Secretary of State Scott Schwab removed state Sen. Marci Francisco and state Senate candidate Echo Van Meteren from the ballot as candidates for the No Labels Party.
Schwab notified each candidate Wednesday afternoon, telling them that the filing was not valid under state law because a convention to nominate the candidates was not called by the state chair of the No Labels party.
The decision to invalidate the No Labels candidacies does not affect Francisco’s and Echo Van Meteren’s ongoing races for the Kansas Senate. Francisco is running a Democrat. Van Meteren is running as a Republican.
The nominations were submitted by political consultant Kris Van Meteren, who described himself on the nominating documents as chair, incorporator and director.
The secretary of state confirmed that the chair of the No Labels Party was Glenda Reynolds of Whitewater.
A person who answered the phone at her home Tuesday night said she was in hospice care. She was asleep at the time and could not talk to a reporter.
When the party started last year, documents show that Reynolds was listed as party chair and Ernest Reynolds was a committee member.
Another committee member was Victoria Schultz of Leawood. Shane Mathis of Lecompton was listed as the secretary/treasurer of the group.
The secretary of state said that his office verified that no convention or caucus had been called to nominate candidates for state office in 2024.
As a result, the filing submitted by Van Meteren had been declared invalid and the candidates would not be listed on the ballot as No Labels candidates.
Francisco is facing a Democratic challenge from state Rep. Christina Haswood in Senate District 2 in Lawrence.
Echo Van Meteren, the wife of Kris Van Meteren, is running in the Republican primary for the 5th Senate District against Jeff Klemp in Leavenworth County.
The winner will face Democratic incumbent Jeff Pittman in the general election.
State records show that No Labels was incorporated on June 3 at 4:51 a.m., a little more than seven hours before the noon deadline for candidates to file for office.
As candidates running under the No Labels banner, Francisco and Van Meteren could have remained on the ballot for the general election even if they had lost their primaries.
Under state law, if a candidate is nominated by a minor party – let’s say No Labels – and loses in the major party primary they could be on the general election ballot, according to state election officials.
No person’s name can be printed more than once on a primary election ballot, although in this case Francisco and Van Meteren would only be on the ballot once in the primary.
As nominees of No Labels, they would not appear again until the general election.
The No Labels nominations would effectively have given either Francisco and Echo Van Meteren the ability to advance to the general election if they lost the primary.
Francisco said she never asked for the No Labels nomination and never had any intention of running than anything other than as a Democrat.
“I didn’t apply for this nomination. I didn’t request it. I didn’t know it was happening,” Francisco said.
“I filed as a Democrat. I’m running as a Democrat. I’m going to be supporting Democrats,” Francisco said in an interview.
Echo Van Meteren did not return a phone call Tuesday afternoon. Her husband, Kris, responded with a letter asking the secretary of state to justify his position.
He wanted the secretary of state to cite the portion of state law requiring the party convention or caucus to be called by the party’s state chair.
He also demanded documents showing Reynolds’ certified election as the chair of the No Labels Party.
He also wants articles of incorporation or other official documents showing that Reynolds’ or anyone else owns the names “No Labels Kansas.”
However, the national No Labels Party ripped into Van Meteren’s efforts, calling it “fraudulent.”
“We just became aware of the effort in Kansas to nominate a state candidate under the No Labels Kansas Party,” the party said in a statement.
“We have contacted the authorities to alert them this is a fraudulent effort. No Labels is not running candidates on the state or federal level,” the party said.
Van Meteren acknowledged that he didn’t ask Francisco if he could nominate her for the position, saying it would have put her in an awkward position in her own party.
“My understanding is that when she is successful in the upcoming primary election, she will have the option to choose under which party’s banner she will proceed to the general election,” Van Meteren said in an email.
“No Labels’ assumption is that she will do so as a Democrat and her nomination by No Labels, in that case, would be removed by the secretary of state, he said.
“Kansas law stipulates that one candidate cannot appear more than once on the same ballot for the same office,” he said.
State law requires candidates from major parties to file by petition or to personally file a declaration that must be attested.
It’s different for a minority party.
The chair of the minor party is only required to deliver a certificate to the secretary of state’s office showing the candidates who have been picked, which happened in the case of Francisco and Echo Van Meteren.
