Kansas first-ever November local elections drew mixed results across the state with just over 8% of Sedgwick County voters showing up at the polls, but in Wyandotte County and Shawnee County with competitive mayoral races, the voter turnout was much more impressive. In Wyandotte County, almost 24% of voters cast ballots, and in Shawnee County,19% of voters cast ballots.
In both mayoral races, the difference between who won and lost, came down to just votes. In Topeka, where the incumbent mayor chose not to run again, the difference between the candidates was just 448 votes. Coming out on top was Michelle De La Isla, 41, who will be Topeka’s first Hispanic Mayor. De La Isla, who has served on the Topeka City Council since 2013, beat out Spencer Duncan, a political newcomer. De La Isla will be sworn into office on Jan. 8.
In Kansas City, incumbent Mayor Mark Holland lost his bid for re-election in another close race. Holland lost to Board of Public Utilities member David Alvey who won with just 51% of the vote. Alvey’s campaign was notably buoyed by the support of local firemen who carried signs in support of him.
Holland had the support of the Black ministers, but their weight didn’t get it done in this election.
In other races:
Junction City
Nichols Albritton came in third, which was good enough to earn him a seat on the Junction City Commission. With three members choosing not to seek reelection, it really opened up the field, with 10 candidates initially filing for the seats. Albritton’s election keeps one African-American member on the commission, since Jim Sands was one of the three who chose not to seek re-election.
Rina Neal came in third in a field of five candidates vying for seats on the Junction City School Board. With three opening, third place was good enough for a win, but William “Bill” Brooks placed fourth, or below the line. Brown, a current member of the board, had been appointed earlier in the year to fill a vacancy.
Kansas City
Sheriff Donald Ash won impressively over Celisha Towers, an African-American, female sheriff’s deputy in the department.
With a light voter turnout in District One, incumbent Gayle Townsend won reelection to the Unified Government board over community activist Victor Harris.
Political newcomer Klendon McClaine lost his bid to unseat incumbent Unified Government Board member Jane Philbrock.
There were a total of five open seats (out of seven) on the USD 500 School Board. Three seats were for four-year terms and two were for two-years to fill unexpired terms. Four of the six candidates vying for the four-year terms were African American. Three African-American women won: Stacy Yeager, Maxine Drew and Wanda Brownlee-Paige. Joseph Straws III came in fourth and out of the running
Janey Humphries and Harold Brown, African-American candidates, won and will complete the two unexpired terms on USD 500. Korri Hall-Thompson, another African-American candidate did not advance.
With incumbents Brenda Jones and Valdenia Winn, six of the seven USD 500 board members will be African Americans and six of the seven will be women.
Winning seats on the Kansas City Kansas Community College Board of Trustees are: Evelyn Criswell, Tyrone Garner, Roslyn Brown, and Linda Hoskins-Sutton. Falling below the line was Christal Watson, CEO of the Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce.
Salina
Ramona Newsome, who had been appointed to fill an unexpired seat on the Salina School board, did not win her bid for a two-year-seat on the board. She lost out to Gary Denning, an attorney who previously served 12 years on the board.
Topeka
The only African-American candidate in Topeka was John Williams who ran unopposed for another term on the USD 450 school board.
Wichita
Despite an endorsement from The Community Voice, former school board member Michael Kinard lost in his bid to represent District 1 on the Wichita City Council. He was beaten handily by Brandon Johnson, who campaigned hard and strong. The seat was being vacated by Lavonta Williams who couldn’t run again due to term limits.
For the first time since the 1960s there will not be an African American on Wichita’s USD 259 school board. All though there were three African Americans vying for election in three different districts, neither of them prevailed. Both Debra Washington (District 2) and Shirley Jefferson (District 6) came in third in their races.
The surprise of the election had to be the loss by 10-year board member Betty Arnold in District 1. This is the seat typically held by an African American member, but in a head-to-head race, Arnold came up short by just 84 votes, to newcomer Ben Blankley.
The results really took the community by surprise, but by all indications, bad press coverage in the Wichita Eagle, about a disagreement between Arnold and outgoing board member Joy Eakins, proved detrimental. Instead of a vote for Blankley, the votes were really against Arnold.
In USD 259 elections, in the case of a primary only members of the district vote to advance a candidate. In the general election individuals vote city-wide in all of the races. Arnold won handily District 1, the district she represented, but lost the election as the results of votes cast from outside the district.