Kansas Senate Archives - Kansas Oral History Project

Interview of Steve Abrams, June 26, 2025

Interviewed by Mark Tallman

Steve Abrams grew up loving to read and as an adult found it incomprehensible that others could not learn to read. His involvement as a member of his local board of education was initially focused on the issue of reading. He later championed Career and Technical Education training as another option for students while he served on the State Board of Education and on the Senate Education Committee. The interview has a substantive discussion of some of the issues the state board encountered during Abrams' term: No Child Left Behind, the Nation at Risk Report, Show Morestate assessments, standards for local schools, Quality Performance Accreditation, to name a few. Abrams states that it’s not easy to solve the issue of “wanting education to be successful for the students in the state of Kansas and still be affordable for the citizens of Kansas.” Show Less

Interview of Ed Berger, May 12, 2025

Interviewed by Mark Tallman

This oral history interview of Ed Berger, former State Senator and former President of Hutchinson Community College, focuses on the role of the community college in the educational system of Kansas. Community colleges were chartered in the 1960's in Kansas and required voter approval of a local referendum approved to begin operation. Seward, Barton, and Johnson counties were the last three to charter their respective community colleges in 1969. By 1990 there was a move to change governance of community colleges to the Kansas Board of Regents. That measure was not enacted. Berger's Show Moreinterview focuses on the community aspect of these institutions and how their educational goals change as community needs mature. Distance learning, technical education, and linkages with economic activity of the communities are highlighted in the interview. Berger describes his service in the Kansas Senate as it tried to unwind the "Brownback Tax Experiment" which had led to disruption of state finances. Berger's outlook is best described in this quote: "... Kansans are creative and resilient and... will find a way to adjust to it and still serve its public well..." Show Less

Interview of Mark Parkinson, December 14, 2010

Interviewed by Bob Beatty

The article linked below and downloadable, “ 'You can get a hell of a lot done as a governor': A Conversation with Former Governor Mark Parkinson," edited by Grant Armstrong, Bob Beatty, and Amber Dickinson, is, as noted in the body at footnote 3, excerpted from interviews conducted with Mark Parkinson in 2010 and 2021. The article was published in the Spring 2022 issue of Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains. The questions were removed and footnotes added during preparation of the transcripts for publication as a journal article. The Kansas Oral History Project is Show Moregrateful to the Kansas Historical Foundation for allowing us to post this article as part of the collection of interviews of Kansas Governors.

From the Kansas History Kansas History webpage: "The seventh piece in our special series of articles based on interviews with former Kansas governors, this conversation with former lieutenant governor and governor Mark Parkinson explores topics such as the Kansas death penalty law, alternative energy and the proposed Holcomb coal-fired power plants, budget cuts and tax increases to deal with the great recession of 2009, and the possibilities for Democrats and Republicans to work together in Kansas."

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Interview of Steve Morris, August 22, 2024

Interviewed by Rex Buchanan

Former President of the Kansas Senate, Steve Morris, focuses in this 2024 interview on the issues that impacted his far-southwestern Kansas Senate district during his time in the Senate, 1993-2013. Important issues included those relating to extraction of natural resources, agriculture, and the closely related issue of water. He also reflects on how tax policy has had a wide-ranging impact on the area, touching everything from school financing to the sense of disconnect experienced by some western Kansans. Morris's background as a farmer representing the area of the Hugoton natural gas field made him a logical choice for Show Moreappointment to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Morris looks back on the controversy around expansion of the Holcomb power plant -- a decision that Kansas may have gotten right "by accident." The interview touches on the economic and social impacts of the natural gas and agriculture industries in Hugoton and the 39th Senate District at-large, including the decline of the Hugoton Field and the introduction of irrigation, fracking, and renewable energy generation. Morris speculates on the future of agriculture and the changing demographics in southwestern Kansas.

Highlights -- short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Wint Winter, August 9, 2024

Interviewed by Chris Courtwright

This oral history interview covers not only the decade of Wint Winter, Jr's legislative service, 1983-1992, but also his continued involvement with politics up to the time of the interview in 2024. The 1980s and early 1990s saw considerable change in taxes, education funding, and abortion law, to name a few. The mineral severance tax, the "booster" tax, classification and reappraisal for property tasation, and a new school finance law that lowered property taxes were all discussed in this interview. During his time in the Kansas Senate, Winter chaired the Judiciary Committee and was Vice-chair of the Show MoreWays and Means Committee during that period. Winter was involved in shoring up the KPERS fund for state employees and appropriating funding for educational institutions, including colleges and universities. Senator Winter was a strong advocate for bipartisanship, saying, "No Party has a monopoly on good ideas." After leaving the Legislature, remained active in politics as a founder of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense.

