The Community Voice has been reporting on the upcoming fall elections since July, when the filing deadline passed, through the primaries and now through the General Election on Nov. 5. Here’s the outcome on most of the races we reported on.
Wichita Mayor
This turned into an ugly and contentious race with the Wichita Eagle reporting that incumbent Mayor Jeff Longwell was trying to steer a $524 million contract to design and build a new city water plant to his friends, despite the City’s selection committee recommending another design firm. If that wasn’t enough, just weeks before the election, a video appeared on Facebook suggesting that his opponent Ks. Rep. Brandon Whipple was guilty of sexually harassing interns in the State Capitol.
The video mixed in some facts, but wrongly attributed the actions to Whipple, who’s a Democrat in the Kansas House, when the actions were actually attributable to a Republican in the Senate.
Disappointed by all options, Lyndy Wells, who came in third in the primary, launched a write-in campaign, and made a respectable showing. After his lost, the mayor said, he won’t likely run for election ever again, saying politics is just too dirty.
Jeff Longwell 17,516
Brandon Whipple 22,256
Write-in 8,516
USD 259 Wichita School Board At Large Member
Joseph Shepard made a good showing in this city-wide race but came up short against a well-liked incumbent.
Sheril Logan 17,127
Joseph W. Shepard 15,059
UG Commission District 4
Harold Johnson, incumbent for 4th District keeps his seat on UG Commission.
Jorge Luis Flores 416
Harold Johnson 889
Kansas City, Kansas School Board
In this large field, the top four earned seats on the Board. Two incumbents returned and two didn’t (one didn’t run again and the other resigned due to health issues but it was too late to have her name removed from the ballot, so the board ushered in two new members, one of them a Hispanic male, who joins 5 women, 1 White the rest African American, on the board. We had hoped to see young Gary Bradley-Lopez add some young and diverse flavor to the board, but he came in 7th.
Randy Lopez 3,798
Yolanda Clark 3,347
Valdenia Winn 2,810
Janey Humphries 2,804
KCK Community College Board of Trustees
The incumbents did well including Rosalyn Brown, Ray Daniel and Don Ash, who also serves as Wyandotte County Sheriff. There’s a lot of double-dipping/ multi-office serving going on in KCK. Not earning a spot on the board was retired KCK Fireman Paul Jones and Jamie Johnson.
Rosalyn Brown 7,185
Patricia Brune 6,830
Donald Ash 6,724
Ray Daniels 6,469
Bureau of Public Utilities At Large Position 3
KS Sen. David Haley was trying to become one of KCK’s double dippers, but barely came up short on his bid to earn a seat on the KCK Board of Public Utilities as of Nov. 5. Only down by about 40 votes, he believes he can still win with the counting of the provisional ballots in the next week. Here’s how it stands now:
David Haley 5,982
Rose Mulvany Henry 6,026
BPU District 1
Long time board member Bob Milan held on to his seat despite some really tough competition from Rev. LaRon Thompson.
Robert “Bob” Milan 2,091
LaRon Thompson 1,910
USD 501 Member At Large
The USD 501 Topeka School Board had a mass exodus of tenured school board members this year, so all four seats up for consideration did not have an incumbent in the race. Among those leaving were Patrick Woods and Janel Johnson. Keith Tatum was a strong contender for the at-large seat, with just 56 votes separating him from a victory.
C. Richard Bonebrake 3,423
Keith Tatum 3,367
Brent Hall 2,456
MO House Seat District 22
Special elections were held to replace individuals who resigned their positions in the Missouri Legislature. Brandon Ellington resigned his seat after winning a seat on the Kansas City Council.
Tammy Louise Herrera 325
Yolanda Young 2,357
Jeff Francis G 206
MO House Seat – District 36
DaRon McGee resigned his position to accept another job.
Mark A. Sharp 3,018
Roberta (Bob) Voorhees 409
Paseo Name Change
Less than a year after the Kansas City Council voted to rename The Paseo after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., voters voted to change it back.
Yes: 31,274
No: 13,909
Want the MLK-Paseo back story? Check it out here http://www.communityvoiceks.com/news/kansas_city_news/paseo-blvd-name-change-ballot-issue-a-balanced-look/article_b3b9256c-fd90-11e9-bdf0-b3fb30f79a9f.html.