If you read my previous post about my friend Jim, let me tell you about another Kansas Jim who is the kind of candidate that my friend might have voted for in previous elections, a Democrat challenging a conspiracy-crazed incumbent member of the Kansas House
in a rural district that is heavily Republican. Jim Vathauer’s District 64 includes all of northern Riley County and to the west, including Ogden.
Jim Vathauer's calm and caring demeanor and soft voice reminds one of Dwight D. Eisenhower. And I suspect that - had the two ever met - their views of citizenship and democracy would have comported nicely. In Ike’s time it wasn’t necessary for a politician to work as hard as Jim and his campaign have done to reach every voter in KS 64. But it is likely to pay off at a time when the incumbent president has so badly damaged the farm economy.
We all need to know and support Jim Vathauer, and hope that some of the
Republicans in his district, those who blindly followed their party that strayed so far from conservative, traditional Kansas values finally recognize a real Kansan when they see one.
