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Published online 9/11/2007 12:41 AM

Public may foot bill for re-election advice

By Mary Clarkin - The Hutchinson News - mclarkin@hutchnews.com

A Kansas County Officials Association conference this week in Wichita will offer tips to incumbents on how to run successfully for re-election.

"I would be appalled if we had something like that at our conference," said Randall Allen, executive director of the Kansas Association of Counties.

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Public dollars, Allen noted, will pay expenses for those officials attending the KCOA conference.

Reno County Registrar of Deeds Carol Sallee, County Clerk Shari Gagnebin and Treasurer Clark Miller - all planning to run for re-election in 2008 - are signed up to attend the conference.

A recently approved $175 voucher for Sallee's participation showed she probably would not go to sessions this Wednesday on "Managing Personal & Professional Change" and "Conflict Resolution & Mediation Training," but she would attend the business meeting for the Kansas Register of Deeds Association on Thursday and two sessions Friday: "How to Run an Effective Campaign" and "Media Training."

Sallee did not view the campaign session as giving her or other officeholders an advantage over potential challengers.

"I've been in here 16 years, I've already got an advantage," Sallee said.

"You can't look at it as an expense-paid class. This is what KCOA is offering for the people who are attending KCOA," she said.

"I would probably say 95 percent of the people that are there are going to be running for their office again," Sallee said.

Steve Kearney, executive vice president of the KCOA, said he was sure the idea of a session on campaigning was "some kind of member request."

"It's not a campaign school or anything," he said, noting that it will run for only about an hour and a half.

"It'll just be some very basic stuff," he said, "that anyone could avail themselves of."

Jeff Wagaman, assistant state treasurer, emphasized that he would be using personal time to appear at the KCOA conference and present the session on campaigns.

Wagaman has worked in Republican campaigns, including successful bids by State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins and former Gov. Bill Graves.

This will be a non-partisan presentation, Wagaman said, and include "dos and don'ts on yard signs" and "kind of a calendar on how best to communicate with voters through yard signs and direct-mail and door-to-door."

More than 200 people are expected at the KCOA's third-annual conference, where organizations of county clerks, treasurers and registrars of deeds will conduct separate business meetings.

Kearney said he would be surprised if other member organizations of elective officials did not offer similar training on running for office, and Sallee said the KAC has done this in the past.

The KCOA was formed after a split with the KAC. The KAC will conduct its annual conference in November in Wichita. Topics to be discussed appear on the agency's Web site and do not include running campaigns.

Allen has been at the KAC more than a decade, and he denied that it has offered sessions on how to run a political campaign.