Roxana Hegeman and John Hanna, Associated Press
photo by: AP File Photo
In this Aug. 24, 2020, file photo, Carl Folsom III speaks at a news conference at the Statehouse in Topeka. (Evert Nelson/The Topeka Capital-Journal via AP, File)
TOPEKA (AP) Republicans in the Kansas Senate on Thursday rejected Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s nomination of a public defender to the state’s second-highest court for the second time in eight months, despite support for him from the state’s top federal prosecutor and other attorneys.
The vote on Carl Folsom III’s nomination was 18-17, but he needed 21 votes in the 40-member Senate to join the Kansas Court of Appeals. It was a stinging defeat for Kelly, who said in nominating Folsom a second time after the Senate rejected him in June that she expected senators to reverse themselves and “do the right thing.”