Sure, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is getting all the ink right now about being Sen. Barack Obama’s vice presidential running mate.

But is she the greatest governor in Kansas history?

This is a post I want you the readers to write. Who do you think is the greatest modern Kansas governor and why? I define “modern” only slightly arbitrarily. My criteria for modern is that it is a post-Docking governor and a governor during my working knowledge of Kansas history.

Hence, I start with Gov. Robert Bennett.

As comments come in, I’ll periodically promote them to full posts.

Based on my knowledge of Kansas history, I would declare Gov. John Carlin as the state’s greatest modern governor because of what he did with economic development and getting a severance tax on the most powerful lobby of all in Kansas, the oil industry.

So, make your case!

Here’s a list of the “modern” Kansas governors and lieutenant governors since 1975 from Wikipedia:

39	Robert F. Bennett	Republican	January 13, 1975	January 8, 1979	Shelby Smith
40	John W. Carlin	Democratic	January 8, 1979	January 12, 1987	Paul V. Dugan
					Thomas R. Docking
41	Mike Hayden	Republican	January 12, 1987	January 14, 1991	Jack D. Walker
42	Joan Finney	Democratic	January 14, 1991	January 9, 1995	James Francisco
43	Bill Graves	Republican	January 9, 1995	January 13, 2003	Sheila Frahm
					Gary Sherrer
44	Kathleen Sebelius	Democratic	January 13, 2003	Incumbent	John E. Moore	[6]
					Mark Parkinson

Technorati Tags: Kansas governors, Kansas history, Kathleen Sebelius, John Carlin, Robert Bennett