1/24/2018

AMBASSADOR/GOP/POLITICAL FIGURES: “Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas was narrowly confirmed to an ambassadorship on Wednesday [1-24-18] after a six-month wait that left Kansans increasingly confused about who was in charge of their state.
The Senate split 49-49 along party lines on the nomination of Mr. Brownback, a Republican who has grown unpopular in Kansas, to be ambassador at large for international religious freedom. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tiebreaking vote.
Many religious leaders praised Mr. Brownback’s confirmation, and said he could use his political experience to help religious minorities, including oppressed Christian and Yazidi communities in the Middle East… Many Democrats and gay rights advocates opposed the nomination of Mr. Brownback, who ended anti-discrimination protections for gay state workers in 2015.
Mr. Brownback, who served seven years as governor after stints in both chambers of Congress, drew national attention to Kansas after he oversaw the largest income tax cuts in state history. But the missed revenue forecasts and wholesale cuts to state services that followed led many legislative Republicans to buck Mr. Brownback and undo his signature policy last year.
Mr. Brownback, whose term would have ended next January, was passed over for more prominent jobs in the Trump administration. When he was nominated for the religious freedom ambassadorship last summer, many expected a swift confirmation.
Mr. Brownback began handing off tasks to Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer after he was nominated, but month after awkward month passed in Topeka without a confirmation vote. Mr. Trump had to renominate Mr. Brownback this month after the full Senate declined to vote last year.”

-Mitch Smith, “After Long Wait in Kansas, Gov. Sam Brownback Gets Ambassadorship,” The New York Times online, Jan. 24, 2018