Topic: Learning Quest Education Savings
Interview of Rochelle Chronister, January 22, 2015
Interviewed by Burdett Loomis
Rochelle Chronister quickly rose to a leadership position after her election in 1978. She was responsible for recruiting many Republican women to the legislature. She talks in the interview about her job as Assistant Majority Leader and recruitment. Her description of how the Appropriation committee works shows how she became interested in SRS from handling their budget, and that led to becoming Secretary of SRS under Governor Graves. There is one example of her research skills in developing a new program on mediation. She downsized SRS as Secretary and worked on changing the culture of Show Morea highly bureaucratic organization. She worked to ensure that her female colleagues were included and worked across the aisle on numerous measures. She concludes the interview by talking about her family and how they responded to her being away so much. She once chartered a plane to get home in time to attend her daughter's tea. That Chronister was an effective legislator and politician is clear from reading this interesting interview.
An audio tape of an earlier 1991 interview by Washburn University faculty is available on the Washburn University website.
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A Conversation with Jake LaTurner, Sunflower State Journal, December 30, 2024
Interviewed by Brad Cooper
In this 30 minute interview with Sunflower State Journal editor, Brad Cooper, then-outgoing Republican Jake LaTurner candidly discussed his decision to leave Congress. He talked about what he liked most about public service (serving in the Kansas Senate) and his disappointment about the legislative process on Capitol Hill. LaTurner returned to Kansas to spend time watching his kids grow up. At the time of this interview, he planed to work for a political consulting firm.