TOPEKA, Kan. — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has moved a Kansas Statehouse meditation room created by Republicans as a place for prayer and reflection to a less-visible space to create more room for her staff and enable them to follow social distancing.

The new meditation room is on the northwest side of the building’s basement floor, down an out-of-the-way hall. The meditation space was until earlier this month on the Statehouse’s second floor, where Kelly and her staff have their offices.

Kelly spokeswoman Lauren Fitzgerald says the change ensures that the governor’s expanding constituent-services staff can follow social distancing.

But Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican and frequent Kelly critic, suggested the governor “increased government so much that staffers need to take over a long-standing room for prayer.”