THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL NEWS TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2012 11Awww.cjonline.com

GOP: Senate president admiredWagle is the first woman elected

by peers to be Senate president and the first member of the Wichita del-egation to lead the Senate. But, the senator said the first she found most meaningful was tied to the fight of her life.

"What is most important to me right now is I have a lot of friends back in Wichita who are still in treat-ment for cancer," said Wagle, who has repeatedly battled the disease. "I'm probably the first survivor to be elected to a position like this. What that does is bring hope and encour-agement to an awful lot of people.

"I know there are an awful lot of people who are looking for a reason to live right now and a reason to go that extra step. What you just did is say, ‘Take that extra step.’ ”

Wagle defeated Sen. Steve Abrams, R-Arkansas City, to secure the four-year term as president. The vote among Republican senators was 23-9.

Sen. Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, was unanimously chosen Senate majority leader. Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, survived a three-way race to win appointment as Senate vice president. Sen. Julia Lynn, R-Olathe, will be the assistant majority leader.

In the House, Republicans voted to make Rep.-elect Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, the House speaker. He won a narrow victory over House Major-ity Leader Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe.

Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka, and Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, were selected to remain leaders of the respective caucuses.

Hensley, leader of the Senate Democrats, said he was optimistic about working with Wagle during the upcoming session. He said the governor's office would exert pres-sure on the Senate to conform to his agenda, but Wagle's track record suggested she wouldn't be a push-over.

"One thing I have always admired about Senator Wagle was she's had an independent streak. She's her own person," Hensley said.

Wagle said she had an answer to critics who assume the new conser-vative Republican leadership will be preoccupied with broadening abortion restrictions, closing the door on illegal immigrants, impos-ing rules on topless clubs or dis-mantling municipal gay and lesbian anti-discrimination mandates.

"We'll prove them wrong," she said. "Right now, my greatest con-cern is the budget deficit we're fac-ing and how we'll resolve that. I think that will clearly dominate the session."

She vowed to support elimina-tion of "any frills" left in the state government budget and cautioned that it might be necessary to extend the elevated statewide sales tax.

"I would like to try to get by with-out doing that, but I don't know if it is possible," the Senate president-elect said.

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Temps, Tops to hit TPACBy Bill Blankenship

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Motown will come to T-Town on March 1 when the Temptations and the Four Tops perform a just-announced concert at the To-peka Performing Arts Center.

Tickets, which are $59.50 and $49.50 plus any applicable fees and taxes, will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday for the 8 p.m. March 1 con-cert.

Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office of TPAC, 214 S.E. 8th, or through Ticketmaster by calling (800) 745-3000 or (866) 448-7849 (automated) or online at www.ticketmaster.com.

The Temptations, which last played at TPAC in 2010, have a legacy of fine-tuned choreography and even finer harmonies that dates back more than five decades. The win-ners of four Grammys, the most recent in 2000, have added several entries to the Great American Songbook.

Three classic Temptations songs, "My Girl," "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," are among The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

The Four Tops were inducted into the Rock

and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award nine years later.

The group, which performed in 2003 at TPAC, added to the Motown Sound such classics as "Baby I Need Your Loving," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," "Reach Out (I'll Be There)" and "Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got)."

Each act has undergone lineup changes — many more so for the Temptations than the Four Tops, which didn't change personnel from 1953 to 1997 — and each only has one original member: Otis Williams in the Temp-tations and Abdul "Duke" Fakir in The Four Tops.

However, the current iterations keep alive their act's trademark sounds.

Also going on sale at 10 a.m. Friday will be tickets to the previously announced 7:30 p.m. Feb 14 concert at TPAC by Five by Design.

The vocal quintet, which performed a 2002 pops concert with the Topeka Symphony Or-chestra, will return with its "Club Swing" pro-gram of memorable tunes of the Swing era that was taped as a pledge special for PBS member stations. Tickets are $30 plus any ap-plicable fees and taxes.