Category: Election 2022

Kansas attorney general candidate emerges from tragedy with refined sense of public service

Democrat Chris Mann on ballot against GOP nominee Kris Kobach

Chris Mann, Democratic nominee for attorney general against GOP nominee Kris Kobach, examined his career, motivation for seeking public office and plans to reshape the attorney general’s office. (Photo by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector)

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Democrat Chris Mann looks at the job of Kansas attorney general through the lens of personal experience as a law enforcement officer, crime victim, prosecutor and defense lawyer.

Mann, competing against Republican nominee Kris Kobach in the November election, said he wouldn’t have approached this foray into elective politics in the same way had a drunkem driver not shattered a lifelong dream to follow in the career footsteps of his police officer father.

It was 3:30 a.m. Jan. 11, 2002. Mann, who joined the Lawrence police force before graduating from University of Kansas, pulled a vehicle over for a broken taillight.

An intoxicated driver slammed into his parked cruiser at 50 mph. The force of that collision threw Mann into the back of the SUV he’d pulled over — crime scene photos show an impression of his body on that vehicle — and deposited him 30 feet away on the side of the road. He was fortunate to survive. Physical therapy couldn’t conquer the lingering pain in his body. It was devastating to step away from the police department.

“It was a great job,” Mann said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “It was a job I really enjoyed doing. I felt like it was a calling.”

With an intact goal of being involved in public service, or “turning my pain into purpose,” Mann enrolled in law school at Washburn University in Topeka. His first job out of law school was as a prosecutor in Wyandotte County with a caseload that ranged from traffic tickets to homicides. That was followed by work on white-collar criminal cases as special assistant attorney general at the Kansas Securities Commission.

Mann, married to a surgeon and with two children, opened a law firm that has centered on representing victims of drunken drivers as they navigated the civil and criminal justice system.

“It’s that experience, and that experience in the law, that I want to bring to the state of Kansas, to the people of Kansas, to make sure that that office is run the way it should be,” he said.

Not all politics

Mann, who has never before sought elected office, said he was campaigning for attorney general to improve public safety and to protect the rights of people.

“I have said from day one that I think this office should be about public safety and not politics,” he said.


“The office itself needs to be there to help the people of Kansas. And that means that you can’t be distracted by a political agenda or personal political beliefs. You have to be there to do the work every day, to make people’s lives better in the state, to protect their rights, to protect the Constitution, and to make sure that folks feel comfortable in their communities.”

He said it was unfortunate Kobach was intent on establishing a special unit in the attorney general’s office dedicated to filing lawsuits against President Joe Biden.

“I just don’t think this office should be focused on one man’s political agenda. The office is far too important for that. This is the top law enforcement office in the state,” Mann said.

Kobach was twice elected secretary of state in his career, but lost campaigns for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

“I’m running for this office to help the people of Kansas,” Mann said. “My opponent is running for the office just to run for another office because he’s a politician.”

Mann also was critical of the decision by Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the GOP nominee for governor, to join a lawsuit originating in Texas intended at delve into 2020 election results in key states won by President Joe Biden.

Mann said there was no justification for suits filed by an attorney general based on partisan political calculations or to otherwise chase the spotlight.

“The attorney general should be very selective about the lawsuits that are filed,” he said.

On abortion

Candidates for state and federal office in Kansas have faced questions on abortion after the August vote overwhelmingly rejecting a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would have denied women the right to abortion in Kansas.

“The people of Kansas have clearly spoken in this August 2 primary, and they want there to be a right for women to make their own private medical decisions. I can tell you that I’m not going to use the limited resources of the attorney general’s office to attack anyone’s constitutional rights,” Mann said.

While working in Wyandotte County, Mann joined Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He contributed to the effort to pass a state law requiring use of ignition interlock devices by anyone convicted of a DUI. He eventually became chairman of MADD’s national board of directors.

“I got to travel the country doing this work, talking to industry leaders, folks from the NFL, law enforcement throughout the country and other victims,” he said. “What I really focused on was sharing my story, asking those folks to also turn their pain into purpose and to help their communities to keep their roads safe.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/06/kansas-attorney-general-candidate-emerges-from-tragedy-with-refined-sense-of-public-service/

Kelly, Schmidt agree to take part in two debates, one forum in governor’s race

Democratic governor invites independent Pyle to participate in each

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican challenger Derek Schmidt plan to take part in two campaign debates and a question-and-answer forum over the next five weeks.

The first on the calendar would be the election forum hosted by the Kansas Chamber Sept. 7 in Olathe, in which the candidates appear alone with a moderator on a stage to answer a series of questions.

The next would be the colorful debate Sept. 10 hosted by WIBW Radio and Kansas Radio Networks at the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson.

The other appearance would be the debate broadcast by Kansas City PBS television and organized by the Johnson County Bar Association on Oct. 5.

Kelly, who was elected in 2018 and seeks reelection to another four-year term, said she would welcome participation by independent gubernatorial candidate Dennis Pyle, but it wasn’t clear if the conservative state senator from Hiawatha could be part of those three events.

Pyle, who has urged Kansans not to vote for Kelly or Schmidt, was expected to draw more support from the GOP nominee than the governor. Exclusion from the prominent campaign events would limit his ability to gain traction ahead of the November election.

“Debates are vital to the democratic process and every voter deserves to go to the polls knowing where the candidates stand on the issues,” said Lauren Fitzgerald, a spokeswoman for Kelly’s campaign.

She said Kelly looked forward to opportunities to speak to Kansans about funding of K-12 public schools, work on the state’s transportation infrastructure and “growing the Kansas economy and strengthening our workforce.”

C.J. Grover, spokesperson for Schmidt’s campaign, said the attorney general’s preference would be to engage in more one-on-one debates.

