Let the
mudslinging begin!
Like the first daffodils of spring — or vultures returning to Marion’s water tower — a different rite of passage (often a wrong) typically marks the start of campaign season.
The first mud to be slung locally this year came a few days early, even before the deadline for candidates to file.
Abilene mayor Brandon Rein was the harbinger. And the mud he slung actually had some substance to it.
In a mass text spamming Republican voters in the 70th House District, which includes a large chunk of Marion County, he accused opponent Greg Wilson of calling the late Pope Francis “a POS.” No, Wilson didn’t mean Positively Ordained Spiritualist. The “P” and “O” we can print. The “S” we can’t.
Wilson edged Rein out 43-30 last summer when party loyalists met at a former country club to decide who should replace Scott Hill as representative after Hill became a senator.
He may very well dislike the late pontiff’s pontifications or even Catholics universally. But any decent person — especially one entrusted with power — should be more respectful, not only of the recently departed but also of the office he held.
The fact that our overly free-wheeling president and vice president have disrespected Francis’ successor doesn’t make it right for Wilson to do so.
Although we question his use of spamming to do it, Rein was right to point out when a person who wants to serve as our representative doesn’t show good judgment or demonstrate respect and courtesy.
Rein also is right about another criticism. Wilson was picked to replace Hill not by voters in the district but by mostly hand-picked party radicals.
Close to half the seats on party committees, Democrat and Republican, aren’t filled by elections. They’re filled by extreme loyalists recruiting people with views as polarized as theirs.
Whether Wilson wins or Rein wins or Democratic challenger Kylie Kilmer wins in November, one of the first things the winner should do is change the law regarding filling vacancies.
It’s OK to let party radicals fill a seat in an emergency, but if any sort of election (even just a municipal primary) is upcoming, voters themselves should be able to choose who will fill the seat.
By the same token, important issues like constitutional amendments, charter ordinances, and bond issues should be voted on at regular state elections with maximal turnout, not hidden away on primary ballots or made subject to voters’ will only if the voters go through the considerable pain and expense of petitioning to overturn an action.
Nearly all constitutional officers in Marion County originally took office after being selected by party loyalists. They then carried the benefit of incumbency and were re-elected year after year without ever really facing a challenge at the polls.
Absent having to secure permission from voters to go into debt on their behalf, municipal governments run up tabs that make the federal deficit look proportionately tiny.
Unscrupulous legislators try to schedule important amendments, like the silly attempt to turn the state supreme court into a partisan free-for-all at times when they think that only party extremists, wanting another opportunity to curb reproductive rights, can shove their hidden agenda through.
It’s time for our legislators to stop commenting on popes and all the other things they like to decry — transgender abortion doctors swarming across borders to stuff ballot boxes — and begin looking at the real issues that impact Kansas.
Partisan filling of vacancies, timing of constitutional amendment questions, and massive overuse of home rule are real problems, not hot-button issues.
Marion, for example, found when trying to fill Chris Costello’s council seat years ago that it accidentally had overturned statutes giving it the authority to do so. There was a fallback provision elsewhere in state law that guaranteed governing bodies the right to fill vacancies, but council members and the city attorney expressed concern at the time that the city’s charter ordinances were in tremendous need of repair.
Candidates promised to look at them right away upon taking office, but to date, more than a year and a half later, the issue has never appeared on an agenda.
Insiders and incumbents like vague rules that allow them to manipulate laws in their favor. We see it all the time. If one of the state representative candidates wants to prove he or she actually would be of use representing this district in Topeka, cleaning up all the loopholes politicians use would be just as important as cleaning up loopholes wealthy taxpayers rely upon.
— ERIC MEYER