How they voted: HCR 5003
The Kansas Legislature has just voted on and passed HCR 5003, a resolution that places an amendment on the August, 2022 primary ballot in Kansas. If more than half of the people who vote in that election vote in favor, it will explicitly remove from the Kansas Constitution the right of all Kansans to makes their own reproductive health choices.
Read moreTestimony opposing new limits to absentee voting in KS
This is the testimony Mainstream is presenting to the Kansas House Elections Committee on January 28, 2021, opposing HB 2054, a bill that would put new limits on how Kansans can return their mail-in ballots, making voting more difficult despite our KS Secretary of State saying there was no fraud in our elections, and no major changes to election law were needed.
Read moreThese are the days of Action Alerts
The Kansas Legislature is rapidly pushing through bills Leadership has prioritized for the Session, in the hopes of getting them completed before COVID-19 shortens or interrupts their work. The irony of course, is that even with this pressure, Leadership also refuses to require mask wearing by legislators, or mandate infection disclosures.
Read moreTestimony opposing amendment to strip the rights of women from the Kansas Constitution
This is a copy of the testimony presented by the Mainstream Coalition opposing HCR 5003/SCR 1602 to the House Federal and State Affairs Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 15, 2021. These resolutions would place on a ballot an amendment to the Kansas Constitution explicitly stripping the right of reproductive choice from Kansas women, instead giving that choice to legislators.
Read moreAmendment Confirms Legislature's Conservative Turn
It took just a few days for the Kansas Legislative Leadership to reintroduce their resolution to strip reproductive rights for Kansas women from the Kansas Constitution. They tried last year, and were rebuffed by the Kansas House and Jan Kessinger, a centrist Republican, who voted to keep a woman's medical affairs between her and her doctor and family.
Read moreSomewhere in the middle
This is not the new year greeting I had planned to send. The email you were supposed to read reflected on the past year, celebrated our collective resilience despite the tremendous challenges we faced in 2020, and spoke of the boundless possibilities each new year brings. It laid out what’s at stake for Kansas in 2021, and included a request of you to take action with Mainstream to counter the harmful policies planned by extremist leadership this session.
Read moreMainstream's 2021 Public Policy Platform
The Mainstream Coalition is dedicated to creating a more representative and responsive government by empowering informed participation and meaningful action in the political process. One way we seek to achieve this is through public policy advocacy. While Mainstream supports a number of standing positions, this platform is intended to articulate our specific policy goals on anticipated issues in the 2021 legislative session.
Read moreLegislative Leadership is bad news for Kansas
This past Monday, the Kansas Legislature chose their leadership teams for the upcoming Legislative Session. Each party broke into caucus and voted, with the Republicans in the majority, they selected the leaders who will set the agenda for the term, and drive much of what gets debated and voted on. The 2020 election saw very conservative individuals oust some centrists at the state level, and this bodes poorly for the priorities shared by most Kansans.
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