Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: Some Notes on the First Mayoral Debate

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The story of Tuesday night’s debate is one of offense and defense. For better or worse, Mayor Jeff Longwell–at least at this early point in the race, and at least on the basis on this remarkably well-attended debate (Roxy’s was absolutely packed) — is running entirely on defending his record of the last four years. With the exception of one very slight snark about how the city’s budgets always balance, unlike the state’s (where his challenger Brandon Whipple has served in the Kansas House since 2013), the mayor never attacked Whipple at all. Whereas Whipple went on the attack frequently. Though not always effectively; there were points where Whipple could have forced out into the open some important differences between the candidates, but chose not to, and there were other points where he picked fights over pretty unimportant, even silly stuff.

Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: Why the Partisanship of Wichita’s Mayoral Race is a Good Thing

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The party differences between Mayor Longwell (who kicked off his campaign while surrounded by all sorts of Republican notables) and Brandon Whipple (who has served as a Democrat representing south Wichita in the Kansas House of Representatives since 2013) are pretty obvious, and seem likely to shape the race all the way up to Election Day. This is, to my mind, a good thing.

Columns

WICHITA MATTERS: Expanding Medicaid a Mayoral Issue

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At a recent mayoral candidate
forum focused on matters of health, those in attendance had the opportunity to
listen to seven of the nine individuals running for mayor (Mark Gietzen and
Joshua Atkinson were no shows) respond to questions about water quality, local
mental health facilities, funding for transit and other transportation
alternatives, Wichita’s own Community Health Improvement Plan, and more. Most
of it was informative, but little of it, in my view, provided any points of
distinction between the six men and one woman on the stage. There was, however,
one exception. When a question was asked
whether, as mayor, any of the candidates would join with numerous other local
and state groups and organizations in pushing the Kansas state government to accept
the Medicaid expansion provided under the Affordable Care Act (a priority of
Governor Laura Kelly which almost certainly would have happened during the last
session if Kansas Senate majority leader Susan Wagle hadn’t refused to allow
the matter to come up for a vote), five of the candidates–Brock Booker, Ian
Demory, Amy Lyon, Lyndy Wells, and Brandon Whipple–expressed strong support for
expansion, one–Marty Mork–strongly denounced the idea, and one–Mayor Jeff
Longwell–punted, saying that he couldn’t settle the argument over expansion as
a city leader, so instead preferred to focus his attention on finding local
sources of funding for Wichita-area hospitals and the like. Depending on your political
preferences, you might find yourself on the (I think entirely wise and
responsible) side of the majority of the candidates, or you might find yourself
on the (I think ideologically blinkered and unreasonable) side of Mr. Mork.