Mary Pilcher-Cook

Mary Pilcher-Cook
Member of the Kansas Senate
from the 10th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
2009
Personal details
Born December 23, 1954
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Don Cook
Residence Shawnee, Kansas
Profession retired software engineer and publisher
Religion Roman Catholic

Mary Pilcher-Cook (born December 23, 1954) is a Republican member of the Kansas Senate, representing the 10th District since 2008.[1] She was a representative on the Kansas House of Representatives from 2000 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2006. She was elected to the Kansas Senate 2008 and re-elected in 2012.

She chairs the Public Health and Welfare Committee, since January 14, 2013. She is vice chair of the Robert G. (Bob) Bethell Joint Committee on Home and Community Based Services and KanCare Oversight. She is considered one of the most vocal opponents of abortion in the Kansas legislature.[2]

She lives in Shawnee, with her husband, Don Cook.

Committee assignments

Pilcher-Cook serves on these legislative committees:[3]

Elections

2012

In the 2012 Republican primary, Pilcher-Cook defeated Tom Wertz. On November 6, 2012, Mary Pilcher-Cook was re-elected to Senate District 10, defeating Democrat Mark J. Greene by a vote of 21,637 to 17,713, a 58 to 42 percent margin.[4][5][6]

2008

On November 4, 2008, Mary Pilcher-Cook was elected to Senate District 10, defeating Democrat Pete Roman by a vote of 19,050 to 13,600, a 54.9 to 45.1 percent margin.[7]

Major donors

Some of the top contributors to Pilcher-Cook's 2008 campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics:[8] Kansas Republican Party, Kansas Republican Senatorial Committee, Richard and Randi Crabtree, Steve and Becky Clark, NPS Sales Inc. and others.

Political parties were her largest donor group.

In 2012 she received major support from SuperPACs such as Americans for Prosperity & Kansans for Life.

Political positions

Mary Pilcher-Cook is a conservative Republican, known for her social conservatism and pro-life stance.

In 2014, on the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, she arranged for a sonogram to take place in the Kansas Statehouse during a meeting of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. The procedure was performed on two women by Cindy Patterson, a sonographer with Wyandotte Pregnancy Clinic, a pregnancy center that offers free sonograms and pro-life counseling to women considering abortion. The clinic is not licensed to give treatment beyond the ultrasound.[9]

Pilcher-Cook has led hearings on surrogacy, which she attempted to criminalize.[10] Senate Bill 302 would have made all agreements, whether oral or in writing, with surrogate mothers null and void. Anyone involved in hiring, or working as, a surrogate could be charged with a misdemeanor, punishable with up to a $10,000 fine and a year in the county jail.[2]

In 2015, she advanced a bill which would not only censor teachers from showing ″harmful material″, but would make way for criminal charges.[11] Senate Bill 56's intention is to remove from state law an exemption from criminal prosecution held by K-12 public, private and parochial school educators regarding presentation of material harmful to minors.[12]

Opponents of SB 56 said the bill is a solution looking for a problem. ″The affirmative defense is not a free pass to break the law and provide harmful materials to minors,″ said David Schauner, General Counsel for the Kansas National Education Association. ″It is, however, a protection against baseless claims attacking legitimate education programs and curriculum.″[13]

The bill gained initial approval in the state Senate on 24 February 2015. The bill passed easily on a voice vote without a single objection, because at least two of the state senate's eight Democrats were out of the chamber, including Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, who was in a meeting in his office.[14] On 25 February 2015, the bill passed the Senate as amended on a 26-14 vote.[15]

Pilcher-Cook pushed a similar bill from a different Senate committee in the 2014 session, but it never cleared the full House or Senate. That bill would have required districts to collect signed consent forms from parents if they wanted their child to learn about sexual education.[13]

Pilcher-Cook endorsed Rick Santorum in the 2012 Republican Presidential Primaries.

References

External links