U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, left, will be identifed with a “Rep.” before his name on primary ballots against the other Ron Estes he faces in the race. (File photo from KMUW/Kansas News Service)
by Stephen Koranda, Kansas News Service
A state panel ruled Monday that Ron Estes, the Wichita area congressman, will appear as “Rep. Ron Estes” on the primary ballot where he faces a challenger also named Ron Estes.
Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office had previously decided to add the title, but a Democrat also running for the 4th Congressional District seat objected. Laura Lombard said state law bars including titles on the ballot.
“You really should not be able to use your title on the ballot,” Lombard said. “It’s an unfair advantage for the incumbent.”
Kobach, a member of the State Objections Board, said titles normally aren’t allowed, but in this case it was warranted.
“We felt that the exception applies here,” he said. “It just would cause too much voter confusion.”
Kobach said having only a minor difference in the names, such as a middle initial, would require the candidates to educate voters about which candidate is which.
“Our statutes don’t assume that you’re going to spend a million dollars advertising and somehow informing voters about you,” Kobach said.
Lombard also said she was concerned that if he won, the incumbent congressman would appear as “Rep. Ron Estes” in the November election. Kobach said his intent was to only use the title in the primary and not the fall election.
The Objections Board is made up of the secretary of state, attorney general and lieutenant governor. Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Governor Tracey Mann did not attend and sent staff members in their place.
Board members also rejected an attempt to take a legislative candidate off the ballot. The objection to the candidacy of Republican Michael Capps, from Wichita, contended that he didn’t really live at the address on his filing to run for the Kansas House of Representatives.
Vic Miller brought the objection. He’s an attorney and also a Democratic member of the Kansas House. He was representing the Democrat in the race, Monica Marks.
Miller said the house at the address Capps listed was in foreclosure and Capps had previously filed to run for a different House seat. Miller said Capps switched shortly before the deadline after the incumbent decided not to run for re-election.
“He slithered in on Friday morning thinking he’d be unopposed,” Miller said.
Members of the Objections Board said unanimously that Capps was allowed to change his mind and run for office with the address he listed on his filing.
Capps said he had been living at another location temporarily because the home needed some repairs, but he was now living back in the house where he filed to run for office. He said he had resolved the foreclosure.
“The facts speak for themselves,” Capps said. “I look forward to talking to my opponent and discussing the real issues and the policies that affect Kansans.”
The seat is open because Republican state Rep. Chuck Weber decided to retire from the Legislature. Had the board blocked Capps, that would have left only the Democrat in the race.
Miller said they could take further action to try to remove Capps from the ballot or disqualify his election if he should win.
The board also blocked unconventional candidate Vermin Supreme from running for attorney general. Supreme has run for local and national offices in the past and is known for outlandish dress and advocating for causes such as mandatory tooth brushing laws and providing free ponies for all Americans.
Vermin Supreme, the would-be candidate for Kansas attorney general. (Photo by Kansas News Service)
Supreme had listed two addresses on his filing, one in Massachusetts and one in Topeka.
Kansas has attracted out-of-state candidates because of no clear requirement candidates must live in the state.
Brant Laue, an attorney sitting on the board in the place of the lieutenant governor, pointed to a recent Shawnee County District Court ruling that said candidates for governor must live in Kansas.
“I’m of the opinion that the same legal reasoning … also applies to the office of attorney general,” Laue said.
The objection to Supreme’s candidacy was filed by Jim Joice, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party. After the decision, Joice said his objection was based only on Supreme’s residency.
Supreme frequently wears a boot on his head, but Joice said he has no issue with Supreme’s unconventional campaign style and dress.
“The boot’s a nice touch. I’m a big a fan of it,” Joice said. “You should be a Kansan if you’re running for office in Kansas. It’s really that simple for me.”
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @kprkoranda. Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to the original post. See more at http://kcur.org/post/congressman-ron-estes-gets-rep-his-name-ballot-against-other-ron-estes.
