DOJ formally indicts Nebraska GOP lawmaker hours after he revealed it was coming
October 19, 2021, 5:02 PM ET
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TOPEKA — A former Senate majority leader blamed the state’s failure to expand Medicaid in 2020 on religious anti-abortion lobbyists, with the pivotal bill “single-handedly torpedoed” by a Kansas City archbishop.
Jim Denning, in an interview for the Kansas Oral History Project, said Archbishop Joseph Naumann “basically stopped Medicaid expansion.”
“So if you were an opponent of Medicaid expansion, then he’s your guy. If you were a proponent, you’re mad at him,” Denning said. “He single-handedly torpedoed the bill because he said, ‘You can’t vote for Medicaid expansion until the abortion amendment passes with the public.’ So he killed it. It never came out of committee.”
A spokesperson for the Kansas Catholic Church and leader of a Medicaid expansion advocacy group disputed comments made by Denning about the fate of Medicaid expansion in 2019 and 2020, when Denning controlled the Senate’s legislative calendar.
Alan Conroy, executive director of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, conducted the interview with Denning on April 13. The Kansas Oral History Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving state history. The project released several new interviews with lawmakers as part of a series on the Statehouse.
Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said he objected to an earlier Medicaid plan passed by the House in 2019 because it contained “lousy” financial policy. Then-Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, a Topeka Democrat, needed 24 votes to force a vote on the bill over his objections.
“He ended up getting 23,” Denning said. “The reason why he only got 23 was I was majority leader.”
Denning said Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly would come to his office, attempting to convince him to move forward with this Medicaid expansion plan.
“She was really mad at me,” Denning said. “I think she cracked the door one time when she slammed it.”
Kelly spokeswoman Brianna Johnson said this account was not accurate.
“Gov. Kelly doesn’t slam doors,” Johnson said. “What the former Senate majority leader got right, however, is that the governor is relentless in her pursuit of Medicaid expansion and will meet Republican leaders whenever and wherever — including in their own offices — to figure out how to pass legislation supported by nearly 80% of Kansans.”
Denning said he told concerned lawmakers in 2019 that he would bring an alternative forward in the 2020 session.
“I worked all summer putting the bill together,” Denning said. “I had about 2,000 hours. I had worked on it for many years. So the bill, it ended up being Senate Bill 252. It had 33 sections. Only 5% of the bill was Medicaid; 95% of the bill was health care reform on the commercial side. It was all the things that I wanted over 30 years of knowing what needed to be fixed.”
Denning worked out the bipartisan deal with Kelly. But Republicans, outraged by a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy, were focused on placing a constitutional amendment on abortion before voters.
Senate President Susan Wagle and anti-abortion forces attempted to use the Medicaid expansion deal as leverage to secure Senate approval of the constitutional amendment, according to Denning.
Chuck Weber, executive director of the Kansas Catholic Conference, said Denning was wrong to blame Naumann. But Weber also said the church wanted the inclusion of the amendment as a provision of its support for Medicaid expansion.
“Senator Denning’s statement that the Archbishop Naumann was single-handedly responsible for torpedoing Medicaid Expansion is simply not accurate,” Weber said. “The public record is clear that the Kansas Catholic Conference, in January at the beginning of the 2020 legislative session, testified in support of Medicaid expansion with the provisos that the legislation included conscious protections for health care workers and the people of Kansas were provided the opportunity to vote on the Value Them Both amendment.”
Republicans gained a supermajority advantage in both the House and Senate in the November 2020 elections. The Legislature approved the constitutional amendment ballot question in 2021, with a provision to place it before voters in the August 2022 primary election. Kansans rejected the amendment by an 18-point margin.
Meanwhile, Democrats in both chambers have been unsuccessful in attempts to insert Medicaid expansion proposals into various bills.
April Holman, executive director of the Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, said the failure to expand Medicaid has had serious consequences over the years.
“We have seen poll after poll showing that Kansans overwhelmingly think that we should expand, and yet when the issue gets to the Statehouse, there is an absolute brick wall that we run into,” Holman said. “We can’t get a hearing. We can’t get bills that are moved out of committee. We can’t get a clean vote on expansion. And it seems very disconnected from the will of the people and very disconnected from the intention of the democratic process.”
Holman said Denning had the opportunity to expand Medicaid and didn’t take it.
“I think that it’s really ironic, because he had the opportunity to be the hero on this issue,” Holman said. “And if he had worked the bill or allowed it to be worked or voted on in 2019, we would have so many people across the state of Kansas who would be healthier today as a result.”
During the Oral History Project interview, Denning said he wasn’t optimistic about the future of Medicaid expansion absent a significant shakeup to the Legislature.
