Governor visits mobile food pantry in KCK

Gov. Laura Kelly, right, visited a mobile food pantry at the Mercy and Truth Medical Mission in Kansas City, Kansas, on Tuesday, helping to bag and distribute food. (Photo from Gov. Kelly’s office)

The Church of the Resurrection’s mobile food pantry served a record at the Mercy and Truth Medical Mission location in Kansas City, Kansas — 59 families.

On Tuesday, with Gov. Laura Kelly, Chiefs tight end Noah Gray, and others, they celebrated the end of “Love Your Neighbor” month.

Gov. Laura Kelly helped bag and distribute the food along with volunteers from the Church of the Resurrection.

The governor also toured the clinic and delivered remarks about the importance of eliminating the state’s food tax. This proposal will lower the grocery bill and put money back in the pockets of Kansas families, according to the governor. With this event, the FoodMobile hit a record in number of families served. On average, 40 families receive aid through the mobile pantry at every stop. 

“Between the high food sales tax and the pandemic-induced inflation that has raised prices on all kinds of goods, it’s no surprise Kansans are struggling,” Gov. Laura Kelly said.  “For far too long, Kansans have been paying more for groceries than anyone else in other states. The sales tax on food is bad for families, local grocers and farmers, and our economy. It’s time we Axe the Food Tax.”

A conversation at Tuesday’s event that stood out to Anne Rauth:
During the event, a woman came up and said, “You made my day today.”


“Tell me more,” I said.


She went on to tell me that she has stage four cancer and had been asking the KC Chiefs for an opportunity to meet one of their players. “You made my dream a reality today,” she said.


I introduced her to the governor today and told her part of her story. This woman is able to get treatment for her cancer because she is on Medicaid. She told me that her husband doesn’t have insurance, so I told her that we’d help her husband.

And this is loving your neighbor.

  • Information from Anne Rauth, Mercy and Truth Medical Mission, and from Gov. Kelly’s office
Gov. Laura Kelly, second from left, visited a mobile food pantry at the Mercy and Truth Medical Mission in Kansas City, Kansas, on Tuesday. She helped bag and distribute food. (Photo from Gov. Kelly’s office)
Gov. Laura Kelly helped prepare and distribute food at a mobile food pantry Tuesday at the Mercy and Truth Medical Mission in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo from Gov. Kelly’s office)
Gov. Laura Kelly spoke at the food distribution event on Tuesday at Mercy and Truth Medical Mission in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo from Gov. Kelly’s office)
Volunteers from the Church of the Resurrection and staff from Mercy and Truth Medical Mission posed for a picture with Gov. Laura Kelly. (Photo from Gov. Kelly’s office)

Voting rights groups launch court battle over new Kansas congressional map

Thomas Alonzo says during a Jan. 24, 2022, news conference at the Kansas Statehouse that the congressional map endorsed by GOP leaders “demonstrates a lack of competent, moral and ethical leadership.” (Photo by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector)

by Sherman Smith, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Loud Light filed two separate lawsuits Monday arguing the congressional map endorsed by a GOP supermajority in the Legislature intentionally violates constitutional rights of Democrats and communities of color.

Republicans passed a map that divides the Kansas City metro area in an obvious attempt to make it harder for the state’s only Democrat in Congress, Rep. Sharice Davids, to hang onto her 3rd District seat. Last week, two-thirds of the Senate and House voted to override a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and preserve the map, known as Ad Astra 2.

The map places the area of Wyandotte County north of Interstate 70, a majority-minority community, into the 2nd District. The infusion of Democratic votes into the 2nd District is offset by carving Lawrence out of Douglas County and placing it in the heavily Republican 1st District, which stretches to the Colorado border.

“The map that was passed shows that the Legislature was intentionally trying to silence our collective voice,” said Tom Alonzo, a Kansas City, Kansas, resident who lives north of I-70 in Wyandotte County. “There is nothing just or democratic about it. My community is the most diverse in Kansas — and they want to dilute us so we have no voice.”

A map produced by Republicans in the House and Senate would place Lawrence in the 1st District, which stretches to the Colorado border, and split Wyandotte County between 2nd and 3rd districts. (Submitted)

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in Wyandotte County District Court on behalf of seven Wyandotte County residents, including Alonzo, three Johnson County residents and one Lawrence resident. The Campaign Legal Center is working with the ACLU on the lawsuit, along with pro bono assistance from the Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer law firm.

Kansas-based nonprofit Loud Light, with support from national voting rights attorney Marc Elias’ Democracy Docket, also filed a lawsuit in Wyandotte County.

The lawsuits ask the court to declare the Ad Astra 2 map to be invalid, set a deadline for lawmakers to pass an acceptable map, draw a map in place of lawmakers if they fail to meet the deadline, and make the state pay for attorney fees and court costs. Both lawsuits name Wyandotte County election commissioner Michael Abbott and Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab as defendants.

The legal challenges were widely anticipated. State lawmakers are tasked with drawing new maps for congressional and legislative districts every 10 years, based on census results. For months, a coalition of advocacy groups complained about the way Republicans in the Legislature handled the process.

