BY TIM CARPENTER
TOPEKA — A statewide opinion survey by Fort Hays State University reported Tuesday a narrow majority of Kansans were satisfied with the performance of Gov. Laura Kelly and two-thirds of respondents felt the state’s economy was on the right track.
The survey conducted Sept. 19 to Oct. 2 and involving 520 adult residents didn’t reveal how participants might have assessed the work of Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who is challenging Kelly on Nov. 8 in the campaign for governor. The Docking Institute of Public Affairs did pose dozens of public policy questions in the latest edition of “Kansas Speaks.”
In the survey, 50.4% said they were satisfied with Kelly’s performance as governor, while 36.1% said they were dissatisfied with the Democrat. Thirty-one percent endorsed actions of the Kansas Legislature, but a higher portion — 33.5% — expressed displeasure with the Republican-led House and Senate. President Joe Biden, who defeated former President Donald Trump in 2020 but lost in Kansas, was lauded by 32.6% of respondents with 57.2% sharing dissatisfaction with the current president.
Sixty-six percent of Kansans taking part in the survey said the state was on the “right track” in terms of the economy and 34% said they believed the opposite.
However, 46.1% said elements of the Kansas economy were under greater stress, an increase from 33% last year. Thirty-five percent were of the opinion the state’s economy hit a plateau and 18.4% felt it was getting stronger.
“With continuing inflation and persistent declines in the stock market since December, the positive rating of the Kansas economy has slipped somewhat in comparison to the 2021 Kansas Speaks survey,” said survey co-author Jian Sun.
Election security
Secretary of State Scott Schwab, Schmidt, Kelly and a bipartisan collection of Kansas politicians have argued the state’s elections were fair and accurate. Others, including former Secretary of State Kris Kobach, raised alarms about security of the voting process.
Just under seven in 10 people surveyed by the Docking Institute said they were confident the system accurately documented winners and losers of political races across the state. Less than 8% said they lacked confidence in accuracy of a Kansas election system that relied on computer technology and paper ballots to record voters’ preferences.
The survey showed 30.5% of respondents concluded ballot drop boxes ought to be banned by the Legislature, but 45.4% said such reform would be a mistake. The opinion gap was wider when people were asked about abolishing mail-in balloting. Twenty-six percent favored a ban on mail voting, while 53.8% said there was no reason to end the practice.
Fourteen percent of people sharing their views in the survey said illegal immigrants were voting in Kansas elections. Twelve percent said they felt government had made voting too difficult.
In addition, 11.6% said “state or local election officials in Kansas committed election fraud to alter election outcomes.”
Schoolhouse issues
Two-thirds said K-12 schools in their communities were safe. Forty-eight percent said parents had the “right amount of influence in public education,” while 27.5% said parents didn’t have the correct level of input.
More than 81% said it was important for schools to provide instruction in social and emotional development. Seventy-eight percent favored teaching racial and ethnic history at the high school level, with support for such instruction fell to 70.6% for middle school students and to 55.1% for elementary students.
A mere 16.1% said they would welcome a prohibition on shelving “certain types” of books in high school libraries, but support for that expanded to 28.3% for middle school libraries and 37.1% for elementary school libraries. In Kansas, there has been a surge in public challenges to use in schools of books about sexual development and race relations.
The statewide survey said 66.7% of Kansans believed high school athletes should compete in sports on basis of their gender at birth. Only 16.1% disagreed with that view.
The issue has been extensively debated in the Legislature. Kelly vetoed a bill blocking transgender women and girls from taking part in organized sports. Schmidt said he would sign legislation banning transgender girls or women from competing against individuals declared female at birth.
Abortion regulations
More than 57% of adults surveyed by the Docking Institute agreed state government shouldn’t place any regulations on “the circumstances under which women can get abortions.” The opposite view was held by 28.6% of those surveyed.
In the August primary, Kansas voters decisively rejected a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would nullify a Kansas Supreme Court decision that found the state’s Bill of Rights guaranteed women bodily autonomy and access to abortion. The constitutional amendment failed in blue-state Kansas by 172,000 votes, with 59.1% opposed and 40.8% supportive.
Among the survey’s participants, 44.9% voted against the abortion amendment, 22% voted for it and 33.2% didn’t cast a primary ballot.
Seven of 10 responding to the survey said women were in a better position than politicians to make choices about whether a person received an abortion. Only 14.8% said politicians had the best vantage point to decide who could get an abortion.
Sixty percent said the Legislature shouldn’t follow a ban on abortion with a law forbidding women to travel to other states for the procedure. Three-fourths said if Kansas banned abortions they wouldn’t contact authorities to report a woman suspected of having an illegal procedure or to report that person’s medical provider. The same number said state government, not local government, ought to pay the cost of prosecuting anyone accused of violating an abortion ban.
Medicaid: No surprise
Meanwhile, more than half of respondents said the question of expanding eligibility for Medicaid was highly or extremely important to their decisions when voting for representation in the Legislature. The Legislature approved a bill to broaden eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, but that was vetoed in 2017 by Gov. Sam Brownback.
Since then, the House and Senate haven’t agreed on an expansion bill due to opposition by some Republicans.
Kelly has urged the Legislature to approve a Medicaid reform measure and vowed to introduce a fifth expansion proposal in January. Schmidt, her GOP rival, stands as a “skeptic” of Medicaid changes under the federal Affordable Care Act. The law requires the federal government to cover 90% of the cost of expanded services. So far, 38 states and the District of Columbia expanded Medicaid.
The Docking Institute survey said 71.9% supported expanding Medicaid, which was consistent with previous polling in Kansas. Three-fourths said expansion would strengthen financial foundations of rural Kansas hospitals.
“Support for Medicaid expansion in Kansas remains high, with again over 70% supporting it this year,” said Brett Zollinger, Docking Institute director and survey co-author.