“All that work was all down the drain,” Denning said. “It may never come back unless the Legislature changes like it did in 2016. But I don’t think anybody would take the effort that I did to build Senate Bill 252. If it ever does happen, it won’t be robust like that. It was very comprehensive. It still stings a little bit.”
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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The spotted lanternfly might not be here yet, but Washington officials are beginning to take steps to prevent the spread of the crop-damaging bugs.
Since first appearing in the U.S. in Pennsylvania in 2014, the invasive pest has quickly spread west, harming wine grapes, other crops and trees in its path. It’s now known to be in 14 states, as far west as Michigan.
Though the infestations are still far from Washington, it could take only one train or truck carrying the insects’ hard-to-spot egg masses for spotted lanternflies to begin spreading here. That would be a potentially disastrous threat to Washington wineries, orchards and hop farms, which produce billions of dollars worth of crops each year.
The state Invasive Species Council is trying to get ahead of the insect. The council is almost done with an action plan for dealing with the lanternfly. It will meet at 1 p.m. on Monday to present the plan, hear from national lanternfly experts and discuss how to proceed.
Experts say preparation is the most important step to prevent the insect’s spread. But there are unknowns, as every state is different and how the pests conduct themselves can vary.
“We just don’t know how it will act when it gets to some of these places,” said Matthew Travis, national policy manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s spotted lanternfly program.
An egg mass on a wood pallet. (USDA)
Preventing the bug and its egg masses from traveling along on vehicles and cargo is a key to containing it. Lanternflies are not long-distance fliers. Instead, a common mode of transport into new areas is hitchhiking by latching onto objects like railcars or pallets.
Once active, lanternflies feed on the green vascular tissue of plants, especially fruit, certain trees and a number of other agricultural products. This relentless sap sucking weakens plants, draining critical nutrients they need to survive and in some cases killing them or making produce unfit for sale.
One of the pests’ favorite hosts is the fast-growing and invasive “tree-of-heaven,” but they are also known to enjoy grape vines, which has been devastating for some wineries in other states.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture has already responded to reports of the insects in Washington, though all have turned out to be negative.
How to prevent the spread
One of the best ways to ward off an infestation is to spot and destroy egg masses, which tend to look like a smudge of mud. Scraping or smashing the masses, dousing them with water or treating them with pest spray can all be reliable destruction options.
Once the pests grow, fighting them becomes more complicated. Insecticide can help. Some scientists have also begun using backpack vacuums to suck up adult bugs, a solution that the Washington Department of Agriculture said worked well on the invasive northern giant hornet.
Travis said battling the insect tends to involve a combination of techniques.
In Washington’s draft lanternfly action plan the state is preparing for an emergency response, with a new advisory group and funding, if an infestation becomes severe enough.
The state’s plan to prevent the spread could include measures like destroying affected plants or products or introducing “biosecurity” measures, such as cleaning vehicles or quarantining areas where there are suspected infestations.
The state Department of Agriculture could also consider restricting the movement of goods that might carry the bug from certain agricultural sites or regions it has spread to. But the plan acknowledges that this could have negative economic consequences.
The plan also discusses the possibility of “biological controls,” meaning finding other living things that can kill the insects. But so far in the U.S., the lanternflies appear to have few major predators. Researchers have looked at tiny parasitic wasps and fungal pathogens as options for combatting the bugs. The report acknowledges that further study is needed in this area.
Taking out the insects’ favorite hosts – the tree-of-heaven, formally known as Ailanthus altissima – could also help slow the spread. Washington’s action plan discusses a number of options for doing so, including manually pulling trees or using an herbicide to kill them.
Threat to the economy
Washington faces some of the greatest known risks from lanternflies in three main sectors: wine and grapes, tree fruit and hops.
The fallout for the wine industry from the bug could be “significant” due to the sector’s size. According to the action plan, Washington has almost 60,000 acres of wine grapes and 400 wine grape growers. The industry sold $2.5 billion of wine in 2021.
Tree fruit could also take a hit, especially if there are changes with growers’ costs and or avenues for exporting fruit. Apples alone in Washington are valued at around $3 billion annually after packing, the report says.
Lanternflies can damage hops as well, another valuable Washington crop.
The bugs can also be a nuisance outside of agriculture. Even though they don’t bite or carry human diseases, they can appear in swarms, leaving people annoyed and grossed out. And as they feed, they can drip a sticky excrement, called honeydew, that attracts other insects, including wasps and ants, while also creating conditions ripe for mold.
One of the most important mitigation measures is to make sure members of the public know what spotted lanternflies and their egg masses look like and to report sightings.
