DeFever may wage write-in campaign

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Aug 14, 2002 by Jim McLean Capital-Journal

S C H O O L B O A R D

By Jim McLean

The Capital-Journal

A member of the Kansas State Board of Education who was defeated in last week's primary said Tuesday that she may wage a write-in campaign to retain her seat.

Val DeFever, a moderate Republican from Independence in southeast Kansas, was defeated in the GOP primary by Iris Van Meter, a conservative from Thayer, who did little campaigning before unleashing a radio and mail blitz two weeks before election day.

Charging that she was a victim of "underhanded tactics," DeFever said she is being urged by supporters to wage a general election write-in campaign to retain her 9th District seat.

"Lots of people have fire in their belly right now, if they keep that fire maybe I'm interested. If not, I'm not," DeFever said, indicating that she won't make a decision for several weeks.

Van Meter didn't immediately respond to a telephone message left at her home Tuesday afternoon.

DeFever said she was angered by a mailing sent approximately a week before the election by a recently organized political action committee called Truth in Politics. The mailing, which labeled DeFever "too liberal for Kansas Republicans," charged that she had been praised by American Atheists Inc. for her stand on evolution.

"She voted to force our children to be taught a one-sided, unproven theory (monkey-to-man evolution) rather than allowing them to hear both sides of that issue along with evidence for each and to choose for themselves what is right," the group stated in the mailing, which it said wasn't authorized by Van Meter's campaign.

In February 2001, DeFever was one of seven members of the 10- member board of education who voted to restore evolution to the state's required science curriculum. Soon after the vote, the atheist organization posted a message on its Internet Web site urging people to send a note to Kansas board members who "restored the good name of their state and stuck a blow for critical thinking and science.

DeFever said she was unaware of the message until late in the campaign when it was referenced in the mailings sent out by Van Meter and the Truth in Politics PAC.

"The implication was they presently support me in some manner, which is certainly not the truth, I've gotten nothing from them," DeFever said.

If DeFever doesn't mount a write-in campaign, the seat will belong to Van Meter, who won't have an opponent in the election.