• Background
• Career: KS State House of Representatives, KS Insurance Commissioner, Governor
• Governor: Bipartisan governing, balanced budget, improvements in education
• Criticism: No funding source for education
• Biography Links: Wikipedia, official

Background

• Sebelius was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• She received her bachelor's degree from Trinity Washington University and a Master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Kansas.
• Her father, John J. Gilligan, is the former governor of Ohio. After their election, they became the first father/daughter governor pair in the United States. Her husband, Gary Sebelius, is a federal magistrate judge and son of Keith Sebelius, a former U.S. Representative.

Career

• Kansas House of Representatives, 1986 - 1994.
• Kansas State Insurance Commissioner: Credited to bringing the agency out from under influence of the insurance industry. She blocked the proposed merger of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, the state's largest health insurer, with an Indiana-based company.
• Governor, 2002-present: Voted one of Time Magazine's top 5 governors in the U.S in 2005.
• Chair of the Democratic Governors Association, 2006-present. She also chairs the Education Commission of the States, as well as serving on the National Governors Association�s Executive Committee.

Governor

• Through spending cuts, fee increases and borrowing, Sebelius eliminate Kansas' $1.1 billion budget deficit in her first year in office without raising taxes or cutting essential services.
• Bridging partisan divide: After the Kansas Supreme Court ordered increase its spending on education by about $150 million in 2005, she persuaded moderates support a compromise plan that complies with the decision. She chose Mark Parkinson, a popular and successful GOP Party Chairman, as Lieutenant Governor.
• Vetoed a concealed-carry gun law that would have allowed citizens to carry concealed weapons after obtaining a state permit and passing a FBI background check.

Criticism

• Sebelius deferred the issue of funding education to the Kansas legislature, which resulted in a three three year plan to increase funding by $1 billion but did not give a funding source for the second and third years. Projections show the state in debt by millions of dollars halfway into the second year of the plan.

Biography Links

• Wikipedia
• Official