Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) Elected 2002, 1st term up Jan. 2007
Born:	May 15, 1948, Cincinnati, OH
Home:	Topeka
Education:	Trinity Col., B.A. 1970, U. of KS, M.P.A. 1977
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Gary)
Elected  Office:	KS House of Reps., 1986-94; KS Insurance Commissioner 1994-02.
Professional Career:	KS Dept. of Corrections, 1975-77; Dir., KS Trial Lawyers Assoc., 1977-87.
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Kathleen Sebelius was elected governor of Kansas in 2002, the second Democratic woman to win the office (the first was Joan Finney in 1990). She grew up in Cincinnati, where her father John Gilligan was elected to the city council in 1953, when she was 5. Campaigns were very much a part of her life. Her father was elected to Congress in a usually Republican district in the very Democratic year of 1964; he was defeated in 1966 by Robert Taft Jr., father of Ohio's current Governor, Bob Taft: They will have something to talk about at governors' conferences. John Gilligan was elected governor of Ohio in 1970 and in 1971 pushed through the state's first income tax. A man of wry humor, he was given to self-deprecating statements; when asked at the Ohio State Fair in 1972 whether he would shear sheep, he said, "I shear taxpayers, not sheep." Comments like this helped defeat him in 1974 by a 49%-48% margin. Still active and a member of the Cincinnati school board, he had the satisfaction in 2002 of being the first governor to see his daughter elected governor.

Kathleen Sebelius graduated from Trinity College in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, the son of Kansas Republican Congressman (1969-81) Keith Sebelius. After graduation the Sebeliuses moved to Topeka, where they live just 12 blocks from the state Capitol. Kathleen Sebelius worked for the state trial lawyers association and in 1986 was elected to the state House as a Democrat. With a Topeka base and a name well known in western Kansas, she was elected state Insurance Commissioner in 1994. It was a position held since its creation by Republicans, and by just three men over the preceding 50 years. Sebelius won much publicity for setting up anti-fraud and market conduct units; she pruned duplicative regulations, deregulated commercial insurance lines and got tax credits for businesses that provide health insurance to employees. In 2001, she became president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and worked for consumer privacy laws.

Sebelius's moderate image and her political savvy made her the obvious Democrat to run for governor in 2002, and she had no primary opposition. Term-limited Governor Bill Graves was a moderate who engaged in fierce feuds with conservatives in the Republican party, and there was a riproaring battle for the Republican nomination. Attorney General Carla Stovall, the choice of the moderate wing, announced in 2001 and raised over $500,000. But in April 2002, while vacationing in Europe with a radio broadcaster with whom she had a relationship, she let it be known that she was leaving the race, just two months before the filing deadline. That left moderates with no candidate against conservative state Treasurer Tim Shallenburger, a strong opponent of abortion who pledged not to increase taxes and said he would cut state spending by 10%. Quickly state Senate President Dave Kerr and Wichita Mayor Bob Knight jumped in. State House Speaker Kent Glasscock, Stovall's running mate, jumped to Knight's ticket and tried to bring Stovall's money with him. But the one conservative beat the two moderates. Shallenburger won the August primary with 41% of the vote to 30% for Kerr and 26% for Knight.

The general election provided a clear contrast on issues. Sebelius promised a top-to-bottom review of state government and refused to pledge she would veto any tax increase. She favored abortion rights, opposed capital punishment and favored banning concealed weapons except for retired law enforcement officers. She picked a Republican, a retired Cessna executive, for her running mate. She called for a $1,000 increase in per pupil spending and said she would institute character education in schools. She proved to be an excellent fundraiser and spent $3.2 million to Shallenburger's $1.5 million. Meanwhile, Graves waited until six weeks after the primary to grudgingly endorse Shallenburger, and the Kansas Farm Bureau in September decided to be neutral. Sebelius made one slip when she said that Missouri's underfunded highways were "much more terrifying to me than the attacks on the World Trade Center," but she quickly apologized. She got some mileage attacking Shallenburger for calling her, in a fundraising letter, "a lying dangerous liberal who will ruin our schools and endanger our children." Polls showed her well ahead all along, and she won 53%-45%. She carried most counties in eastern Kansas and lost heavily Republican Johnson County by only 52%-46%. She ran only about even in the Wichita area, but carried most rural counties west of the 100th meridian, long regarded as the boundary between the fertile Midwest and the arid West. She carried four of the state's five largest counties, which cast almost exactly 50% of the votes, by 54%-44% and the 100 smaller counties by 52%-46%.

Sebelius's victory established that Kansas's conservative Republicans will not control state government, but it was less clear what it would mean for Kansas fiscally. Sebelius appointed task forces to begin her top-to-bottom review in November and December 2002 and withstood criticism and a lawsuit brought by newspapers to open the meetings to the public. She retained Graves's budget director and appointed a Republican as secretary of administration. Graves announced cuts in the budget, but Sebelius seemed likely in early 2003 to face serious budget difficulties. Republicans still had majorities in the legislature and their leaders tried to mend the party split that raged throughout Graves's governorship.

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Office
State Capitol, 2d Fl., Topeka 66612, 785-296-3232; Fax: 785-296-7973; Web: www.ksgovernor.org.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent
2002 general	Kathleen Sebelius (D)	441,858	53%
	Tim Shallenburger (R)	376,830	45%
2002 primary	Kathleen Sebelius (D)	unopposed
1998 general	Bill Graves (R)	544,882	73%
	Tom Sawyer (D)	168,243	23%
	Other	29,540	4%