(Updated to reflect that the deadline for filing an objection is Monday, not Sunday).
Election officials on Thursday certified that state Sen. Dennis Pyle collected enough signatures to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for governor.
Pyle’s insurgent candidacy potentially threatens Republican Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s campaign for governor against Democratic incumbent Gov. Laura Kelly.
There is a fear among Republicans that Pyle could draw away enough conservative votes from Schmidt that it would hand Kelly a reelection victory this fall.
However, a recent poll done by a conservative group showed Pyle running last behind Kelly and Schmidt with 2.1% of the vote.
Pyle’s 2,190-page petition had signatures from 85 different Kansas counties.
As of Thursday, the secretary of state’s office certified that his petition was sufficient to get on the ballot after 78 counties verified a minimum of 6,234 signatures.
Pyle submitted nearly 9,000 signatures to get on the ballot. He only needed 5,000.
The Schmidt campaign – or anyone else for that matter – has until Monday to object to signatures on the petition.
If there’s an objection filed to the petition, the state board that decides those issues would have five days to meet, which could take the objections timeline through next Saturday.
“The effort already expended to get on the ballot will pale in comparison to the task that lies in front of us,” Pyle said in a statement.
“We now must launch our campaign to inform our neighbors about the stark differences between our conservative beliefs and the radically liberal public policy views of our two opponents, Kelly and Schmidt. They are two peas in a pod,” he said.
“As state Senators, liberal Democrat Kelly and liberal Republican Schmidt worked together to push Kathleen Sebelius’ agenda through the legislature,” Pyle said.
“Kelly and Schmidt voted together on virtually every liberal policy, very often against a republican majority. If either of them wins this election, Kansans are stuck with four more years of regulatory overreach and continued high taxes.”
Pyle’s petition drive got a boost from Democrats such as state Rep. Vic Miller of Topeka and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.
Miller said in an interview this week that he and others helping him collected 1,120 signatures for Pyle’s petition, a number the senator questioned.
“I like Dennis Pyle,” Miller said. “He’s a man of principle as opposed to Derek Schmidt who waffles on everything.
“If it helps the governor, so be it. Let the political scientists figure out who it helps.”
Ty Dragoo, chair of the transportation workers union, estimated that the union gathered about 1,000 signatures from across the state for Pyle.
Dragoo said his effort was not coordinated with Miller. The union endorsed Kelly for governor over Schmidt. He said Pyle backed the union on issues.
“He supported our issues in the Senate and we want to support him in his political career and political goals. It’s just something we believe in doing as our union,” Dragoo said.
“We don’t care about party politics. What we care about is candidates,” Dragoo said. “It just boils down to we support people that support us.”
A number of high-profile Democrats signed onto the petition, including state Sen. Jeff Pittman of Leavenworth, state Rep. Jarrod Ousley of Merriam, state Rep. Sydney Carlin of Manhattan and state Rep. Dan Osman of Overland Park.
Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda and former chair of the Kansas Democratic Party Joan Wagon also signed the petition as did staffers in the House minority leader’s office, Alexis Simmons and Matt Mohan as well as a former member of the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees, Angeliina Lawson.
Other signers include former staffers of former Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, Kerry Gooch and Lauren Tice Miller, as well as Democratic House candidates Lynn Melton of Kansas City, Harry Schwarz of Leavenworth, Brooke Chong of Maize, Jalon Britton of Bel Aire, Kim Zito of Manhattan and Tobias Schlingensiepen of Topeka.
Alise Martiny, business manager at the Greater Kansas City Building & Trades Council signed the petition as did former Democratic state Rep. Stephanie Yeager of Wichita and John Nave, executive vice president of the Kansas State AFL-CIO.
“I respect the fact that he needed signatures to do what he thought was right,” Pittman said in explaining why he signed the petition.
“I’ve got to know him in the Senate and I think he deserves a chance to run if he wants to,” Pittman said.
Ousley said he signed the petition to “help support Democracy.”
“We should let him get on the ballot. Give the people a choice.”