He indicated the Schmidt campaign would propose dates for joint appearances with Kelly, but didn’t mention potential of including Pyle. There is potential of gubernatorial debates hosted by Kansas television stations, the Schmidt campaign said.

“We challenge her to do more real debates where she will have to give an account for the policies that have made the lives of Kansans more difficult every single day,” Grover said. “Laura Kelly cannot run from Kansas voters’ questions.”

Schmidt, who has served Kansas as attorney general since 2011, previously was a member of the Kansas Senate with Kelly and Pyle.

Seth Cordell, the Libertarian Party’s nominee for governor, said he was interested in participating in forums and debates in the general election.

Kelly’s campaign referred to the Kansas Chamber event as a debate, but it takes the form of stand alone interview with Alan Cobb, president and chief executive officer of the state business lobbying organization. In those gatherings, candidates are given a series of questions about 10 minutes before taking the stage.

The Johnson County Bar Association and Kansas State Fair events would be conducted in debate formats.

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/09/01/kelly-schmidt-agree-to-take-part-in-two-debates-one-forum-in-governors-race/.

Schmidt condemns Kelly’s disruption of in-person instruction early in COVID-19 pandemic

GOP nominee for governor says mandate may let children fall through cracks

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republican governor candidate Derek Schmidt toured a Wichita high school degree completion program to place emphasis on ramifications of Gov. Laura Kelly’s decision in March 2020 to close Kansas public school buildings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schmidt, who also met with parents Monday during the campaign swing, said it was “damaging” for the Democratic governor to have become the nation’s first chief executive to shift instruction to an online format in early stages of a pandemic. COVID-19 has contributed to the death of 8,958 Kansans.

“It was an unnecessarily overaggressive approach,” Schmidt said. “In hindsight, it was not justified at the time and yet here we are all this time later trying to figure out how to remedy the damage.”

Schmidt said enrollment in Kansas public schools was down about 14,000 students more than two years after COVID-19 swept the nation. He raised concern some of those students slipped through cracks in the education system. He said a portion were unaccounted for, but offered no insight into how private schools, homeschooling or movement to other states might explain absence of students from public schools.

Kansas public schools have returned to normal operations under direction of the Kansas Board of Education. The state Department of Education reported 518,800 students attended public schools in Kansas during 2019-2020. That dropped to 502,400 in 2020-2021, due to the pandemic. In 2021-2022, enrollment was 12,400 below the pre-pandemic level. The 2022-2023 enrollment reports have yet to be compiled by the state.

“As governor,” Schmidt said, “I pledge I will never again lock our children out of their schools, and I hope that Governor Kelly will take that same pledge. I think our families and our kids deserve to know they don’t need to worry about a repeat of this terrible error.”

‘World-class education’

Kelly was elected governor in 2018 based in part on her advocacy for K-12 public education, including the effort to restore full state funding of school districts.

During her term, the Legislature and Kelly increased the state’s financial investment in education to comply with constitutional requirements affirmed through protracted litigation. Supporters of Kelly’s reelection have expressed fear a Republican governor could jeopardize financial gains by public schools.

“I ran for governor in 2018 because I knew that properly funding our schools was the first step to ensuring our kids receive the world-class education they deserve,” Kelly said.

Kelly issued an executive order March 17, 2020, that recognized the public health emergency of COVID-19. That followed by several days President Donald Trump’s declaration the pandemic was of “sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant” emergency action by all states, tribes, territories and the District of Columbia.

“Kansas’ K-12 schools are the backbone of our communities,” Kelly said at that time. “But they are also opportunities to significantly further the spread of COVID-19. Many schools have already temporarily closed, either voluntarily or as a result of local health departent orders or state-level recommendations.”

She said her executive order outlined a statewide approach offering students, parents, teachers, staff and administrators greater certainty and opportunity for the state and districts to implement alternative instructional programs that didn’t center on in-person teaching.

During the pandemic, Kelly and state lawmakers allocated $15 million for “remote learning” grants used to address needs of students not able to be part of in-person instruction. The state also approved $50 million for “learning recovery” grants, which supplemented other aid to students.

Kelly said during the campaign that Kansas’ world-class education system was part of what has propelled the state’s growing economy.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to uplift Kansas’ public education with the support of our world-class educators,” she said.

Wichita perspectives

In Wichita, Schmidt said he appreciated work of the Acceleration Academy, which formed a partnership with Wichita public schools to provide one-on-one instruction to individuals 14 to 21 years of age who wanted to earn a high school diploma.

Schmidt, the state’s attorney general, also repeated a claim Kelly was to some degree responsible for rising mental health issues of Kansas youth and the exit of Kansas educators from the profession. Both are national trends.

Patty Bledsoe, a family practice physician in Wichita, said during a meeting with Schmidt the closure of school buildings and the disruption of classroom instruction had a negative impact on some students.

“I have seen in my patient population significant increase in anxiety and depression in very, very young students that I don’t think we’ll see the end results on for years to come,” Bledsoe said. “So, are we back to normal? We’re back to what appears to be normal. But I think it’s going to be 10 years before we see the truth of what happened.”

Natalie Ellis, who also spoke to Schmidt about repercussions of the governor’s response to COVID-19, said movement away from regular school classes was detrimental academically, socially and emotionally to students.

“As parents we spoke out for two years about the issues at hand in our school district, but no one listened,” she said. “The data is now proving that lockdowns did way more harm than good. Tests scores are down. Proficiency levels have tanked. And anxiety and depression are through the roof. Kansans need a governor who will listen to and protect parental rights. That’s why I’m voting for Derek Schmidt.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/08/30/schmidt-challenges-kellys-disruption-of-in-person-instruction-early-in-covid-19-pandemic/.