Amid the browns and reds of autumn foliage at the Bartlett Arboretum and the din of a band warming up to play, Dolly Farha sat on a folding chair and talked passionately about the upcoming election.
“I truly believe that every vote counts. I think that’s something my generation struggles with,” the 18-year-old said.
Farha said that in addition to being a campaign worker and intern for 55-year-old Belle Plaine resident Ken White, and she lives on the Arboretum property and is his surrogate daughter. This is the first election in which she can vote.
“I’m going to vote on Election Day. I’m very excited. I’m going to wear pearls,” Farha said.
Sunday’s election-related event was organized by the campaign for Democrat Ken White, who is challenging the Republican incumbent Cheryl Helmer for the 79th Kansas House district seat representing rural Sumner and Cowley counties. This district includes the towns of Belle Plaine, Winfield, Udall and Oxford.
The Bartlett Arboretum, owned by White and his wife Robin Macy, hosted the event. According to its official website, the 110-year-old botanical collection was purchased by Macy in 1997.
The event, in a field next to the bandstand, was billed on Facebook as a “get out the vote rally” rather than strictly a Ken White campaign event.
“We had a lot of conversations about whether to advertise this as a Ken White event or a get-out-the-vote event. We decided in the end it is more important for everybody to express their voices and opinions whether or not it’s for Ken White,” Farha said.
Sunday’s event was centered around music, with the ten-piece horn band Daydream playing before the crowd of around 75 people. Macy said White’s campaign events usually featured “a little politickin’ and a whole lot of finger pickin’.”
“It was good. We’ve only had a couple gatherings since COVID hit. People are still hesitant about coming out, but I feel good about it,” White said, in response to the turnout.
White spoke only briefly before the band began to play. He said that there were few politicians he would want to listen to for more than 10 minutes at a time, so he liked to have plenty of music at his events.
The guitar-toting founder of Wichita’s Howerton and White advertising and marketing agency said that he has learned a lot from being a professional musician.
“Everything I learned about life I learned from playing in a Bluegrass band. The glamorous part of playing in a band is only one hour a day. It’s those other 23 hours a day you have to work on your interpersonal relationships. Also, being in a band, part of your responsibility is making everyone else in the band sound good. Being a musician, we cross all socio-economic boundaries,” White said.
White said that he decided to challenge for the 69-year-old Mulvane resident’s seat after the Kansas state legislature’s Republican majority clashed with Democrat Governor Laura Kelly over her plan to shut down the state after the onset of the pandemic.
“I thought Laura Kelly came with a plan that was then undermined by the legislature that kicked the response to the counties. I think they were ill-prepared to deal with it,” White said.
White said he did not feel that Helmer was doing a good job of representing the 79th district.
“I don’t feel that she is accessible to her constituents and that bothers me,” he said.
According to Helmer’s Facebook page, she shut down all her social media due to “trolls” that had “tormented” her since her defeat of Ed Trimmer. She narrowly defeated Trimmer in 2018 to inaugurate her first term in office.
“I’m out walking and talking to people face to face. I’m out walking every day. I’m not sitting behind a computer. The computer isn’t my deal. I’d much rather be out talking to people,” Helmer said.
Helmer said that she does have a website, but that it is not currently active.
Event attendee and White supporter Madeline Norland, 64, of Winfield, agreed with White’s assessment of Helmer’s communication with constituents.
“I haven’t had any connection or communication from here since she’s been in office,” Norland said.
Helmer said her most important focus as a legislator is telling people the truth. In terms of specific issues, abortion played a big role in her initial campaign. In part, this related to her experience as a teacher and counselor in the Wichita Public Schools.
“I was very pro-life and for adopted children and I thought they weren’t getting the fair shake that they should. I was witnessing little high school girls having abortions. I was quite concerned with who was having abortions and their age,” Helmer said.
Opposition to abortion continues to be a priority for Helmer. She said one of her proudest achievements as a legislator was her attempt to pass the Value Them Both constitutional amendment that would attempt to counteract a Kansas Supreme Court ruling in favor of legal abortion.
“We worked very hard on ‘Value Them Both.’ We didn’t get it through, but it was a huge step in the right direction. We’ll take it up again next year,” Helmer said.
Helmer said she also wants to reform the tenant relief legislation that was passed after the onset of the pandemic.
“If you are a tenant and you had a loss because of COVID, then you don’t have to pay rent since March or April. But there is no recourse with landlords. There are many, many landlords that are suffering and losing their homes. Several of them are senior citizens that have those rental homes to supply their income. That was a real silly thing to do, to not consider the landlords in a COVID loss,” Helmer said.
Both candidates described rural broadband as a very important issue for the 79th district. Helmer said that her experience in the telecom industry gave her a great deal of knowledge about that issue.
White said young people want to come back to Kansas during the pandemic to shelter here but need the tools to make that happen.
“Expanding rural broadband is super important. COVID has taught us that we’ll work and live differently moving forward, so we need to make sure everybody has the same ability to communicate,” White said.
White supporter Norland said she owned a bed-and-breakfast for six-and-a-half years and agreed that rural broadband was a vital issue.
“The farmers and the country people deserve to have the connection that they want. We need to support those that take care of the land,” Norland said.
A common thread among supporters of White at the event was their support of him as a person:
“I’m a great supporter of Ken and what he’s doing for this part of the country,” said Doug Brehm, 67, of Wichita.
Brehm described White as having a middle-of-the-road approach and being open and honest about what he’s trying to do for the 79th district.
“Regardless of where on the political spectrum you might fall, we need more good people and he’s a good person. I think he’s incredibly fair. When I’ve talked to him about specifics, he’ll often say, ‘Let the voters decide,’” said Kyle Robinson of Wichita.
Robinson’s wife, Marty Golden, said she is a supporter of him but also happens to align politically as well.
White said that if elected he promises to be attentive to the thoughts of the people of the 79th district.
“Legislators think getting elected is a personal mandate to go after what their own feelings and convictions are. That’s the furthest from the truth. A legislator’s job is to listen to their constituents and represent them and deliver the things that they want,” White said.
