She's Not In Kansas Anymore

By David Paul Kuhn,
CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer

But Sebelius is unlikely to get the nod. And she knows it.

She says she has not chatted with Kerry about the vice presidency. "But," she laughs, "I've talked to a key staff member. My 23-year-old son works for the Kerry campaign."

Sebelius knows her son Ned doesn't count. Implied in her interview was an understanding she would not be on this Democratic ticket.

"As one of the six women governors, certainly a woman in a Republican state, I am likely, at least, on the radar screen in some kind of mix," she says. "So it does not necessarily surprise me to see my name pop up periodically. But only the Kerry folks could tell you what the process is at this point."

The deadline looms. Kerry will most likely announce his vice president the week after the July 4 holiday, according to those close to the campaign. He almost certainly will announce it prior to the July 26 Democratic convention. In a month we will know, and Sebelius can then go back to focusing on Kansas.

In a state with several hundred thousand more registered Republicans than Democrats, she has to keep her eye on her hard-earned prize, heading a most Midwestern of Midwestern states as a freshman governor.

Sebelius, 56, saw her father, John Gilligan, lose his Ohio governorship in the mid-1970s partly because his attention was on the vice presidency.

Kansas is a tough state to govern. By its sheer geographical width, the state suffers many of the ills of the country as a whole. In the northwest, farmers are reeling along with the Western states from the half-decade-long drought. To the east, the city of Wichita still has not recovered from the 14,000 aircraft industry jobs lost after Sept. 11, 2001.

So Sebelius has enough on her plate. But she's still rooting for a woman to get the nod from Kerry. Other names that have been mentioned: former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

"I think a lot of Americans are reaching the time when they would like to see a woman be seriously considered for the top elected jobs in this country," says Sebelius.

"I think the good news is that the pipeline is getting deeper by the day. We now have eight women serving as governors. We have numbers of talented women in the House and the Senate. And that's really what we needed – to make the radar screen and have a variety of choices."

For this reason, if not for election 2004, Sebelius wants to keep herself on the national political stage. Should Kerry lose this year, is it impossible to conceive an all-female Democratic ticket in 2008?

Led by Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the party could compensate Clinton's liberal East Coast persona with Sebelius' Midwestern appeal. She looks the part: ennobled politician and mother, with silver hair and a warm middle-American disposition.

For a Democrat to step up to the national stage today means taking on the president. This month in Washington, after working on the planning committee for late July's Democratic convention in Boston, Sebelius did just that. She denounced President Bush's health care policies. Joining Sebelius was a fellow Kerry vice-presidential contender, Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa.

Along with Vilsack, the names at the top of Kerry's short list include former Gen. Wesley Clark, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri and the favorite, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina. But Sebelius thinks the veepstakes drama is overrated.

"I just am not sure, in the bottom line, when a voter goes into a polling place solo that that makes the ultimate difference," she says. "Can it help get the message out by driving money? Sure. Can you be more places with a good surrogate? Sure. So there is certainly a way to help, and hurt, as a vice-presidential candidate. But I don't think it makes the ultimate difference of where the vote ends up."