Rubin announces resignation

Rep. John Rubin announced his
resignation from the House today

State Representative John Rubin today announced his resignation from the House. Rubin was and remains a staunch conservative and a reasonable man who was a pleasure to work with for many of us disability advocates. Both those attributes are important in our world. Our support has come, historically, from both parties and from all various philosophical camps. In recent years the partisanship has made our non-partisan support more difficult to organize, and it has hurt.

Having one less friend in the House will hurt us as well.

John Rubin is one of those elected officials who moved easily from partisanship to principle, when it came to disability issues.

He raised his voice in support of our efforts to carve-out IDD from KanCare, and more recently to speak out against inappropriate seclusions and restraints used in the classroomn, often against kids with disabilities .. John Rubin worked with us, on behalf of Kansans with disabilities.

It is a sad day that he has announced his resignation from the House, and sadder still that he felt driven to do so, after having been punished by House leaders for speaking out on a bill he felt was important.

We will miss John Rubin in the House. I hope he changes his mind.