Lawson said she signed Pyle’s petition even though she disagreed with him fundamentally on many issues.
“Derek Schimdt is a candidate who stands for nothing. Even 20% of his own party agreed to that in the primary,” Lawson said in an email.
“I disagree with Sen. Dennis Pyle on a majority of issues, but I have never doubted where he stood. I believe Kansas voters deserve options and I look forward to Senator Pyle appearing on the debate stage at the Kansas State Fair
“I may root for Gov. Laura Kelly but I will bring the popcorn to watch Pyle eat Schimdt alive,” she said.
Billing himself as the true conservative in the race, Pyle played down any help he had received from Democrats in collecting signatures.
Pyle said in an interview earlier this week that he and his wife collected more than 1,200 signatures and a nephew gathered 800 more. He questioned whether all the signatures collected by Miller were all Democrats.
Pyle said he doesn’t know what drove Democrats to sign his petition. He said he was trying to collect signatures from all registered voters.
“We’re not biased on where our signatures come from,” Pyle said. “I would bet the majority of my petitioners are the makeup of all parties.
“There’s no one single party entity on there and I don’t think you could say the majority came from one single party,” he said.
“I don’t know who’s on those petitions other than I know I knocked on a ton of doors and asked people to sign and they did,” he said. “We didn’t ask for party.”
He said the fact that Democrats are signing his petition is an indicator that he can win support from both parties.
“That why I said I’m going to win in November. We’re going to pull from both parties,” Pyle said. “I’m a uniter.”
Besides, Pyle said there’s no guarantee that his candidacy hurts Schmidt.
He said independent candidate Greg Orman didn’t necessarily hurt Kelly in the 2018 governor’s race as many may have believed.
Wagnon said she signed Orman’s petition when he ran in 2018.
“Everybody deserves a chance to run,” she said.
“I can make an argument that it’s good public policy and practice to give people access if they want to run,” she said.
“I can also make an argument that it makes it kind of fun politically to do anything we can to make sure the governor has an advantage to getting reelected.
“She is my candidate.”
The Schmidt campaign did not comment on the petition.
The state Republican Party said Democrats are signing on to Pyle’s petition in a last-ditch effort to keep control of the governor’s office.
“Democrats are desperate to cling to power and they know Dennis Pyle’s ego trip is their best bet,” said Shannon Pahls, executive director of the state party.
“Laura Kelly has never earned a majority of Kansans’ support,” Pahls said.
“Despite all of the deception and shadiness from Pyle and the Democrats, Derek Schmidt will win in November.”
Pyle also received help from Kansans like Melissa Leavitt, who circulated a petition for Pyle and spearheaded the effort for a recount on the abortion amendment.
Republican state Reps. Trevor Jacobs of Fort Scott, Tatum Lee of Ness City and Alicia Straub of Ellinwood have signed the petition.
Republican state Rep. Randy Garber of Sabetha, who is Pyle’s treasurer, also circulated a petition for the senator.
Connie Newcome, the founder of the anti-vaccination group Kansans for Health Freedom, also signed a petition for Pyle.
“Dennis Pyle’s success collecting nearly 9,000 signatures and making the ballot as an Independent proves what we’ve known all along: Derek Schmidt is not a candidate that Kansas voters – whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, or Independents – want,” said Emma O’Brien, spokesperson for the state Democratic Party.
The Republican Party has made efforts to discourage members of their own party from backing someone other than Republicans in an election.
Pyle dropped his longtime party affiliation shortly before announcing plans to run for governor.
Only hours after Pyle officially announced that he planned to run for governor as an independent, the party emailed the language of the loyalty oath to party officials, cautioning them about supporting candidates other than Republicans in an election.
The email put party leaders and officials on notice that they should not be backing Pyle, who dropped his Republican Party affiliation last week before filing paperwork to appoint a treasurer to run for governor.
“Every one of the people that signed my petition is a prominent Kansan,” Pyle said, “and they care about their state and they care about the freedom to get on the ballot and they care enough to get Dennis Pyle on the ballot as an independent candidate.”
