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Election night totals shocking to Rep. Frownfelter

by Mary Rupert

Note: The election totals were updated on Thursday to Aaron Coleman, 800, Rep. Stan Frownfelter, 797, a three-vote margin.

State Rep. Stan Frownfelter, D-37th Dist., said he was shocked by Tuesday night’s election results. He was one vote behind challenger Aaron Coleman in the Democratic primary at the end of the night.

Coleman, 19, upset Rep. Frownfelter in the closest contest in Wyandotte County on Tuesday. The election is not over yet, though.

There still may be votes left to count in the mail, as ballots postmarked by Tuesday have until Friday to get to the Election Office. Also, there are hundreds of provisional ballots that the Board of Canvassers will decide on Aug. 17, Rep. Frownfelter said. After those results, he will determine if he will ask for a recount.

“Anytime you run for office, you know something might happen,” said Rep. Frownfelter, who has served 14 years in the Legislature. Still, he believes he represented his territory and did a good job for the residents there, he said.

While he doesn’t know exactly how many votes are still out within the 37th District, there may be 400 to 600 more votes that may be considered, when the mail ballots are added to provisional ballots, Rep. Frownfelter said.

Frownfelter’s opponent, Aaron Coleman, said he went door-to-door to at least 70 percent of the homes in the district, talking to voters. A Bernie Sanders supporter, Coleman also said on Wednesday that he thought the election results showed the strength of the progressive movement.

The 69-year-old legislator has been in office since 2007 and has been a strong supporter of the rights of workers. He said he also campaigned door-to-door in July.

“I did as much as I could with the heat and everything, walk an hour, sit a bit,” Rep. Frownfelter said.

Rep. Frownfelter said although there was a good turnout overall in Wyandotte County, around 28 percent, in his district in Turner there was less than 10 percent turnout. Only about 1,500 out of 22,000 voters in the district cast a ballot by Tuesday night.

“That doesn’t show a good representation for our area at all,” he said.

Inappropriate statements

In the last week before the election, Coleman was criticized for social media comments he made concerning Herman Cain and others, saying Republicans deserved to fall ill or die if they didn’t wear a mask. His statements blew up before the election. Coleman has been a member of the Young Democrats, but ran for governor previously as an independent.

The Kansas Young Democrats on July 31 issued an apology and stated that they “strongly condemn this type of rhetoric.” The state Young Democrats also urged people to vote for Rep. Frownfelter.

Rep. Frownfelter said he was shocked by Coleman’s social media posts. Rep. Frownfelter said he had never wished anyone ill will or death because they had a difference of opinion.

Coleman wrote on social media in response to the Kansas Young Democrats apology: “What is worse, joking about someone dying. Or actions that literally kill people. The answer: both are equally disturbing and should be condemned in every instance.”

Rep. Frownfelter said in order to get anything passed in the Legislature, they need 63 votes, and the Democrats have been around 20 votes short of that. So in order to get any measures through, they need to be flexible and need to work well with Republicans, he said.

Other legislators talked Rep. Frownfelter into running again

Rep. Frownfelter earlier had been discussing retiring from the Legislature this year, and mentioned it during a televised forum while running for a Board of Public Utilities seat in 2019.

“I’ve seen my time there, it’s time for me to leave,” he said at a community candidate forum for Board of Public Utilities candidates in 2019. (The forum is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBoLBOTUa24&list=PLMfeRPiOepX3QCrG-AjEhV6mCBb7y_43O&index=3&t=0s.)

What he meant by that, he said today, is that if he had won the BPU seat, it’s likely that he would not have run again for the state Legislature. After he lost the BPU contest, other legislators talked to him and asked him to run again, he said.

Had he announced that he would not run for certain, there would have been a lot more candidates who filed in the Democratic primary, he added.

Redistricting and importance of the 2020 election

This 2020 election is important, Rep. Frownfelter said, because redistricting will be coming up in the Legislature.

He’s been through that before, and remembers how redistricting once drastically reduced the numbers of Democrats in the Legislature, from 48 to 33, by redrawing lines that made it harder to elect Democrats in some districts.

