Stephen Six

Stephen N. Six
Attorney General of Kansas
Former officeholder
In office
2008-2010
Party	Democratic
Education
Bachelor's	Carleton College (1988)
J.D.	University of Kansas (1993)
Personal
Profession	Lawyer
Websites
Office website

Stephen N. Six (born December 11, 1965) was the Democratic Attorney General of Kansas from 2008 until 2010.

He was appointed to the position by former Governor and Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in 2008 following the resignation of Paul Morrison in the wake of his sex scandal. On June 3, 2010, he launched his campaign to be officially elected to the statewide position. However, Six went on to lose in the general election on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 after receiving slightly under forty-two percent of the vote.

Biography

Education

• Bachelor's degree, Carleton College (1988) in economics
• Juris Doctorate degree, University of Kansas (1993)

Professional experience

Shortly after graduating with his law degree, Six worked as a clerk for Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. For eleven years beginning in 1994, he served as a partner in the Kansas City-based private practice law firm of Shamberg, Johnson, & Bergman. In January 2005, Six was appointed as judge on the Douglas County Circuit Court by Governor Kathleen Sebelius.

Political career

Attorney General of Kansas (2006-2010)

Six was the Democratic Attorney General of Kansas from 2008 until 2010.

He was appointed to the position by former Governor and Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in 2008 following the resignation of Paul Morrison in the wake of his sex scandal. On June 3, 2010, he launched his campaign to be officially elected to the statewide position. However, Six went on to lose in the general election on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 after receiving slightly under forty-two percent of the vote.

Political issues

Healthcare reform

See also: State Attorneys General Against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010

About three weeks after the historic passage of the United States Senate version of the health care reform legislation on Christmas Eve in 2009, State Attorney General Stephen Six wrote a letter to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid requesting the removal of language in the bill that would benefit Nebraska at the expense of other states. The stipulation in question was the back room deal Reid struck with Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson to recruit him as the 60th vote needed to pass the measure, an arrangement "dubbed the "Nebraska Compromise" or the "Cornhusker Kickback" by Republican critics." The agreement gives Nebraska exemption from its share of the Medicaid expansion, "a carve out that is expected to cost the federal government $100 million over 10 years." Six argued that the "special treatment for Nebraska would unfairly require taxpayers in Kansas and other states to share the cost of health care reform."

On the same morning President Barack Obama signed into law his controversial health care reform measure, The Affordable Patient Protection Act of 2009, the one that narrowly passed the United States House of Representatives just two days before, Republican Congressman Lynn Jenkins and State Senator Jim Barnett requested that the state's attorney general join fourteen other states in challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform measure. In addition to the unconstitutionality of the "individual mandate" that would require all citizens to purchase insurance, "the bill’s expansion of Medicaid imposes a fiscal strain on state budgets already hurting from the economic downturn," such as Kansas, which, at the time, was suffering from a $400 million shortfall.

However, after completing a legal review of the health care reform measure, Six declined requests to sue the federal government over the issue after he and his staffers failed to find "any constitutional defects" in the law. Insisting that his decision was "based strictly on the law, not politics," he argued that the suit had little to no chance of success, noting that the United States Supreme Court often refused to overturn legislation "unless a clear and direct constitutional violation is shown." Furthermore, Six stated, he did not feel it was in the best interest of Kansas taxpayers to squander scarce resources during the time of a budget shortfall.

Elections

2010

See also: Kansas Attorney General election, 2010

• 2010 Race for Attorney General - Democratic Primary

• Stephen Six ran unopposed in this contest

2010 Race for Attorney General - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Republican Party	a Derek Schmidt	54.9%
	Democratic Party	Stephen Six	41.9%
	Libertarian Party	Dennis Hawver	3.2%
Total Votes			834,704

Personal

Six currently resides in Kansas with his wife, Betsy Brand, and their four children - Emily, Sam, Henry, and Will. He is also a practicing member of the United Church of Christ.

External links

• Stephen Six for Attorney General Campaign website
• Stephen Six's Facebook profile
• Stephen Six's Twitter account
• Project Vote Smart - Stephen Six biography

References

Political offices
Preceded by Paul J. Morrison	Kansas Attorney General 2008–2010	Succeeded by Derek Schmidt