Huelskamp: I Still Don’t Know 2013 Assignments December 20, 2012

West Kansas Congressman Tim Huelskamp’s feud with Speaker John Boekher and the House GOP leadership continues.
Huelskamp was kicked off two key Congressional committeea, Agriculture and the Budget Committee earlier this month.
Huelskamp says he is being punished for not voting with the Leadership often enough.
On C-SPAN Thursday morning, Huelskamp says he still does not know what committeea he will serve on next year.
Wednesday, a report in Politico says Huelskamp and two other Members, Rep. Justin Amash and Rep. David Schweikert were tossed off their previous assignments because an unnamed member of the Republican Steering Committee called them, “the most egregious a–holes” in the House.
The report says Huelskamp and the other two, “made life harder for other Republicans”.
Earlier in his career, Huelskamp was also removed from an important committee in the Kansas State Senate.
House Speaker Boehner’s office disputes Huelskamp’s claim the GOP leadership were keeping a loyalty scorecard.
In a statement, Boehner says “there is no scorecard”, however, Huelskamp insisted one exists.
Not surprisingly, during the C-SPAN interview, Huelskamp calls the Speaker’s latest offer of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, “an economically foolish thing to do”.
He says it will increase 41% of the taxes that affect the small business that fill his west Kansas district.
Huelskamp, a 5th generation farmer, says it’s wrong not to have someone like him on the Agriculutre Committee.

Huelskamp Says He May Not Voter for Boehner to be Re-elected As Speaker December 13, 2012

The New York Times is reporting conservative Kansas Congressman Tim Huelskamp may show his unhappiness over being kicked off two key House Committees by not voting for House Speaker John Boehner’s re-election as Speaker.
Huelskamp, a west Kansas farmer, was booted from the House Agriculture Committee and the powerful House Budget Committee last week.
He says he is being punished for not voting with his fellow Republicans in Leadership often enough.
“The vast majority of his district wants him ( Huelskamp) to oppose Mr. Boehner’s re-election” according to the Times.
The larger thrust of the report dealt with the possibility the Speaker is struggling to keep his most conservative members in line as the fiscal cliff negotiations continue.
Huelskamp is one of four conservative House Members who were removes from some of their committee posts last week.

Huelskamp Writes Boehner—I Want My Committees Back December 8, 2012

Kansas-1 Congressman Tim Huelskamp has sent a second letter to House Speaker John Boehner about being kicked off the house Budget and Agriculture Committee.
Huelskamp was booted from those two important panels earlier this week. He said he has not been told why by the GOP House Leadership, but believes he’s the victim of a political pay back for not voting with leadership often enough.
“It is simply wrong to remove a Member of Congress from a Committee, because he votes his conscience and votes in the interests of his district” Huelskamp said Friday.
In his letter to Speaker John Boehner, Huelskamp wrote, “ I respectfully renew my request to be appointed to a seat on each when the Steering Committee reconvenes,”.
That could be as early as next week when all of the House Republican Committee assignments are expected to be released
“The Agriculture and Budget Committees fall directly within my areas of expertise.” He added.
Huelskamp noted he was a farmer and had worked on government budgets in the past.
The tone of the letter is much more businesslike that Huelskamp’s earlier remarks about the demotion.
He claimed he and three other Republicans were removed from their committees for not being loyal enough to the Republican House Leaders.
Wednesday he called his demotion a display of “raw political power”.
Huelskamp says he’s asked the House Leadership to explain why he was dumped, a specific list of which votes he cast that made the leaders unhappy.
On Wednesday Huelskamp seems to dismiss the importance of his House Committee work.
He told reporters the House Budget Committee had not met for months.
“We haven’t had a Budget hearing or meeting since the spring”, he said.
Huelskamp also discounted the work of the Agriculture Committee.
He said Wednesday the farm panel never worked the current Farm Bill under consideration very much.
“On the farm Bill sub-committee, we never really worked the Farm Bill. It was presented to us by the Chairman, Frank Lucan, ‘here’s the bill’” Huelskamp said.
Huelkamp first claimed his removal from the Ag Committee means for the first time since Kansas entered the Union, no member from the state’s delegation was on the Agriculture Committee. He now says it is more in the range of 50 years.
Agri-business is the dominant industry in Huelskamp’s huge “Big First’ Congressional District that covers the western half of the state.

Huelskamp Loses Not One, But Two Prime Committee Slots in Dispute With Boehner and House Leaders December 5, 2012

KS-1 Convressman Tim Huelskamp says he has been kicked off two key House Committee assignments, the House Budget Committee and the Agriculture panel.
Huelskamp says he thinks he is being punished for not voting with House Leadersship often enough.
News of Huelskamp’s departure from the Budget Committee came out Monday.
Huelskamp announced his demotion from the Agriculture Committee in a conference with Kansas reporters.
He says this is the first time no Member of the Kansas Congressional delegation has been on the House main panel for handling agricultural
issues in 151 years.
Huelskamp says he is asking Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, a former Chairman of the House farm panel, to intervene.
Huelskmp says he’ll continue to try and influence farm policy from the House floor.
Many pieces of manor legislation, however, are shaped at the committee level.
Huelskamp says he doesn’t know exactly why be was kicked off the panels.
He says he has been told House GOP Leaders kept track of key House votes over the last two years. He thinks his “score” of voting with the Leadership was not high enough to satisfy the top Republicans.
Huelskamp voted against thee hard-fought debt ceiling deal of 2011.
The west Kansas farmer says the move is a display of “raw, crass, political power”.
HE says it proves the Republicans under Speaker John Boehner will not tolerate dissent within their ranks.
Huelskamp says be does not think east Kansas Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins, who is part if the 30-member GOP House Leadership team, played a
role in his demotion.
The Kansas Repulican says he’ll try to get the decisions reversed.

No Dem Files Against Yoder, 2nd Term on the Way June 11, 2012

Johnson County’s freshman Congressman Kevin Yoder has almost been assured of re-election. He was going to be a heavy favorite for a second term. Those odds just got better. No democratic candidate filed to oppose him in November. He has no primary challenger, either.
There is some speculation Yoder may face an independent candidate, but that has not developed yet.
Two years ago, Yoder won a vigorous GOP primary to win the nomination. The seat was opened up by Democrat Dennis Moore’s decision to retire.
Moore’s wife Stephene ran against Yoder on the Democratic ticket. Yoder easily won the November election with 58% of the vote.
Yoder’s new district is a little more Republican than the previous Ks-3. Redistricting took some of the western portions of the Ks-3 away,portions near Lawrence. The panel of three federal judges that draw the map added a slice of northeastern Miami County to the Ks-3rd.
Yoder isn’t the only Kansas Congressman to cruise.
Western Kansas Republican Tim Huelskamp faces no primary or Democratic opposition in the new, bigger First Congressional district.
Huelskamp is also a freshman.
The AP says some Kansas Congressional districts do have Democratis filing in the heavily Republican state.
The AP says, ” Three more Kansas Democrats have filed for seats in the U.S. House, including two hoping to run against Republican Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins.

Bob Eye, an attorney from Lawrence, and the Rev. Tobias Schlingensiepen, who’s on leave as senior pastor of Topeka’s First Congregational Church, secured spots on the primary ballot Monday in the 2nd Congressional District. Jenkins has represented the district since 2009.

Filing Monday for the Democratic primary in the 4th Congressional District of south-central Kansas was Esau Freeman, a house painter and artist from Wichita. Freeman hopes to run in November against freshman Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo.

Another Democrat, retired court services officer Robert Tillman, has also filed for the seat.

Candidates had until noon Monday to file for the party primaries being held Aug. 7.