Best Politician

This year, the Rev. Jerry Johnston has emerged as a political force with which the metro area must reckon. Disgusted by the Kansas Legislature's defeat of a proposal that would have constitutionally outlawed gay marriage, Johnston mobilized a voter-registration and information campaign leading up to the August primary elections. In the process, he put on several forums at his First Family Church in south Overland Park, invited Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline as a guest and published a marginally legal voter guide naming the candidates who were for and against the gay-marriage amendment. His work did not produce a landslide of conservative victories in Johnson County, though Johnston might get credit for Kris Kobach's Republican primary defeat of the more moderate Adam Taff in the race for Congress. And Johnston can point to election results showing that more conservatives voted than in the past. Then last month, he invited the Rev. Jerry Falwell to help fire up the troops. Conservative Christians all over the country have spent this election season seeking even greater political mobilization, and Johnston is the metro's leading foot soldier.