Six Democratic candidates are running for U.S. Representative, 3rd District, in the Aug. 7 primary election. They appeared May 24 at at forum at Kansas City Kansas Community College. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert) by Mary Rupert
Plenty of challengers are stepping up to take on Goliath – in this case, incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder – in the 3rd District Congressional primary Aug. 7.
Six articulate Democrats at a Democratic candidate forum sponsored by SwingLeft KS-03, the Wyandotte County Young Democrats and the KCKCC Student Senate, stated their positions Thursday, May 24, at Kansas City Kansas Community College. More than 100 persons attended.
Democratic challengers attending this forum included Sharice Davids, Mike McCamon, Tom Niermann, Jay Sidie, Brent Welder and Sylvia Williams.
The Goliath comparison fits with campaign warchests and name recognition. Rep. Yoder had raised about four times as much money in donations as the leading Democratic candidates as of the end of March, according to campaign finance information. Some of the Democrats are picking up support from national political action committees.
Yoder has primary opposition from two Republican candidates, Trevor Keegan of Lenexa, Kansas, and Joe Myers of Overland Park, Kansas. Chris Clemmons of Shawnee, Kansas, is a Libertarian candidate for the 3rd District running in the general election.
Sharice Davids is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Representative, 3rd District. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
One of the Democratic challengers, Sharice Davids, a lawyer and economic adviser, said she didn’t look like the typical Congressman, because the typical Congressman doesn’t look like America.
“I’m not here to be anybody’s voice,” she said, adding that people already have their own voices. “I’m here because I want to help amplify and to listen. When I’m in Congress creating legislation, it’s important that everyone’s voice and thoughts and experiences are included in our policies and our legislation. And everyone should have a seat at the table.”
A Native American woman raised by a single mother who served in the Army, Davids said she had to work really hard to get to law school. She is a graduate of Leavenworth High School, Johnson County Community College, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and Cornell University law school, and has worked with Native American groups on economic development. She has served as a White House Fellow.
She supports affordable health care, the expansion of Medicaid, gun safety laws, and full civil rights protections for LGBTQI people.
Brent Welder is a Democratic candidate running for U.S. Representative, 3rd District. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
Brent Welder, a Bonner Springs labor lawyer who worked in the Bernie Sanders campaign, said he has spent his entire career serving the underserved and voiceless.
“We live in an absolutely rigged economy,” Welder said. “This economy is being controlled by a handful of billionaires and giant corporations that do not care about you one bit. What they care about is their profit margin ticking up one-tenth of one percent at the end of each quarter. And the way they achieve that is by victimizing women, ethnic and racial minorities, working class people and poor people. And then they take a small percentage of that profit and they bribe politicians in Washington of all political stripes to keep that system going.
“The only way these Republicans stay in office is by taking completely insane positions and then making a strong case for it,” Welder said. “They are strong and wrong.”
He said the way to beat “strong and wrong” was with “strong and right.” He added he supports issues including Medicare for all, and a $15 minimum wage. He plans to fight for middle-class workers, women’s equality and racial justice.
Mike McCamon is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representative, 3rd District. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
Mike McCamon, a technology and nonprofit executive from Overland Park, worked for Apple, Intel and other companies, helped make Bluetooth successful and helped launch Matt Damon’s nonprofit organization that helps people in developing countries get clean water.
“I’m running because I don’t want Kevin Yoder to be our representative,” McCamon said, describing himself as a progressive moderate. His campaign information says he leads from the center. While he leans left, he said he understands there is a need for fiscal policies that can actually accomplish goals.
McCamon said his wife’s illness spurred him to run, and he favors making health care accessible and affordable for all.
He supports expanding background checks for guns, the Equal Rights Amendment and making public education a priority.
Tom Niermann is a Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
Tom Niermann, a history teacher from Prairie Village, said early in his career, students of his were shot and killed, a gun was brought into his classroom, and nothing has changed since that time. He’s also running for office because before the Affordable Care Act came along, his wife was deemed uninsurable, and the ACA is under assault.
He also hears from his students how uncertain the problems are that the world faces, he said, and politicians do nothing to solve the problems.
