There have been plenty of rumors about Kansas elected officials joining the administration of President-elect Donald Trump.
Most of that has focused on people like Gov. Sam Brownback or Secretary of State Kris Kobach taking a cabinet job. But Trump will get to appoint much more than just the cabinet positions that run federal agencies.
Washburn University political science professor Bob Beatty says these lower positions in the agencies are still important federal jobs and could be attractive spots for Kansas elected officials.
“The spoils system has essentially been outlawed, because it used to be tens of thousands of jobs a president handed out," Beatty says. "But there are still a couple thousand jobs out there and in hundreds of them you run a department."
Trump has already selected Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Kobach met with Trump recently and was photographed holding a plan for the Department of Homeland Security.