Besides redistricting, there are other important issues that could come up in the next session, such as Medicaid expansion.

In Tuesday’s primary in the rest of the state, more than 10 moderate Republicans lost to Republican conservatives, Rep. Frownfelter said. That included Sen. John Skubal of Overland Park, as well as Rep. Jan Kessinger of Overland Park.

Republicans mounting a challenge in Wyandotte County this year; GOP to field write-in candidate in 37th District

Wyandotte County Republicans are mounting a challenge this year, according to State Sen. Kevin Braun, R-5th Dist., the county’s GOP chairman.

Sen. Braun said this year they recruited candidates for every Wyandotte County position in the state Legislature.

“People deserve to have a choice,” he said. He said it is easier for Republicans to get legislation passed in Topeka, and that would benefit Wyandotte County.

While the general election ballot will not have a Republican listed for the 37th District contest, Sen. Braun said on July 27, in the week before the election, that there is a write-in candidate for the position, Kristina Smith. Smith serves on the Wyandotte County GOP committee.

Also, Rep. Valdenia Winn, D-34th Dist., has no opposition on the general election ballot, but Sen. Braun said Kendon McClaine will run as a write-in candidate for that seat.

Coleman said on Wednesday that write-in campaigns don’t work. He said he knew because he had tried it himself in the past. People get to the polls and just choose one of the options listed on the ballot, according to Coleman.

Rep. Frownfelter said he wasn’t sure how a Republican write-in candidate would do in the 37th District, but he knows they’ll try hard. They didn’t run against him in the past because they didn’t think they could beat him, he said.

Election Commissioner Bruce Newby stated that voter registration in the 37th District was 4,928 Democratic and 2,155 Republican in 2020, with Libertarians at 99 and 4,036 unaffiliated. Both parties’ registration was up from 2019, when there were 4,815 Democrats, 2,041 Republicans, 98 Libertarians and 3,897 unaffiliated voters.

Countywide, there were 42,987 registered Democrats and 15,559 registered Republicans for the 2020 primary election, according to Newby. Numbers for both parties increased since the 2019 general election, when there were 41,146 Democrats and 15,075 Republicans.

In addition numbers increased for Libertarian voters, 769 in 2020 compared to 723 in 2019, and unaffiliated voters, 27,841 for 2020 compared with 26,993 in 2019.

There were only a relatively few party affiliation changes this year, and most increases are due to new voter registration, according to the election commissioner.

Rep. Frownfelter said he always sat down and talked to everyone in the district who wanted to talk to him, and listened. He told them where he stood on issues and always said what he meant, he said. He always tried to do his best for the district. “I fought the whole way,” he said.

The only thing to do now, Rep. Frownfelter said, is to sit and wait until Aug. 17 and the canvass, “and that’s the hardest thing to do.”

To see an earlier story on the 37th District, visit https://wyandotteonline.com/19-year-old-turner-resident-leads-by-one-vote-over-veteran-lawmaker/

Dupree pledges to work together with others to keep community safe

Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark A. Dupree Sr., who won Tuesday night’s primary election with 55 percent of the vote, said today that he was humbled by the results, and willing to work together with others to keep the community safe.

“For me it showed the community is confident in this administration’s leadership, and that they agree with this vision that we have, and that they want that vision,” Dupree said on Wednesday. “They want holistic prosecution, they want alternatives to prison, but they also want violent offenders to be held accountable.”

Each case is handled with the facts and evidence that comes with that case. It’s about each case, each victim and each individual, he said.

Dupree said he was very humbled and also very grateful to God.

Voter turnout was higher in the 2020 election than it was four years ago in the 2016 primary, where Dupree received 59 percent of the vote and unseated former district attorney Jerome Gorman. Turnout was 22,539 in 2020 as compared to 16,477 in 2016, according to Wyandotte County election records. Dupree does not have opposition in the general election.

There was some negative campaigning this year, and Dupree believes voters had enough of it.

“I believe the voters turned out to oppose that divisive rhetoric that continues to divide our community,” Dupree said. “To me, it hopefully moves us away from the us vs. them rhetoric and thought process.” He hopes it will bring the community together.

“There is no way to make our community safe for everyone if we all don’t work together,” he said.