“I’m running for office because as a teacher married to a teacher, I know what it’s like to work paycheck to paycheck, I know what it’s like to struggle with a middle-class family, and I am running for office because every election cycle, we send professional politicians, bankers, lawyers, executives to Congress, and the middle class gets left behind,” he said.
“It’s about time someone from the middle class represented the middle class,” he said.
He supports public education, LGBTQ rights, campaign finance reform and common sense gun safety protections.
Jay Sidie is a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
Jay Sidie, a businessman who ran for Congress in 2016, said what makes a good Congressman is life experiences. Sidie received 40 percent of the vote to Yoder’s 51 percent in the general election in 2016.
The Mission, Kansas, candidate, who has an MBA in finance, said he started working summers in road construction, then decided to go to college. He became a vice president of a Fortune 500 company. His campaign literature says he is not in favor of career politicians.
“I know how they think, I know what they’re doing wrong, I know the loopholes we need to fix,” Sidie said. “We could make America great again very easily with a few simple fixes going on in Washington.”
On health care, Sidie favors equal access to health care and preventive care, accountability and affordability.
He supports strengthening the environment, gender and racial equality, and gun reform, including a ban on assault weapons.
Sylvia Williams is a Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, 3rd District. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
Sylvia Williams, a managing director in banking and finance, said she was the first woman to reach the top position in her field at her place of employment. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in finance.
“I know how hard it is to succeed in a man’s world,” she said.
“I’m really angered that we could be living in a world where Trump is our president, Kris Kobach is our governor, and Yoder is our House representative,” Williams said.
She said Yoder is going to have millions of dollars to come after whoever is the Democrats’ nominee, and they have to be transparent now. She said she has released the last three years of her income tax returns and asked all the candidates to do the same.
She said they need to fight for health care for all, better wages, and to fight for Social Security and Medicare. There needs to be a candidate who can withstand the attacks in the general election campaign and win, she said.
The two moderators were Crystal Watson and Gary Enrique Bradley Lopez. Crystal Watson, deputy chief of staff to Mayor David Alvey, asked the candidates questions about improving health in Wyandotte County and other topics. Gary Enrique Bradley Lopez of the Wyandotte County Young Democrats asked the candidates about Black Lives Matter and other topics.
Campaign finance
The “Goliath” comparison fits Rep. Yoder in the campaign finance category.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, a Republican, has amassed $2.1 million in campaign donations and had $1.9 million cash on hand at the end of March, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, opensecrets.org. That compares to $519,931 raised by Niermann, $496,010 raised by Welder, $256,710 raised by Williams, $152,426 raised by McCamon, $127,711 raised by Davids and $1,586 raised by Sidie as of the end of March, the Center for Responsive Politics reported. More campaign finance information is expected to be released in July.
The forum’s partners included the Wyandotte County Democratic Party, Kansas Democratic Party – 3rd Congressional District, MoveOn, March Forward KC, True Blue Women, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and GKCWPC- Wyandotte County Political Action Group.
The candidates answered several other questions during the forum. To view the forum online, visit https://www.facebook.com/SLKS03/videos/433471997077224/.
Voter registration closes July 17 for the Aug. 7 primary. The general election is Nov. 6.
Information and voter registration questions were addressed at the candidate forum at Kansas City Kansas Community College. (Staff photo by Mary Rupert)
State Reps. Tom Burroughs, D-33rd Dist., and Louis Ruiz, D-31st Dist., are guest speakers at the Wyandotte County Third Saturday Democratic Breakfast meeting on Saturday, June 16.
Also speaking briefly will be Democratic candidates for the Wyandotte County District Court judge position.
The meeting begins with a buffet at 8:15 a.m. and the program follows at 9 a.m. at Las Islas Marias, 7516 State Ave.
The buffet cost is $10 per person, with a $6 charge for students and those on limited incomes. Those interested in attending are asked to make reservations by Friday, June 15, to [email protected]. While reservations are encouraged, they are not required. It is not necessary to purchase a breakfast to attend the program. Those who require special needs should mention it in the reservation.
