Party to replace legislator
Hill wins Senate seat in other counties
Staff writer
Northern and eastern Marion County soon will be getting a new state representative.
Scott Hill, who has represented the 70th House District for the past 2½ years, was chosen Monday night to replace J.R. Claeys as state senator for the 24th District, consisting of Dickinson and Saline counties.
In a vote of Republican precinct committeemen and women meeting in Salina, Hill defeated former Saline County treasurer Jim DeBois, 67-59.
As soon as Hill’s selection formally is accepted by Gov. Laura Kelly, Hill will resign as 70th District state representative.
Within 21 days after that, Republican precinct committeemen and women in portions of Marion and Dickinson counties and a single township of McPherson County will meet to select his successor as state representative.
State and congressional district party officials were present for Hill’s surprise victory Monday night.
Observers attributed his selection to a strong campaign by members of Hill’s fundamentalist church, non-denominational Emmanuel Church in Abilene, and to a whisper campaign against DeBois, whose county office was investigated at his request for alleged wrongdoing by an employee.
“We’ve lost control of the Republican Party,” former Dickinson County party chairman John Nachtman, a retired KBI agent, said after Hill’s selection.
Hill’s fundamentalist roots — he tried as a member of the state board of education to remove evolution from public school curricula — were credited with his victory in 2002 over incumbent John Barker in the 70th District.
Hill is a frequent and popular visitor to the anti-abortion, pro-guns Patriots for Liberty group run by Marion County Republican chairman Rose Davidson, who has presided at some meetings while wearing a gun on her hip.
The group frequently discusses ultra-conservative conspiracy theories.
Hill will not represent Marion County in the state senate. The county’s state senator is Michael Fagg of El Dorado.
Claeys, from Salina, ran the unsuccessful 2018 gubernatorial campaign of Kris Kobach, now attorney general. He finished third behind eventual winner Kobach in a 2010 primary campaign for secretary of state.
While a senator, Claeys also served as a senior adviser to Kobach and as a political consultant with Axiom Strategies, a leading Republican firm.
He resigned from the senate, Axiom, and Kobach’s staff June 2 to accept a position with the Trump administration as director of the Rural Business Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 2011, the Federal Trade Commission imposed 20 years of sanctions against Claeys and his company, Tested Green, for falsely claiming to have tested products and for claiming that the tests were certified by two other groups, which he actually owned.