GOP official questions Boyda's priorities

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 21, 2008 by James Carlson

By James Carlson

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Missed meetings have become a central issue in the race for the 2nd Congressional District as Republicans on Monday attacked Democratic Rep. Nancy Boyda for missing 18 percent of the full House Armed Services Committee hearings.

She was absent from 11 of 62 full hearings and two of 37 subcommittee hearings.

Boyda spokesman Thomas Seay said the representative was on official business for most of the meetings, and he provided a list of what events prevented the congresswoman from attending.

Four of the meetings, according to Seay's list, conflicted with agriculture committee and subcommittee meetings, three conflicted with staff meetings, one ran up against a House leadership gathering, one conflicted with the Papal Mass on the east coast, and the other two conflicted with official events.

Christian Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, questioned her reasons.

"She's deciding what priorities she had. She prioritized staff meetings as high," he said. "She's not even a Catholic, yet she prioritized going to see the pope higher than doing her job."

Seay dismissed the criticism as "politically motivated nonsense." He said Boyda has many responsibilities as a member of Congress and sometimes they conflict.

"When the congresswoman has two conflicting official duties, she attends one and sends a staffer to the other," he said. "That's the best solution we've yet come up with to the physical impossibility of being in two places at once."

Missed meetings have provided a deep well of contention from which each candidate has drawn in recent weeks.

Republicans have made an issue of Boyda's brief departure last year from a committee hearing where a retired general was testifying. They have complained that her actions were disrespectful to the military.

Boyda has said she left for only 10 minutes and was in a side room where she could watch the hearing on a closed-circuit television.

After Jenkins raised that issue during the pair's second debate earlier this month, Boyda responded by criticizing Jenkins' absences from the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System's first three meetings this quarter. During that period, the volatile stock market led to the pension fund losing $1 billion.

Since 2003, Jenkins has missed 12 of 47 KPERS board meetings, or 26 percent of them.

Jenkins said it was a nonissue and she was e-mailing with the KPERS officials and had read board material to stay informed. Neither she nor her campaign staff have offered an explanation for her absences.

Meanwhile on Monday, Morgan joined seven protesters outside Boyda's campaign office to criticize her use of $221,000 in franking charges to, among other activities, make automated calls informing constituents of her "Congress on Your Corner" events.

Franking money is a pool of funds that members of Congress can use to inform constituents of their activities in Washington, D.C. The funds aren't to be used for campaign purposes.

Morgan said the mailers were perfectly legal but called Boyda a "hypocrite" for criticizing her 2006 opponent, Jim Ryun, for one of his franking expenditures.

"Nancy Boyda is getting this reputation now as 'Do as I say, not as I do,' " Morgan said.

Seay said the congresswoman raised the issue in 2006 because Ryun had sent out a franked mailer on the last day allowed, three months before the election. The full-color cards "looked and smelled like a campaign piece," he said.

He said Boyda stopped using any franking money in April to try to steer clear of complaints.

Boyda and Jenkins are battling for the 2nd District, which includes all of Topeka and runs north to the Nebraska border and south to the Oklahoma border. They have their final debate Thursday in Leavenworth.

James Carlson can be reached

at (785) 295-1186

or james.carlson@cjonline.com.