Highlights --short excerpts from the interview

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Interview of Janis Lee and Laura McClure, May 20, 2024

Interviewed by Rex Buchanan

Janis Lee and Laura McClure, both Democrats elected from predominantly Republican districts that overlapped, often campaigned together and conducted constituent communication sessions in the areas they both represented. Because their time in the legislature (1989-2011) and their largely rural districts in northcentral Kansas intersected, Lee and McClure both worked on a wide range of policies pertinent to the Energy & Environment Collection of oral histories: confined feeding facilities, solid waste, waste tires, water quality standards, the Kansas v. Colorado lawsuit, and the Water Transfer Act that the city of Hays was exploring at the time of this interview, among Show Moreothers. In the energy arena, significant issues during their time of service in the Kansas Legislature included retail wheeling of electricity, gas pollution remediation, well plugging, and gas-gathering systems regulations. In this May 2024 interview, they explore those issues, the dynamics of the legislature, campaigning, and the work involved in serving in the legislature. Show Less

Photo of Les Donovan in Kansas Senate chamber April 10, 2024

Interview of Leslie (Les) Donovan, April 10, 2024

Interviewed by Chris Courtwright

Les Donovan served twenty-four years in the Kansas Legislature -- four years in the House of Representatives and twenty years in the Kansas Senate from 1993 to 2016. From his position on the tax committees of the House and Senate, he influenced major tax legislation including the tax cuts of the late 1990's. While chairing the Senate Assessment and Tax Committee from 2009 - 2016, he was involved with the efforts to correct the budget problems caused by the Brownback tax experiment of 2012. He often called attention to the high property tax rates on Show Moreautomobiles and finally succeeded in lowering them. He was an advocate for small business during his entire term. Donovan also advocated for using fuel tax to fund highway needs. This interview is a discussion of tax policy at a time of great change in Kansas. Show Less

Interview of Wayne Zimmerman, April 13, 2023

Interviewed by Dave Webb

Wayne Zimmerman of Olathe returned to the Kansas Capitol many years after being elected in 1964 to the House of Representatives. Zimmerman is apparently the last surviving member of the class of 1965-66 House of Representatives that was elected prior to the historic One-Person-One-Vote decision. When he was reelected to a second term in 1966, he was elected to represent a district, not the county. Zimmerman served two terms in the Kansas House and later, after 4 years, a term in the Kansas Senate. In his interview, Zimmerman talked about farming in Johnson County, his military Show Moreservice as a pilot, and how the reapportionment court decision substantially changed the legislature. Schools remained a consistent legislative focus, even after substantial consolidation in the early 1960's. Wayne had no office, but did his legislative work at his desk on the floor in the House chambers. He had several stories to tell about how the legislature operated then. Show Less

Interview of Jim Denning, April 13, 2023

Interviewed by Alan Conroy

Jim Denning served four years as Majority Leader for the Kansas Senate. His interview reveals his Western Kansas leanings, despite having worked, lived and represented Johnson County. HIs legislative interests included health care policy, funding KPERS and school finance. He described Senate Bill 9--KU Cancer designation--as one of his important contributions. Denning found that Governor Brownback’s tax plan was creating problems for Kansas – “too deep and unsustainable.” His philosophy was, "At the end of the day, you have to govern." Throughout his tenure in the Senate, Medicaid expansion was a pressing issue, but Show Morehe didn’t like the way the bills were constructed, so he developed a Republican alternative that he thought would be a model for the country. His interview details how he kept the Democratic alternative from passing, but his own bill was caught up in abortion politics and failed to pass. Denning led the Senate during three special sessions: school finance, COVID, and repealing the Brownback tax plan. Show Less

Interview of Thomas (Tim) Owens, October 14, 2022

Interviewed by Nancy Parrish

In this oral history interview, Tim Owens described his career path from military officer to private attorney to city council member to the state legislature. He served seven years in the Kansas House and then ran for the Kansas Senate where he chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. Owens recounts the pressure from Governor Brownback to change the merit selection procedure for judges, making them elected. Also, the education bills were then being sent to the Judiciary Committee because of lawsuits and that caused friction because of the court's decisions on resolving the Montoy and Gannon school finance Show Morecases. Owens also dealt with a death penalty bill which failed 20-20. He described frequent trips "across the street" carrying messages between the Chief Justice and the Governor's office. He lost his bid for reelection to the Senate in 2012 and afterward taught at Johnson County Community College and retired from the military as a full colonel. He also served a year as municipal judge in Lenexa. Show Less

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