Dupree’s opponent, Kristiane Bryant, issued this statement today, “I would like to congratulate Mr. Dupree on his re-election as District Attorney. The election results were not what I hoped, but I appreciate all the support I received over the past few months. There was plenty of discussion about progress and change this election cycle and hopefully the discussion continues. One thing that has become clear is, if we want to make progress as a community, we need to work on setting differences aside and remember that we are stronger together.”

During the campaign, several former police officials in the KCK Police Department and the union endorsed Bryant, a former prosecutor in the Wyandotte County office who has been working in another county’s prosecutor’s office. Opponents said Dupree was too lenient with some offenders, and criticized plea deals made with defendants. The DA is starting a community integrity unit this year that will investigate cases of police misconduct.

Dupree said that while he doesn’t always agree on everything with police, he has never had a problem with police and his office is doing everything they can to work together. Politics is one thing, but public safety is another, Dupree said.

“We may have our differences, but we have to unify collectively as law enforcement, and police, all agencies in Wyandotte County, to focus on what is the best way to pursue public safety for everybody in this community,” Dupree said.

The community includes citizens who feel safe with the police, as well as citizens who feel terrified with the police, he added. The DA’s office serves everyone. He said he would continue to offer an olive branch, as “working together for public safety is better for the citizens we serve.”

Dupree said there was some criticism of the office that came out during the campaign. Quoting a scripture about people walking humbly before God, he said constructive criticism that came from community members would assist him in assessing the office.

He said the office will recalibrate ways to make itself more effective and efficient in serving community members. Above all, he will try to work together rather than divide citizens, he said.

“We’re all one Wyandotte County, all one community and need to treat each other as such,” Dupree said. “That’s the only way this criminal justice system will work.”

School to start Sept. 8 in KCK, revised calendar adopted

The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education adopted a revised school calendar on Tuesday night, with the start of school on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Earlier, the school board decided to hold the first nine weeks of school as remote learning only, starting after Labor Day. The late start followed the suggestion by the governor to delay the start of school because of the risk of COVID-19.

School will end on May 27 for students, and on May 28 for teachers, under the revised calendar, according to Matthew Andersen, interim assistant superintendent. The calendar was adopted during a Zoom meeting on Tuesday night.

The calendar committee shortened Thanksgiving break, originally a full week, to get two more days for student instruction, he said. Also, winter break, originally two full weeks off, was shortened by two days, he said.

Students will come back from winter break on Jan. 4 instead of Jan. 5.

Early release days on Wednesdays, where teachers may do planning, have been postponed for this academic year, according to Andersen.

Andersen said while there are some inclement weather days in the calendar, if in-person school is canceled that day, the district can have remote learning as an option, so as not to have to make up snow days later.

Family advocacy week was left in the revised calendar.

According to Dom DeRosa, president of the KCK-National Education Association, the calendar committee membership was half from the NEA. A survey was sent to members, and members responded they wanted to have time at the beginning of the school year for planning and learning how to teach remotely, he said.

The school calendar is generally in line with other area school districts, except for spring break, according to Andersen. Spring break is in line with Kansas City Kansas Community College’s spring break, in order that students who attend dual classes there may have the same time off, according to Andersen.

The school board also approved a measure that would allow food service and transportation workers to continue to get a normal paycheck for the first nine weeks of the school year. Their pay would come from CARES Act funding, according to administrators. It would cost an estimated $361,000.

Dennis Covington, the district’s chief financial officer, told the board members that the district’s CARES Act funding was $8.5 million, and there was still some funding left that could be spent on the transportation and service workers.

If the school district stays with remote learning longer than nine weeks, the board could reconsider whether to extend the payments for service and transportation workers, according to district officials.

Board members including Dr. Valdenia Winn and Wanda Brownlee Paige asked about other employees. Some other district positions are not being filled right now, according to district officials. Those whose positions were funded by grants are likely to be continued. If requested by the principal, some positions may be considered by the district’s hiring manager, according to officials.

Randy Lopez, board president, said the district is working on an analysis of each department and hopes to have a report on Friday of the open positions, what is needed, the number of positions and options.