As the pest continues to spread across the country, scientists and researchers will learn more about how it moves and how to kill it. For now, there’s only so much a state can do to prepare.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com. Follow Washington State Standard on Facebook and Twitter.
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Republicans in the 26th Legislative District are headed into an acrimonious primary on Tuesday headlined by former running mates whose tense relationship predates the 2021 race that pushed one of them out of office.
Incumbent Assemblymen Jay Webber and Brian Bergen — Morris County Republicans, and two of the Assembly’s most conservative members — face a challenge from former Parsippany Mayor Robert Peluso and ex-Assemblywoman BettyLou DeCroce, who lost her seat in the Legislature after Morris Republicans backed her challenger in 2021.
In the upper chamber race, Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R-Morris) is opposed by longtime Morris County Commissioner Thomas Mastrangelo, who ran alongside DeCroce in 2021’s Assembly race.
The discord in the 26th has so far centered around Bergen and DeCroce and the Senate faceoff, with Webber — the top Assembly vote-getter in the 2021 race — and Peluso keeping their powder relatively dry.
This is a Republican stronghold comprising mostly towns in Morris County, one that GOP gubernatorial challenger Jack Ciattarelli won handily in 2021.
DeCroce’s campaign represents an attempt to reclaim a seat that has been represented by a DeCroce for 32 of the last 34 years, first by her late husband, Alex DeCroce, then by DeCroce herself following his death in 2012.
DeCroce has lodged attacks at Bergen over a pandemic loan he sought for a botany business and his legislative record, one she charged has left little impact on New Jersey law.
Bergen, a former Denville councilman who frequently butts heads with Democratic leadership on the Assembly floor, has railed against the party’s control of Trenton and its legislative committees. He alleges DeCroce is spreading untruths about him.
“The volume of lies that BettyLou DeCroce tries to say about me and my record, it’s really crazy,” he said. “I’ve never been a part of something like this, and I hope I’m never part of something like this again. Primaries are fine and an election is fine, but the lies — it’s just really crazy.”
Bergen has taken aim at DeCroce’s record of voting — or not voting — saying she was an absentee lawmaker who accomplished little while in office.
“He has turned off a lot of people with his demeanor, and he’s attacked me at every club meeting. He’s gone brutally at me, and so be it. That’ll show his character,” DeCroce said.
On the Senate side, Mastrangelo has launched repeated attacks at Pennacchio, running online ads seeking to paint Pennacchio — the 2020 Trump reelection co-chair — as a liberal who wants to cut Social Security, raise IRS funding, and slash U.S. military spending.
As a state senator, Pennacchio has no say over any of those federal issues and, like Bergen, says his challenger is lying about his record.
“I believe absolutely nothing that comes out of his mouth,” Pennacchio said. “The only thing that I’m hoping is that the voters can see past that, and I think they will because this is a very smart electorate that I’ve been given the pleasure of serving as state senator.”
Totaled, the two slates spent just over $260,000 on the primary by May 25, according to reports filed with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. The incumbents’ $154,794 in spending edged out their challengers.
Webber and Peluso did not return requests seeking comment. Peluso has already signaled his intention to run for county commission next year and for Parsippany-Troy Hills mayor in 2025.
Mastrangelo could not be reached.
Off the line over the line
Bitterness remains over DeCroce losing Morris GOP support in 2021 (Republican Assemblyman Christian Barranco, who ousted her, is seeking reelection in the 25th District under redrawn lines).
That year, Morris County first adopted an organizational line, a change party officials said was needed to combat increasing Democratic strength in Morris County.
Most New Jersey county parties award organizational — or party — lines to their favored candidates, lending them an advantageous ballot position that groups them with party-backed local and county candidates during primaries.
The process of awarding a line varies between counties, with some leaving the endorsement process to the discretion of the county chair. The Morris GOP’s bylaws require the party to award its organizational line based on a vote by the district’s county committee members — party officials elected during primaries.
DeCroce said she and her running mates are bound by opposition to the line.
“The line is no good, that it doesn’t give the public the right to pick who’s going to run in the primary, and everyone should have the chance to run,” DeCroce said. “There’s party favorites out there, and the party has been playing too much to party favorites.”
Pennacchio, who advocated for Morris Republicans to adopt a line in 2021, called that version of events an instance of revisionist history.
“They all campaigned at the convention to get the line — they all did — and they were all buddies,” the senator said. “They were all slapping each others’ backs, especially Mastrangelo. The second they lose, all of a sudden it’s not slapping backs. All of a sudden, we’re a bunch of insiders.”
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.
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