David Schlosser

The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2000

Politics & Policy

Darwin’s Shadow Falls On GOP Fight in Kansas

By Dennis Farney

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.—That classic Darwinian concept, the survival of the fittest, is taking on a whole new meaning here in one of the nation’s most closely watched congressional races.

As three Republicans battle for the GOP congressional nomination in these Republican-leaning suburbs, a key issue that is evolving is evolution itself. More specifically, the issue is last year’s decision by the Kansas Board of Education, controlled by Christian conservatives, to allow public schools to de-emphasize Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Evolution is an evolving issue in the Kansas GOP congressional primary.

That, says moderate candidate Greg Musil, makes Kansas “a national laughingstock.” His radio and television ads to that effect are intended to fire up moderate Republicans for the Aug. 1 primary. But they threaten to inflame the split between moderate Republicans and Christian conservatives that, in 1998, allowed Rep. Dennis Moore to become the first Democrat to represent this district in nearly four decades.

“We can act like we don’t care that Jay Leno laughs at us, but we’re losing jobs and new businesses because of this,” says Mr. Musil, a lawyer and former county Republican chairman. In this wealthy, education-conscious district in the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo., he asks audiences: “How many of you want your kid to learn less science than any other kid in America?”

Political Pay Dirt

It is far from certain that Mr. Musil has struck political pay dirt. But it is certain that he has struck a nerve.

Conservative candidate Phill Kline, the early front-runner, would clearly prefer to talk about just about anything else but evolution. Tax cuts are his big issue. “Mr. Kline does not wish to participate in this story,” his spokesman replies when initially approached about an interview. Eventually Mr. Kline relents and issues a dry riposte.

“The ‘missing link’ in Greg’s argument is its relevancy to a congressional campaign,” he says. “I think he ought to be running for the school board. What this does is really make it impossible for Greg to win a general-election campaign because he’s telling a large percentage of the district population that they’re country bumpkins.”

At issue is the state education board’s decision last year to give individual districts the option of whether or not to teach the Darwin theory of education. Instead they may teach such alternative theories as “intelligent design,” which holds that both man and the universe are too intricate and too complex to have resulted from random chance. Or they may teach both evolution and opposing theories.

Deleting Topics

The state board also deleted from state standards such topics as the estimated age of the Earth, out of deference to religious conservatives who hold to a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis. And it deleted questions that suggest that humans and nonhumans—men and apes, for example—may have evolved from a common ancestor.

In practice, few districts have dropped evolution outright, although some teach it along with opposing theories. But the board’s guidelines have been deplored by GOP Gov. Bill Graves, a moderate, by University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway, and by mainstream scientists generally.

Meanwhile, the stand-up comics have had a field day. “You look around Kansas, and you think maybe Darwin was wrong,” actor Robin Williams joked.

As it happens, this month marks the 75^th anniversary of the famous Scopes “monkey trial” in Dayton, Tenn. Biology teacher John T. Scopes lost that trial when the jury convicted him of violating a Tennessee law barring the teaching of theories contrary to the Biblical narrative of man’s creation. But Darwinists won the public-opinion war: Mr. Darwin’s theory became accepted wisdom. Now, says the third Republican in the race, the accepted wisdom may be about to change.

“I believe the next Dayton is going to be Kansas,” Gary Morsch says.

Differing Positions

The three Republicans offer voters three distinct positions. Mr. Musil thinks the state board’s decision was wrongheaded. Mr. Kline, a powerful state legislator, says “the board got two out of three right. Evolution ought to be taught as a theory and not as a fact. And there should be a local option.” However, Rep. Kline thinks the board went too far in removing questions from the standards.

Dr. Morsch, a physician who now devotes most of his time to business and humanitarian affairs, vigorously advocates the teaching of evolution as a “major, major part of our scientific heritage.” But personally, he says, “I can’t buy Darwin’s theory.” He says that theory is analogous to believing that random events could produce a computer chip—and then the whole computer. He’s in the intelligent design camp.

“I believe the name of that designer is God,” he says. But he notes that others in the camp might simply attribute creation to some force that is beyond present human understanding.

Dr. Morsch, like Rep. Kline, didn’t set out to make evolution a focus of his campaign. A top priority is his call for a bipartisan commission to hammer out a health-insurance plan for the 44 million people who lack coverage.

Energizing Effort

“What Greg Musil has accomplished is to define ‘us’ and ‘them,’ “ says Jeffrey Colyer, a plastic surgeon who considered entering the GOP nomination race himself. But in attempting to energize moderates, Mr. Musil has also energized Christian conservatives. His statements, combined with an intense conservative-vs.-moderate race for the local seat on state school board, almost ensure a big conservative turnout on Aug. 1.

But the GOP evolution brouhaha does give comfort to Rep. Moore, a man who needs all the help he can get. With the GOP clinging to a narrow six-seat majority in the House, both parties have targeted this district. A host of interest groups is piling in. Rep. Moore has worked to position himself as a moderate who can work in a bipartisan fashion, a mandatory strategy in a district where registered Democrats come in third behind registered Republicans and independents. Two years ago he won by fewer than 10,000 votes out of about 200,000 cast. But this presidential election year is expected to boost turnout by as many as 100,000 voters, and George W. Bush will run strongly here. Rep. Moore calls the board’s decisions “a step backward.”

The big question is whether Republicans can unite after their primary, says Vince Snowbarger, the GOP incumbent whom Mr. Moore unseated in 1998. “I’m not sure the divisions have healed yet. It will take another election to find out.”

Write to Dennis Farney at dennis.farney@wsj.com1

URL for this Article:

http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB962837706711299727.djm

Hyperlinks in this Article:

(1) mailto:dennis.farney@wsj.com