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Kansas Governor In Demand At DNC

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-754280.mp3

Denver, CO – People watching TV tonight will see something strange, a Kansas governor addressing the Democratic National Convention, in prime time. KCUR's Frank Morris is at the convention in Denver, and reports that Sebelius is in high demand there.

There's a lot of gossip at these national conventions, but guess who was, apparently, hanging around with Senator Joe Biden, the Vice Presidential candidate and Senator Clinton today: Kathleen Sebelius. This, remember is a woman from a small state, where Republicans outnumber Democrats almost 2 to 1.

Lt. Governor Mark Parkinson says it's fun having such a big shot leading the delegation. Parkinson says, "One of the things that's made the convention exciting is that Kathleen's national stature couldn't be any higher. She's speaking to the convention tonight. The level of respect she has when she walks around, she's a real star in the Democratic party."

Parkinson says Kansas objectives are getting more attention than they would otherwise at this convention. He says an Obama victory could help Kansas win an anti-bio-terrorism lab, and help Boeing compete for the big air force tanker contract, though no one, even here, seriously predicts Obama will carry Kansas.

I’ve been at KCUR almost 30 years, working partly for NPR and splitting my time between local and national reporting. I work to bring extra attention to people in the Midwest, my home state of Kansas and of course Kansas City. What I love about this job is having a license to talk to interesting people and then crafting radio stories around their voices. It’s a big responsibility to uphold the truth of those stories while condensing them for lots of other people listening to the radio, and I take it seriously. Email me at frank@kcur.org or find me on Twitter @FrankNewsman.
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