Kansas Official Named to Succeed Dole

Lt. Gov. Sheila Frahm, a Kansas farm wife and school board member who went on to become the first female majority leader of the state Senate, was appointed to Bob Dole’s Senate seat Friday.

Republican Gov. Bill Graves selected the 51-year-old moderate Republican to serve until the seat is filled in the November election.

Although he said about 100 other candidates either called him or were suggested for the appointment, Graves said he chose his lieutenant governor simply because “I know Sheila Frahm better than I know anyone in public service in Kansas.”

Unlike Dole, who backs a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, Frahm is an abortion-rights supporter. “I like to be sure a woman isn’t told by the government how to run her life,” she said in response to a question.

At the Statehouse news conference held to announce her appointment, she said she intends to run in November for the two years remaining in Dole’s term and, if she wins, will be a candidate for election in 1998 to a full six-year term.

Frahm must first win the GOP primary in August against U.S. Rep. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), so far the only other declared candidate for Dole’s seat.

Brownback declared his candidacy last week, two days after Dole announced his resignation. Brownback also sought the temporary appointment by Graves.

Dole said he anticipates having Frahm sworn in within minutes after his resignation, initially set for June 11 but “most likely” to happen sooner, he said. Dole is resigning from the Senate to devote himself full time to his presidential campaign.

Frahm’s announcement could ignite one of the most contentious Republican primary races in years in Kansas: Frahm represents the moderate wing of the state party, while Brownback represents the social conservative wing, which strongly opposes abortion.

Frahm is married to Kenneth Frahm, a wheat farmer, and has three daughters. She began her political career as a school board member in 1979 in Colby, in northwest Kansas.

She was elected to the state Board of Education in 1985, then won a four-year term to the state Senate in 1988. She was reelected in 1992 and in 1993 became the first female Senate majority leader. She was elected as the state’s first female lieutenant governor in 1994.