Source: The Boston Globe
Wire Service: AP
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/08/03/evolution_foes_lose_kan_board_majority/
On August 3, 2006 the Associated Press reported, "Conservative Republicans who pushed anti-evolution standards back into Kansas schools last year have lost control of the state Board of Education once again. The most closely watched race was in western Kansas, where incumbent conservative Connie Morris lost her GOP primary Tuesday. The former teacher had described evolution as 'an age-old fairy tale' and 'a nice bedtime story' unsupported by science. As a result of Tuesday's vote, board members and candidates who believe evolution is well supported by evidence will have a 6-to-4 majority. Evolution skeptics had entered the election with a 6-to-4 majority. Critics of Kansas's science standards worried that if conservatives retained the board's majority, it would lead to other states copying the Kansas standards. Also Tuesday, Kansas Republicans chose a nominee to challenge Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius in November. With all precincts reporting early yesterday, state Senator Jim Barnett captured his party's nomination with 36 percent of the vote, besting six other candidates. Control of the school board has slipped into, out of, and back into conservative Republicans' hands since 1998, resulting in anti-evolution standards in 1999, evolution-friendly ones in 2001, and anti- evolution ones again last year. The school board contest was part of a larger effort by the intelligent-design movement to introduce its ideas in public schools. A suburban Atlanta school district is locked in a legal dispute over its putting stickers in biology textbooks declaring evolution 'a theory, not a fact.'"