by Mary Rupert
Clear-cut choices will be on the ballot April 7 in the Unified Government Commission 1st District, at large, contest.
The leader in the primary, Melissa Brune Bynum, who has worked for community service agencies here, has support from moderates while her challenger, Mark Gilstrap, a career former UG employee and former state senator, has support from conservatives.
Both Bynum and Gilstrap drew large support from northwestern Wyandotte County during the primary, winning precincts there, according to the primary precinct results. Many precincts in northeastern Wyandotte County were won by Nathan Barnes, who lost the primary by only one vote to Gilstrap. And Gilstrap was only 24 votes behind Bynum in the close contest.
While large voter turnouts from Piper sometimes win elections in Kansas City, Kan., the close primary contest means that Barnes’ supporters can make a difference in the general election, if they vote. They may be the big question mark of this contest.
Gilstrap recognizes that he has considerable name recognition, but although he previously tried to regain the 5th District state Senate seat, he has yet to win public office after switching from being a Democrat to a Republican.
Bynum was generally regarded as one of the mayor’s preferred candidates for the appointment to the 1st District, at large seat two years ago. She had been announced as one of the two finalists for the appointment at a UG Commission meeting, with Don Budd Jr. in first place. UG officials had taken a second vote to break a tie between Barnes and Bynum. The commission took a break and later came back to announce there was a miscount and Bynum was not a finalist, but that Barnes and Budd had advanced. The commission later deadlocked on the candidates, not appointing anyone for two years.
Gilstrap, a career government employee, retired last year from the UG Finance Department, treasury division, where he worked 33 years. He is a former city treasurer, former deputy treasurer, and his last title was deputy revenue director. He served as a state senator from 1997 to 2008. He stepped down as the Wyandotte County Republican Party chairman before filing for UG Commission. Gilstrap graduated from Bishop Ward High School and Rockhurst College.
Bynum is currently the executive director of the Shepherd’s Center of Kansas City, Kan., which works with elderly residents. In the past she has worked with Wyandot Inc. as director of community relations, as well as the American Red Cross, Wyandotte County Chapter, where she was director of resource development. She is a past editor for the Wyandotte West newspaper and is a past executive director of the Leavenworth Road Association. Bynum is a graduate of Sumner Academy and Kansas State University.
On the issues
Bynum views it as advantage that she has been out in the community working with residents and not inside City Hall during her career, according to a remark she made at a Democratic meeting in February. She said she would like to bring her 20-plus years of service and commitment to the community and people to the UG Commission. Bynum said her areas of focus would be on strong and safe neighborhoods, economic development successes, and finding ways to have tax relief.
Gilstrap said he has a record of not voting to raise any taxes, a record of creating jobs and he has an accounting background that would help understand budgets. He asked why property taxes have not gone down, why the unemployment is still one of the highest in the state. He said the UG had to work with the small businesses on eliminating red tape.
Property and other taxes
Both Gilstrap and Bynum have said they oppose any increase in property taxes.
Gilstrap said he has never voted for any tax increases, including the time he served in the state Senate.
Bynum stated she favored making an actual plan to begin lowering property taxes in the 2016 budget cycle, and to continue lowering them. She said, at different forums, that she also supports removing the extra fees on people who walk in their payments to the motor vehicle department, which could penalize the needy.
Downtown Healthy Campus project
Bynum said she supports the healthy campus project, and it could be a catalyst for change downtown. The grocery store would help eliminate the food desert in that area. It also has a community center to be run by the YMCA. It has been studied by many people in forums, and she said at a candidate forum last week at KCKCC that she didn’t know of anything she would change about it.
Gilstrap said he was very concerned about the funding for the healthy campus project. He said he had heard the mayor say the funding was looking good for the YMCA portion but not necessarily for the grocery portion. Some of the funding would be from private sources. If the funding could be obtained, he would be for it, he said. He said if elected, he would like to sit down with the investors to see what input they would have on it. “I’m in support of it as long as we can fund it,” he said.
Mayor’s Task Force on Diversity
Currently, there is a Mayor’s Task Force on Diversity studying minority hiring in public safety.
Gilstrap said if there a task force that would be ongoing, he would support that. He said he had talked to people in the Fire Department to ask them how it would affect their department, and was told about the process to get into the department. “I think their process is very good; ideally, diversity is wonderful if you could do that. If there is an ongoing task force, I’d love to see that as a future role,” he said.
Bynum said she supported the task force in its current form and would support ongoing task force work. She said the public safety department heads have shown a real dedication to resolving the issue and a commitment in changing the makeup of those departments.
View of social services
There has been discussion by some of the UG commissioners that the main goal of UG spending should be to fund public safety, roads, sewers, and other similar basic services, but not the social services.
Bynum said she believed there was a place for social services in the budget. “Public safety (and the other services such as streets) is a priority, but it’s difficult to rebuild a community and not also make an investment in human capital or social capital. We have a lot of needs in this community,” she said. As a commissioner, she would look for the UG to become a partner with community agencies as a way to help with social issues without necessarily seeing the UG foot the bill for those types of issues.
