Pub. 2 2013 Issue 1

18 l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s New Leaders Tabbed for Financial Institutions Committee The sea-change within the Kansas Legislature has also filtered down to committees with a host of new committee chairman, vice chairman and ranking minority leaders being appointed to help drive the state legislative process in 2013. Those appointments included Sen. Rob Olson (R-Olathe) assuming the gavel as Chairman for the Senate Financial Institutions & Insurance (FI&I) Committee. Olson, a small business owner and real estate investor, currently serves on the board of directors of Bank of the Prairie in Olathe. Joining Olson as Vice Chairman of the Senate FI&I Committee is Sen. Jeff Longbine (R-Emporia). Longbine is owner of Longbine Auto Plaza in Emporia and he too serves as a director of a Kansas bank. Longbine serves on the board of ESB Financial in Emporia. The ranking minority leader for the Senate FI&I Committee will be newly elected State Senator Tom Hawk (D-Manhattan). Hawk had previously served in the Kansas House from 2005 to 2010. Senate Financial Institutions & Insurance Committee Chairman SEN. ROB OLSON – OLATHE Senate Financial Institutions & Insurance Committee Vice Chairman SEN. JEFF LONGBINE – EMPORIA Senate Financial Institutions & Insurance Committee Ranking Minority Member SEN. TOM HAWK - MANHATTAN Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick has tabbed Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane) to serve as the Chairman of the House Financial Institutions (F&I) Committee. DeGraaf is founder, president and director of Shepherd’s Staff Ministries, a non-profit ministry in south central Kansas that has provided financial counseling services since 2000. Prior to becoming a certified financial planner, DeGraaf was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Air New Leadership Era Begins at Kansas Statehouse I T WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO DESCRIBE THE recent leadership hierarchy transformation within the Kansas Legislature as anything less than a sea-change. That sea-change began early last summer with the court-imposed redistricting of state legislative boundaries, gained momentum with the ousting of eight moderate Senate Republican heavy-weights during the August primary, and culminated on Monday, December 3rd with the election of new leaders for the Kansas Senate and Kansas House of Representatives. Senator SusanWagle (R-Wichita) captured the post of Senate President and becomes the first woman in history to lead the upper chamber of the Kansas Legislature. She is a 12-year veteran of the Kansas Senate and previously served for a decade in the Kansas House. Wagle, a business owner and real estate investor, will be joined by newly elected Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce (R-Hutchinson) and Senate Vice President Jeff King (R-Independence) as the leaders of the increasingly conservative 32-member Senate Republican caucus. Bruce and King, both practicing attorneys and both 37 years young, are the X-generation’s first to arrive on the leadership scene in the Kansas Senate. Senate Democrats retained Senator Anthony Hensley (D-Topeka) as their Minority Leader, a position Hensley has held since 1996. The 8-member senate democratic caucus did make one significant leader - ship change by electing Senator Marci Francisco (D-Lawrence) to the position of Assistant Minority Leader. Francisco ousted Senator Laura Kelly (D-Topeka) for the number two spot in the Senate Minority Caucus. Kelly had served as Assistant Minority Leader the previous two years. Newly-elected members of the Kansas House of Representatives don’t often enter the leadership election fray, but then again, Rep-Elect Ray Merrick (R-Stilwell) isn’t your typical incoming House freshmen. Currently a member of the Kansas Senate, Merrick is also a ten-year veteran of the Kansas House (2000-2010), and served as that body’s Majority Leader during his final two years of service. In early 2011, Merrick was appointed to fill-out the unexpired Senate term of then-Senator and now Kansas Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer. A House-leader at heart, Merrick opted to return to the House following last summer’s redistrict- ing battle and on December 3rd, his House colleagues elected him as Speaker of the House. Rounding out the House Republican leadership team is Rep. Jene Vickrey (R-Louisburg) who was elected to the position of House Majority Leader and Rep. Peggy Mast (R-Emporia) who was tabbed House Speaker Pro Tem. Vickrey and Mast are both veterans of the Kansas House having been first elected to serve in 1992 and 1996. The house minority leadership team remains intact with Rep. Paul Davis (D-Lawrence) continuing as the House Minority Leader, and Rep. Tom Burroughs (D-Kansas City) holding off a challenge from Rep. JimWard (D-Wichita) to retain the position of Assistant House Minority Leader. Like their Democratic colleagues in the Kansas Senate, Minority Leaders Davis and Burroughs are statistically limited with only 33 Democratic hands on deck in the 125-member Kansas House of Representatives. NEW LEGISLATIVE LEADERSHIP Doug Wareham, senior vice president— government relations, breaks down the leaders in the state House and Senate. By Doug Wareham, KBA SVP-Government Relations