3:55:41 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: Slings and Arrows

This is what her fellow Rats did to her:

Several council members said they were upset over an incident early Wednesday involving a female mannequin being placed outside the mayor’s office door at city hall with its head inside a toilet seat ring.

The mannequin and toilet seat originally had been part of a lawn display by Topekan Orville Johnson, a frequent critic of Mayor Joan Wagnon. Accompanying his display, which had the figure head-down in a complete toilet fixture, was a sign proclaiming, “Flush Wagnon.”

Deputy Police Chief Ed Klumpp confirmed that Councilman John Alcala had confessed to him that he had placed the items outside Wagnon’s city hall office door and that he had been accompanied by Councilman Jim Gardner and Shawnee County Commissioner Vic Miller. The three elected officials have had a rancorous relationship with Wagnon


4 posted on 10/31/2014 4:03:19 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: lacrew

I love red-on-red casualties.


5 posted on 10/31/2014 4:06:19 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: Slings and Arrows
Four years ago, Joan Wagnon was a 70-year-old grandmother preparing to retire after decades of public service. A centrist Democrat....

Today, she is a 74-year old who thinks infanticide and dependence upon government is just peachy.

6 posted on 10/31/2014 4:06:41 PM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: Slings and Arrows

the author...representing Newsweek on MSNBC

7 posted on 10/31/2014 4:10:19 PM PDT by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: Slings and Arrows

The democrats are Marxists, the same folks brought us the killing fields of Cambodia, North Korea, Cuba and the Siberian gulags of the USSR.


8 posted on 10/31/2014 4:11:00 PM PDT by exnavy (Fish or cut bait ...Got ammo, Godspeed!)
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To: Slings and Arrows

Two of the perpetrators in the story have moved to bigger and better things.

Alcala is a state representative now. And Miller is a judge!


9 posted on 10/31/2014 4:14:41 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: Slings and Arrows

She also worked overtime for three years to meet the five year plan at the Ptertozavodsk tractor factory.

10 posted on 10/31/2014 4:22:26 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: BookmanTheJanitor

Ah! Now I understand.


11 posted on 10/31/2014 4:59:52 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: SoFloFreeper

Don’t they all?


12 posted on 10/31/2014 5:00:27 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: exnavy

You say that like its a bad thing.


13 posted on 10/31/2014 5:01:07 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: lacrew

Oh joy.


14 posted on 10/31/2014 5:01:39 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: Vince Ferrer

She’s Workerwomaaaaaaan!


15 posted on 10/31/2014 5:02:59 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: Slings and Arrows
"a two-term, hard-line conservative U.S. senator and a 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, ..."

He's a "hard line" conservative. That's just awful.
Of course Obama and his communist Democrats are never, ever "hard line." They are all bipartisan, compromising, understanding, compassionate politicians with the nation's best interests at heart.

16 posted on 10/31/2014 5:03:35 PM PDT by StormEye
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To: Slings and Arrows
"a two-term, hard-line conservative U.S. senator and a 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, ..."
17 posted on 10/31/2014 5:03:53 PM PDT by StormEye
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To: StormEye

The Left thought Nixon was a hard-line conservative. “Conservative” is just their word for “bad.”


18 posted on 10/31/2014 5:06:32 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("Clappin' the Blues (remix)" [slightly NSFW] - http://youtu.be/p9d2iHSfRmE)
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To: BookmanTheJanitor

kind of has a Sandra FLuke to her


19 posted on 10/31/2014 5:20:53 PM PDT by Nifster
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