Columns
On Forums, Factions, Strikes, and Elections
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Monday night there was forum involving five of the candidates to be Wichita’s next mayor—though only three serious ones: former Wichita Councilmember Jared Cerullo, activist Celeste Racette, and the incumbent, Mayor Brandon Whipple. The forum was held at the SEIU Hall and organized by the Sedgwick County Grassroots Democrats, so it’s easy to imagine that as the reason why the other two serious candidates—Councilmember Bryan Frye, a longtime and well-connected Republican, and Lily Wu, a former television journalist and registered Libertarian—decided not to attend (though that didn’t stop Cerullo, also a Republican, from showing up). But considering how much controversy over partisanship there has already been on the Democratic side of the mayoral race so far (something that I think is partly being forced by the specific positioning of a couple of these candidates) perhaps it’s just as well that the debate on Democratic turf featured primarily those most tied up with that side of the aisle. I say “Democratic turf,” though of course a union hall isn’t necessarily Democratic party territory. But then again, who am I kidding?