The ACLU lawsuit twice references Kansas Reflector’s reporting in October 2020 of former Senate President Susan Wagle openly saying new congressional maps could be drawn to prevent a Democrat from winning office if Republicans gained the supermajority necessary to override a veto from the governor.

In late July, Republicans in charge of the redistricting process scheduled a series of town hall discussions on short notice, before census data had been released. They responded to criticism by holding virtual listening sessions in November, including one that coincided with the special session.

Republican leaders then revealed their congressional map shortly after the session opened in January. Residents were given little time to prepare testimony for hearings two days later, and both chambers passed the map in less than a week despite hearing overwhelming opposition from residents.

The Loud Light lawsuit references Kansas Reflector’s reporting on the House debate, when Rep. Steve Huebert, R-Valley Center, said gerrymandering and partisan politics “are just things that happen.”

Elias responded in a Jan. 25 tweet: “Litigation is ‘just a thing that happens’ too.”

Sharon Brett, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas, said lawmakers rushed the redistricting process without interest in gathering meaningful feedback from the people they represent.

“It’s always shocking when you see elected officials completely ignore their constituents and the will of the people in the state of Kansas, and choose to put partisan games over doing what’s right and fair by the state,” Brett said. “So although it is not surprising how this has played out, it is still shocking nonetheless. And that’s a choice the Legislature made. Now they have to defend that choice in a court of law.”

Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, has repeatedly dismissed complaints about the obvious impact of the map on Democrats and communities of color.

“I’m very comfortable defending this in court,” he said during debate in the Senate before voting to override the governor’s veto. “It is fair. It does meet the guidelines. It is good for Kansans. We did listen to the people and that’s what will be tested. I’m very comfortable with it.”

Masterson punished three Republican senators who initially opposed the veto override by stripping them of committee assignments.

The lawsuits contend the Ad Astra 2 map violates protections in the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights: All political power is inherent in the people, the power of government is for the people’s equal protection and benefit, and the right to suffrage.

“Through manipulation and abuse of legislative procedures, the Kansas Legislature rushed through an extreme and intentional partisan and racial gerrymander of the state’s congressional districts,” the ACLU lawsuit says.

Brett said she rejects the notion that partisan gerrymandering is inevitable.

“I would say this is a really extreme example of having a partisan goal in mind from the very beginning and basically all through the process,” Brett said.

The Loud Light lawsuit says the Cook Political Report concluded every district in the Ad Astra 2 map is favorable to Republicans, who would have a 2-point advantage over Davids in a “toss up” in the new 3rd District.

“By cracking Democratic voters across the state, the Republican supermajority deprived Democrats in Kansas of the fundamental right to equal voting power,” the Loud Light lawsuit says.

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/2022/02/14/voting-rights-groups-launch-court-battle-over-new-kansas-congressional-map/
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Kansas House completes override of Gov. Kelly’s veto of congressional redistricting map

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas House ratified action of their brethren in the Kansas Senate to complete Wednesday an override of Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the congressional redistricting map designed by the Republican legislators to undercut viability of Democratic candidates.

The GOP-controlled House cobbled together by 85-37 margin for a two-thirds majority necessary to thwart the governor’s veto of the map known as Ad Astra 2.

The Senate initiated the override process Monday, but fell short of votes. On reconsideration Tuesday, Senate leadership produced a 27-11 margin to deflect Kelly’s objections to a map splitting the 3rd District held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids.

It would move Wyandotte County Democrats into the 2nd District and transfer the moderate stronghold of Lawrence from the 2nd District to the 1st District.

The fundamental idea is to weaken Davids sufficiently for a GOP nominee to prevail, but not alter the balance of power in the two nearby districts enough to matter.

“Ad Astra 2 is a good map,” said Rep. Chris Croft, an Overland Park Republican and chair of the House’s redistricting committee.

Initially, the GOP struggled to deliver the minimum 83 votes required by the constitution. There was a “call of the House,” in which the doors were locked and nine absent representatives were summoned to the floor. The missing included six Republicans and three Democrats.

Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, Kansas, said the congressional map placing Wyandotte County north of Interstate 70 into the 2nd District held by Republican U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner shattered a majority minority community.

By one count, the move would deposit half the Hispanic population and one-third of Black residents in Wyandotte County into the agrarian 1st District stretching beyond the Capitol in Topeka, the Flint Hills of central Kansas to the feedlots of Garden City about 380 miles away. The heavily Republican Big First is represented by GOP U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann.

“When you divide communities of color, you take away a voice,” Burroughs said. “The subliminal message is your voices don’t matter. Your very existence and contribution to the community and to the state process don’t matter.”

He also said it was his hope the judicial branch eventually finds the state’s congressional map unconstitutional.

The Legislature also is responsible for crafting new maps for the 125-member House and 40-member Senate as well as boundaries of the 10 Kansas State Board of Education districts.

In 2012, conflict over the maps in the Legislature led to drawing of the boundaries by a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court.

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/2022/02/09/kansas-house-completes-override-of-gov-kellys-veto-of-congressional-redistricting-map/