Gov. Parkinson signed the budget bill into law on May 27, 2010, after vetoing the cuts. The legislature adjourned on May 29 without attempting to override the vetoes.

In the past several years, I have lobbied either in person or by phone or e-mail for issues important to me, issues such as education and reproductive rights as well as on funding for public broadcasting, and ending war. With Democrats or moderate Republicans in the governor's office for the past several years, and given that I live in a primarily Democratic district, my lobbying on the state level has been successful.

On the other hand, calling or sending a letter to my member of Congress, Todd Tiahrt, is an exercise in futility, as is sending letters to Senators Sam Brownback or Pat Roberts. All of them, or more likely their aides, have developed the double talk response of saying they will consider my position on the subject and hope to hear from me again soon.

The one exception to this kind of response came a few years ago when I wrote Sen. Brownback asking him not to cut funding for public broadcasting. The response letter I got was stunning in its forthrightness. He said he had worked at a public broadcasting radio stations as a young man, but now he thought public broadcasting had outlived its usefulness. (Translation: It has become too liberal and he has become more conservative.) He was quite ready to get rid of public broadcasting altogether and he wasn't shy about saying so.

As we get closer to the 2010 election, and as it seems less and less likely that Mark Parkinson will change his mind about running for governor, I have come to two conclusions. One, we liberals have to work like the devil to get Democrat Tom Holland in the governor's office. and two, we need to get the word out about Sam Brownback so that moderate Republicans will know what they're getting if they vote for him.

Brownback has two faces. One Sam goes to Darfur with liberal George Clooney and calls for an end to the war in that country. This Sam also wants to end the sex trafficking trade. Who can argue with his stands on those issues?

On the other hand, we have the Sam who is fervently anti-choice and anti-big government. (Translated: Let Big Government decide what women should do about their reproduction, but don't do anything to keep schools and social service agencies afloat.) This Sam has ties to the notoriously anti-tax Koch Industries, money from which subsidizes Sam's political campaigns.

Worse is his connection with two right-wing religious groups, Opus Die and The Family, also known as The Fellowship or C Street. Brownback's aides deny that he has any connection with Opus Dei, but he when he converted from Methodism to Catholicism in 2002, he did so under the guidance of Opus Dei priest Rev. C. John McCloskey. Brownback was baptized into the Catholic Church at the Opus Dei-affiliated Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. McCloskey is strict in his adherence to the most conservative of Catholic beliefs, as is Brownback.

The second group, The Fellowship, or The Family, hit the news when reporter Jeff Sharlet wrote an article about the C Street residence for Harper's magazine. Sharlet also revealed in a profile of Brownback that he was a member of The Family and lived at C Street for $600 a month, a rate so low it was unheard of in the nation's capital. Sharlet reported that Fellowship personnel cite such people as Maria dons and Adolf Hitler as role models for good leadership. However, Sharlet backed off his accusation that members of The Family endorsed Ugandan's proposed laws that call for the execution of homosexuals.

Why is it important to know this about Sam Brownback? He's had years of legislative experience. He knows how government works. So what's the problem?

Here's what I know. If I put in a call to the governor's office, and Brownback is in that office, he will ignore anything I have to say. If I ask him to veto a bill that puts intolerable restrictions on abortion rights, he will ignore me. If I ask him to veto the cuts in funding for Planned Parenthood and public broadcasting, he will ignore me. If I ask him to make sure public education and social services are adequately funded, he will ignore me.

He will answer to the Koch guys when it comes to state funding. He will answer to fundamentalist religious leaders when it comes to social issues. He will not consider that he is the governor for all Kansans. How do I know what he will do as governor of Kansas? Because I've paid attention to what he's done as a senator from Kansas.

In effect, a Brownback governorship would take away any safety net for moderate measures that have been protected by having a Democrat or a moderate Republican in the governor's office the past few years. That's why we have to get out the vote for Tom Holland.