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Topeka’s ‘Biggest’ Day: Bush, Kerry and Brown Ruling

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Times Staff Writer

The president needed children, the caller said.

Last Monday, a National Parks Service employee was asking Marty Gies, a local grade school principal, to get a few hundred kids to attend President Bush’s speech here today on the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education school-desegregation decision.

The next day, the other political camp was on the line: John F. Kerry was also coming to Topeka to speak on the steps of the state Capitol. He needed kids too.

“We were going to send our second-graders to Kerry and the others to Bush,” said Gies, whose school is near the site of the once all-black Monroe Elementary School central to the historic case. “But the administration chose to divide the request between two schools.”

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For a state capital like Topeka -- population 120,000 -- a presidential visit alone is a once-in-a-decade event that’s enough to give city officials logistical fits: the invasion of Secret Service, traffic tie ups made by a motorcade whose every turn is carried live on TV, sprucing up civic eyesores.

But throw in a same-day visit by the presumed Democratic nominee for president -- less than six months before election day -- and you can see what jittery Topeka is up against: the political version of harmonic convergence.

This town hasn’t felt such ceremonial goose bumps since that July day in 1936 when Kansas Gov. Alfred M. Landon stood on the Capitol steps to accept the Republican nomination to face Franklin D. Roosevelt for the presidency. And many say this event will top even that one.

“This is the biggest day in Topeka history, period,” crooned Mayor James A. McClinton. “It probably won’t be repeated again.”

Presidential candidates on the stump don’t normally like to share the spotlight. Like political air-traffic controllers, the campaigns track each other’s whereabouts and -- short of a debate that might bring both to the same town -- usually give each other at least a region’s worth of breathing room.

But with an event such as the celebration of the Brown case, all such strategies go out the window. Kansans like to tell the story of how the state’s first two Model Ts had an unlikely collision. But with a little luck and exacting schedule-makers, that accident won’t be repeated, they say.

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Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, is scheduled to arrive first at the city’s largely deserted Forbes Field Airport, which last year saw its last commercial air carrier leave town. And his chartered 727 jetliner will be off the ground at 11:15 a.m. and headed for Portland, Ore., by the time Bush touches down before noon in Air Force One.

“The Kerry people want to be out of here before the president arrives,” said David Stremming, president of the Metropolitan Topeka Airport Authority. “Because once Air Force One enters our air space, no other traffic is allowed within a 30-mile radius.”

To avoid any confusion, Kerry’s plane will taxi to the airport’s old commercial area, while Bush will deplane at a site used by the Kansas Air National Guard. The planes will use the same runway.

Because, as any political advance team knows, the worst nightmare would be to have the two motorcades actually encounter one another. Said Michelle Butler, a staffer for Rep. Jim Ryun, a Kansas Republican who helped plan the president’s trip: “I don’t think there’s much chance of that happening.”

The days leading up to today’s celebration have featured a stellar lineup of national figures.

For weeks, rumors circulated here about the possible guest list. First Bush was coming, then he wasn’t. Then Kerry’s name surfaced, along with such nonpolitical luminaries as talk-show host Oprah Winfrey and actor Denzel Washington.

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Then, 10 days ago, the White House finally confirmed Bush’s visit as an official presidential appearance, not a campaign stop. He will give a speech during the ceremony opening the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site at the former Monroe Elementary School.

Last Monday, the Kerry camp announced that he too would attend, as a guest of Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Kerry was scheduled to speak at the Capitol, about six blocks from the Monroe site, along with several civil rights activists.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a former Democratic candidate for president, was also in town for a National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People event, and he spoke Sunday at a local Baptist church.

Before Kerry’s scheduled arrival Sunday night from Las Vegas, his campaign called the downtown Ramada Inn to request “the nicest room in the hotel,” said owner and former Kansas state Sen. James Parrish, a Democrat.

The only place that fit the bill was the so-called Bob Dole Suite, named after the well-known former Republican senator from Kansas and 1996 presidential nominee, who used to regularly stay there.

Bush’s stay in Topeka will last no longer than 90 minutes, but officials still didn’t want the word to get out too soon. “They kept it under wraps,” said Charlene Thormodsgard, who owns a downtown pawnshop. “But we knew. For a while now, there have been Secret Service types crawling all over this place.”

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For days, residents have stood in line for tickets to see both speakers. One grade-school class sent an e-mail to the White House requesting that Bush pay a special visit to their classroom. Meanwhile, the city spent $1.8 million in state and federal funds on refurbishments near the former school, where signs in the hallways have been preserved to make a point about Topeka’s divided past: placards designating “whites” and “coloreds.”

When Mayor McClinton got home last Monday, his wife told him he had a message from the White House. He called back to assure advisors that he would be on hand for the president’s speech. The next day, the Kerry camp called to make sure the mayor would be at their man’s speech as well. He plans to attend both.

Many say today’s visits -- and Topeka’s lasting association with the famous school desegregation case -- will provide a much-needed boost to a city with one of the nation’s highest crime rates, and one that has recently lost numerous jobs.

“This will be a good jolt for our ego,” said Pete Goering, a columnist for the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper. “We’ve taken some real hits lately. So we need something to hang our hat on, even if it’s only for a day.”

Pete Selfridge, a Kerry advance man, has seen the excitement, even in a city where Republicans handily outnumber Democrats. He recalls one morning at a downtown coffeehouse where the waitresses were ruminating about what they’d do if Bush, Kerry and Jackson showed up at the same time.

One, a presumed Democrat, said to her conservative counterpart: “If I got Bush as a customer, I’d have to hand him over to you,” according to Selfridge.

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He also recalled asking a Topekan for directions and being told: “You look like Secret Service. You ought to be able to find anything.”

Standing on the Capitol steps Saturday, Selfridge said the planning was going smoothly, even with both candidate camps vying for limited resources. He pointed to a small stack of security barriers; he hoped there would be more arriving. But he wasn’t sure, since the Bush camp would need its share as well.

Bush is scheduled to be joined onstage by a member of the pop group Destiny’s Child. School Principal Gies said he wasn’t sure which high-powered personality would thrill grade-schoolers the most.

“It’s not every day a student gets to see a sitting U.S. president,” he said. “But truthfully, they’ll probably be more excited to see the singer from Destiny’s Child.”

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