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Tom Arpke

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Tom Arpke
Image of Tom Arpke
Prior offices
Kansas House of Representatives District 69

Kansas State Senate District 24

Education

Bachelor's

Florida State University, 1974

Personal
Religion
Christian

Tom Arpke (b. February 6, 1952) is a former Republican member of the Kansas State Senate, representing District 24 from 2013 to 2017. Arpke served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2011 to 2013.

Biography

Arpke earned his B.S. in Microbiology from Florida State University in 1974. His professional experience includes working as an account manager for Nalco and the United States Water Services.[1]

Committee assignments

2015 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2015 legislative session, Arpke served on the following committees:

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Arpke served on the following committees:

Kansas committee assignments, 2013
Education, Vice chair
Natural Resources
Ways and Means

2011-2012

Arpke served on the following committees in the 2011-2012 legislative session:

Campaign themes

2012

Arpke's website highlighted the following campaign themes:[2]

  • Excerpt: "I favor lowering the tax burden on Kansas families and businesses."
  • Excerpt: "[I] feel that family values and respect for life are core elements that need to be supported in all legislative activities."
  • Excerpt: "I have participated in this process of getting back to the people, to listen to their thoughts, discover their dreams, and renew within them a sense of hope in the legislative process."

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.


Elections

2016

See also: Kansas State Senate elections, 2016

Elections for the Kansas State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was June 1, 2016.

Randall Hardy defeated Donald Merriman in the Kansas State Senate District 24 general election.[3][4]

Kansas State Senate, District 24 General Election, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Randall Hardy 59.06% 16,195
     Democratic Donald Merriman 40.94% 11,228
Total Votes 27,423
Source: Kansas Secretary of State


Donald Merriman ran unopposed in the Kansas State Senate District 24 Democratic primary.[5][6]

Kansas State Senate, District 24 Democratic Primary, 2016
Party Candidate
    Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Donald Merriman  (unopposed)


Randall Hardy defeated incumbent Tom Arpke and John Price in the Kansas State Senate District 24 Republican primary.[5][6]

Kansas State Senate, District 24 Republican Primary, 2016
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.png Randall Hardy 46.34% 4,307
     Republican Tom Arpke Incumbent 41.79% 3,884
     Republican John Price 11.87% 1,103
Total Votes 9,294

Primary election

In the primary elections held on August 2, 2016, six incumbents were defeated in the state Senate, while nine incumbents were defeated in the state House. Outside of the one incumbent Democrat who was defeated in the House, moderates defeated 14 conservative Republican incumbents in the primary. Before the 2016 primary, moderate Republicans had been losing ground in the state legislature since the 2010 election of Gov. Sam Brownback (R), shifting from a more moderate Republican-controlled state legislature to a more conservative one after the 2012 elections. Eighteen Republican incumbents were defeated in the conservative wave in 2012. Tom Arpke was one of 14 Republican incumbents who were defeated in the 2016 primary.

2012

See also: Kansas State Senate elections, 2012

Arpke won election in the 2012 election for Kansas State Senate District 24. Arpke defeated Pete Brungardt in the August 7 Republican primary and defeated Janice Norlin (D) in the general election, which took place on November 6, 2012.[7][8]

Kansas State Senate, District 24, General Election, 2012
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Republican Green check mark transparent.pngTom Arpke 56.5% 15,112
     Democratic Janice Norlin 43.5% 11,650
Total Votes 26,762
Kansas State Senate, District 24 Republican Primary, 2012
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.pngTom Arpke 55.4% 5,413
Pete Brungardt Incumbent 44.6% 4,354
Total Votes 9,767

2010

See also: Kansas House of Representatives elections, 2010

Arpke defeated incumbent Deena Horst in the Republican primary on August 3, 2010 by a margin of 1,205-898.[9] Horst was seeking her ninth term. Arpke defeated Gerrett Morris (D) in the general election on November 2, 2010.[10]

Kansas House of Representatives, District 69 General Election (2010)
Candidates Votes
Green check mark transparent.pngTom Arpke (R) 3,733
Gerrett Morris (D) 2,106

2009

Arpke was elected to the Salina city commission in 2009.

One of the major issues of the campaign was a near-total smoking ban enacted by the city commission in January. Arpke said he wouldn't have voted for it but supported putting it up to the public. "I think the fewer laws we have telling people how to run their businesses, the better off we are," he stated.[11]

Arpke received a total of 2,386 votes, winning by 332.

Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Tom Arpke campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2012Kansas State Senate, District 24Won $69,611 N/A**
2010Kansas State House, District 69Won $10,980 N/A**
2008Kansas State Senate, District 24Lost $17,004 N/A**
Grand total$97,595 N/A**
Sources: OpenSecretsFederal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

Kansas Freedom Index

The Kansas Policy Institute, Kansas’s "first free market think tank," releases its legislator scorecard as a part of its Kansas Freedom Index for Kansas state representatives and senators once a year. The Score Card gives each legislator a score from 1%-100% based on how they voted in the prior legislative term on specific issues which the Kansas Policy Institute thought were pro-limited government policies.[12]

2013

Tom Arpke received a score of 69.0% in the 2013 index.[13]

Endorsements

2016

In 2016, Arpke's endorsements included the following:[14]

2012

Gov. Sam Brownback (R) endorsed Arpke over incumbent Pete Brungardt.[15]

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Arpke and his wife, Beth, have five children.[1]

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Tom + Arpke + Kansas + House"

See also

External links

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by
Pete Brungardt (R)
Kansas State Senate District 24
2013–2017
Succeeded by
Randall Hardy (R)
Preceded by
Deena Horst (R)
Kansas House of Representatives District 69
2011-2013
Succeeded by
J.R. Claeys (R)


Current members of the Kansas State Senate
Leadership
Senate President:Ty Masterson
Majority Leader:Chase Blasi
Minority Leader:Dinah Sykes
Senators
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
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District 18
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District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
Mary Ware (D)
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
Tory Blew (R)
District 34
District 35
TJ Rose (R)
District 36
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
Republican Party (31)
Democratic Party (9)