Gilstrap said, “I think the funding for social services should be extremely limited.” When he started with the UG, the utilities rebate was established for those in need, and he thought it was an excellent program, he said. The UG should focus on the essential services such as public safety first, he said. The commission needs to look at the budget and determine if there is any money left over, he said.
Views on any UG budget cuts affecting employees
“Also, we need to pay our employees. They haven’t had raises for seven years,” Gilstrap said.
Bynum, according to her candidate information, does not support any UG wage freezes, job cuts or furloughs to the UG work force. Instead, if there had to be cuts, she would first look at cutting benefits and perks to elected officials, and items such as travel and stipends for vehicles.
Representing the entire district, and extending economic development throughout the district
Gilstrap said as a state senator, he helped get the Kansas Speedway legislation and the Hollywood Casino legislation passed. Western Wyandotte County was his state Senate district and he is a resident of the Piper area. He said he agreed there needed to be economic development east of I-635 as well, and he would do whatever he could as a commissioner to use the resources he has to help with grants and bonds.
Bynum said although she might live near Wyandotte County Lake, her work career has been in the entire community. “The entire time I’ve been working here in Wyandotte County, I’ve always said, ‘What happens on 5th Street does impact 95th Street, and vice versa.’” Through her current work at the Shepherd’s Center, she and the center have provided work in all the commission districts, she added. She said her care and concern was for all of Wyandotte County. Economic development should be in all areas of the community, she said.
Areas of support and campaign finance
Bynum is currently on the board of Liveable Neighborhoods, and Downtown Shareholders, where she is past board chair. She is a member of Turner Community Corrections, and is a past president of the Kansas City, Kan., Kiwanis Club. She also is a past president of K-State Research and Extension, Wyandotte County, and past board member of Leadership 2000, Class V. She is a past president of the Kansas City, Kan., Women’s Chamber of Commerce and is on the advisory board of Operation Brightside.
Bynum has received the endorsement of the MainStream Coalition, IBEW Local 124, and the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 4.
Gilstrap said he has been endorsed by the Kansans for Life, Kansas City Dog Advocates, Tri-County Labor, Firefighters Local 64, AFL-CIO Local 1290 and by Ann Murguia. During the few past years as part of his efforts as the former Wyandotte County Republican chairman, he has sent out emails that are in support of 2nd Amendment (gun rights) issues, a 10th Amendment (states’ rights) dinner featuring top Kansas conservative Republicans advocating for a “fair tax” and “state sovereignty,” and has addressed his email recipients as “Patriots.”
Gilstrap expects to have a certain amount of name recognition from past elections. Gilstrap’s brother, Mike Gilstrap, previously served in 2003 as UG commissioner at large, 1st District. Bynum unsuccessfully ran for the same UG office in 2003. Mike Gilstrap lost a re-election bid for the same seat in 2007 to Mark Holland by 31 votes.
The ward and precinct voting totals from the Wyandotte County Election Office in this year’s primary election for the most part showed a strong turnout for Nathan Barnes on the east side of the 1st District at large, while Mark Gilstrap and Melissa Bynum had strong turnouts on the west side. Bynum did better than Gilstrap in some of the midtown precincts, while Gilstrap did better in some of the Piper precincts.
Campaign finance reports from about a month ago, Feb. 23, showed Bynum, who received the most votes, had the least money raised of the three top candidates for the seat.
Bynum reported total contributions of $2,345, expenditures of $1,441.32 and cash on hand of $903.68 as of Feb. 23.
Among her campaign contributors were former Kansas City, Kan., mayor Carol Marinovich, Mary Jane Mikesic and Pat Hurrelbrink.
Gilstrap, on Feb. 23, reported contributions of $1,250; total expenditures of $1,628.89, leaving cash on hand of $9,637.11.
He had made a $10,000 loan from himself to the campaign, according to the campaign finance report. Among his contributors were Dr. James Pretz and Roger Miller.
Nathan Barnes’ campaign finance report showed contributions of $7,175, and expenditures of $1,554. Among his contributors were Beatrice Lee and Ralph Johnson, and some signs and cards were listed as in-kind contributions.
Down to the wire?
It’s anyone’s guess if the general election will be as close as the primary election, with its 24-vote margin between first and second place.
Bynum, after a voter recount requested by Nathan Barnes that didn’t change any outcomes, told the Wyandotte Daily News she thought a low voter turnout would be indicative of a close race, and that she would like to see a large voter turnout.
On the day of the recount results, both candidates pointed out the importance of voting. When only one vote separated the second and third-place candidates, every vote that was cast really did matter, according to the candidates.
The April 7 general election totals — a countywide race — may depend on how Barnes’ 1,104 voters cast their ballots.
The contest is seen as significant by some observers for two reasons. First, some believe that if Gilstrap wins, the UG Commission’s Murguia group may have the sixth vote it needs for a majority. However, although those commissioners sometimes have voted together, they do not always vote the same way, often going in their own directions. Second, the 1st District, at large, position is viewed by some as a springboard to the mayor’s seat because Holland was its commissioner before becoming mayor.
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