By: Benjamin Hodge (Diary)  |  November 30th at 01:42 AM  | 

In the 2002 movie “Signs,” Colleen Hess gave her youngest son Merrill a cryptic, deathbed command to “swing away.”  Only years later, with his own life at risk, did Merrill understand what this meant.  With confidence, Merrill “swung away.”  The challenge was unclear, but it was was large and right in front of him, and Merrill could not and did not miss.  Merrill “swung away” with | Read More »

By: Benjamin Hodge (Diary)  |  October 17th at 09:53 PM  | 

Above is the audio for a phone call about John Toplikar, the Republican choice and fiscal conservative choice for Johnson County Commission. It’s in southwest Johnson County, a suburb of Greater Kansas City. The district has about 50,000 voters, which is larger than a state senate district in Kansas. The call was paid for by Kansans for State & Local Reform, which I chair. Audio: | Read More »

By: Benjamin Hodge (Diary)  |  October 16th at 12:47 AM  | 

From the political left and the right, non-Kansans sometimes look at Kansas politics and scratch their heads.  One word explains much of it:  ”McClatchy,” which owns the rabidly anti-cultural conservative Wichita Eagle and Kansas City Star.  Fortunately, the Internet has almost eradicated the problem, and I can tell you that in the KC metro area, conservatives simply ignore The Star, in part because we don’t need | Read More »

By: Benjamin Hodge (Diary)  |  October 12th at 09:20 PM  | 

Brief update:  At the end of the article, I’m going to pre-emptively write a rebuttal to unfair and misleading attacks about John Toplikar, the kind that appeared at the original location to the video below (at mrcTV.org), and which were written by anonymous commenters who won’t go on the record.   Above is the audio for a phone call about John Toplikar, the Republican choice | Read More »

By: Benjamin Hodge (Diary)  |  August 22nd at 06:15 AM  | 

To read more details from our extensive poll of likely 2012 voters in Overland Park, KS, go to StateandLocalEducation.org.  Below is a portion. ——————————– Part 3 of results Telephone survey among likely 2012 voters in Overland Park, KS.  Conducted Tuesday, August 9, and Wednesday, August 10, by the State and Local Educational Foundation of Kansas.  Margin of error +/- 5.4%.  Party breakdown:  51% Republican, 29% Unaffiliated, 20% and | Read More »