LINDSBORG – A large postcard arrived recently with glossy images of Steven Johnson, who represents the 108th district – a chunk of central Kansas –in the state House of Representatives.
The card outlines Johnson’s recent work in Topeka: He embraced pandemic aid and relief for winter freeze victims. He wants a sensible tax structure, stable funding for public employee pensions, a surgical approach to government spending.
The card is modest to a fault. It says nothing about Johnson’s popularity, or that he is a Republican, or that he has been elected and reelected for ten years. He farms near Assaria on land settled by his great grandparents. He was student body president at K-State (1986-87), he has a master’s degree in finance from the University of Chicago and has experience in the cutthroat world of financial services.
The card only says I’m still here, farming land at home and weeding the terrain at Topeka. Johnson is the rare politician, a statesman and an intellectual, reminiscent of his predecessor, Clark Shultz.
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The 108th district includes parts of four counties – southern Saline, most of Ellsworth, northern Rice, and a small chunk of north McPherson County that includes Lindsborg.
Shultz, when he represented nearly the same patch, seemed to set the stage for Johnson. He could carry an audience along on conversation’s wave from, say, Lindsborg to Topeka, dipping into the problems of school finance, the rise and fall of one politician or another, the complexities of a tax bill and then, usually without pause, everything was made plain. Johnson took the baton from Shultz and sped on without a hitch.
I have the greatest envy for people who feel at home with great matters and who, armed cap-a-pie with information, can see into the motives of rulers and the hearts of constituents, and can answer Yes to this, No to that.
First Shultz, and now Johnson, can explain the intricacies of Topeka so that people in the room understand, like or not, and feel a bit more informed. As House Parliamentarian (chief referee), Shultz was one of the few legislators at the Statehouse who was wholly trusted by all sides in the harsh theater of Kansas politics.
Johnson, 55, is chairman of the House Insurance Committee (like Shultz), and is a former chairman of the Tax Committee. He has a knack for unraveling riddles and explaining them in plain language.
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Reapportionment ten years ago squeezed Shultz into a neighboring legislative district; he moved to McPherson and was elected to the House. He was appointed to the Senate in 2014 to succeed the popular Jay Emler, who had gone to the Kansas Corporation Commission. Johnson would speak for the 108th.
At the peak of their service, both announced for statewide office. Shultz has run twice, unsuccessfully, for Kansas Insurance Commissioner. He is currently executive director of the Kansas Health Care Stabilization Fund, which manages liability insurance coverage for health care providers.
Johnson, still farming and still confronting the challenges of one public office, announced in early May that he’s a candidate for another, state Treasurer. Like Shultz, he is a keen guide through the swamps of insurance regulation and tax policy. And, like Shultz, he has at times rankled Republican power mongers, dismissing supply-siders with an arched eye, cutting through popular myths to show a difference, say, between a tax cut and a tax shift.
Johnson kept a clear head during the nightmare Brownback era; his obsession to abolish the state income tax brought the state three credit downgrades and a billion dollar operating deficit.
Johnson then helped write legislation that returned Kansas to sensible finance. It reestablished a three-bracket income tax, renewed funding for local schools, pulled Kansas from a fall into fiscal ruin. Johnson was a steady hand against a sleight-of-hand.
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Ten years ago, reapportionment forced Shultz to change course. Reapportionment looms again, in 2022, and is likely to shift the boundaries of the 108th House district. As urban districts gain population, Republicans look to cleanse their territories of Democrats and squeeze other unbelievers. The boundaries of many rural districts are likely to widen. New candidates are apt to emerge, voicing chapters from the Brownback playbook.
Johnson has said his experience as a legislator, as a farmer, and as a manager in financial services is fit to meet the demands of a state treasurer. He knows how to build investment models, set portfolios, achieve good returns against certain levels of risk.
Our district has been blessed. Johnson, like Shultz, is the difference between the servant who leads constituents and the politician who seduces them. He prefers to explain things, warts and all, because he trusts all voters, not just some of them.
