Phill Kline's $50,000 Consolation Prize

Jacob Sullum | December 13, 2006

Outgoing Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, last seen losing his re-election bid by 16 percentage points, will swap jobs with the candidate who defeated him, Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison. Since Morrison was a Republican until he switched parties to run against Kline, Republican committeemen got to choose a replacement to serve the rest of his term, and they picked Kline, who is famous/notorious for harassing abortion clinics and struggling to define sex, by a vote of 316 to 291. His new job pays $50,000 more a year. The Kansas City Star has a guide for the perplexed. 

Comments

|12.13.06 @ 1:28PM|#

The old boys network is working just fine, I see.

|12.13.06 @ 1:37PM|#

More humiliation for Kansas. Wonderful.

bazil|12.13.06 @ 1:48PM|#

I'm sure there was absolutely no one in the state of Kansas more qualified or willing to do the job. I mean it's a tiny place with a handful of people... or the actions of the politicans suggests that's their perception of it.

|12.13.06 @ 2:47PM|#

Mr. Sullum: While its too bad that Kline isn't standing in a bread line, I love the accidental humor in "...and struggling to define sex, by a vote of 316 to 291." if you read it w/o the comma. (Yes to those nitpickers, the sentence is correctly formulated, but the terminal clause still gives me the chuckles).

Robert|12.13.06 @ 3:06PM|#

In NY & probably other places one's nomination for office comes with a committee to fill vacancies before the election, i.e. on the ballot. In Kansas an elected office holder comes with a committee to fill vacancies arising during the term of office?!

Or is it even worse, a party committee that can change composition at or after the election? So you're really electing a party?

Robert|12.13.06 @ 3:30PM|#

I should've RTFA. But now I wonder what happens if someone elected as an independent quits.

|12.13.06 @ 9:48PM|#

"I should've RTFA. But now I wonder what happens if someone elected as an independent quits."

The correct answer is: Who gives a *&^%?