Sheila Hochhauser Doing Well Despite Election Defeat
by Deb Taylor

November 5 saw the reelection of President Clinton and the defeat of just about every lesbigay-supporting candidate in Kansas. Manhattan was not the exception. State Representative Sheila Hochhauser, a long-time supporter of the Manhattan lesbigay community and Representative since 1988, was defeated by Republican Jeff Peterson. Peterson, who won by 900 votes, is a past Student Body President at KSU. His post-academic job history includes working at a Manhattan bank for less than one year.

How does Sheila feel about the election turnout in general? "It’s really depressing," she said. She’s more upset about Karen McCollough (Riley County Commission) and Eloise Lynch (School Board) losing their elections. She reasons that at least the students went out to vote FOR Jeff; unfortunately, since they knew nothing about the other candidates, Sheila believes these students merely voted straight Republican. As a result, Eloise Lynch, who won overwhelmingly in Salina, lost in Manhattan.

Sheila believes that the students, who voted in higher numbers this year, voted ignorantly. This, coupled with the fact that the non-student community did not come out to vote in large numbers, contributed to Sheila losing her election.

Sheila states that we need to figure out as a community what we think about transient students voting. She feels that students will probably not vote in future elections unless another KSU student runs for office. The community needs to figure out how it wants to deal with students who register in Riley County but who do not pay taxes here.

"I feel badly for this community," stated Sheila. "Jeff does not represent this district." She believes it’s unfortunate that Manhattan voted for a 23-year-old inexperienced person because of popularity and partisan reasons.

Sheila said that her political career is now over. She joined a legal practice here in Manhattan last year, and she plans to practice law more regularly. Sheila wants the lesbigay community to know that she is available for legal representation if we need it. "Some members [of the lesbigay community] are already my clients," Sheila said. Sheila practices all types of law except tax. Employment law is her specialty. She regularly works with same-sex couple legal situations. Her work number is 776-1000.

Sheila is happy to speak on legal or legislative issues to FHA or BGLS. She looks forward to continuing her relationship with the Manhattan lesbigay community.

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