(UPDATED to reflect interview with Glasscock and that he believed there was a gun used in the incident but could not be certain; with edits throughout)
Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman Dalton Glasscock said he was robbed Monday night at a meeting of a party affiliate.
Glasscock posted the incident tonight on his Facebook page. He said it occurred while attending a Sedgwick County Black Republicans meeting at a Spangles restaurant. He said it occurred shortly after 5 p.m.
Glasscock said he stepped out of the room where the meeting was underway when he was approached by a man with a backpack who demanded that he turn over his phone.
Glasscock, who was on a call at the time, urged the man to use the phone at the front desk of the restaurant.
The man, with his hand in a backpack, then demanded that Glasscock give him the phone. “I’m going to f——g, kill you. Give me your phone now, or I’m going to shoot you,” Glasscock quoted the man as saying.
“His hand was in the bag and he told me he had a gun,” Glasscock said. “I didn’t actually see the gun. But his hand was in his backpack the entire time.”
A member of the Black Republicans tracked the man down about four blocks away, forcing him to give up the phone. Glasscock said he filed a report with the police. He said he was not hurt. He said the man was still at large Monday night.
Within in an hour of the post, there were 61 comments posted on Glasscock’s Facebook page expressing concern for his welfare.
“Thank you to the Wichita Police Department for their speedy response time,” he wrote. “Thank you to the Black Republicans for calming me down.”
Glasscock has been a player in a political controversy stemming from an organized campaign to spread false allegations of sexual harassment against Democratic mayoral candidate Brandon Whipple.
Newspaper reports have tied elements of the campaign back to Republican state Rep. Michael Capps, whose business owned a website domain that was apparently used as part of an effort to tarnish Whipple in the mayor’s race.
Last week, the Sedgwick County Republican Party called on Capps to resign his seat in the Kansas House, something the lawmaker says he won’t do.
Capps went on the radio Sunday night. He said in an interview with former state Rep. John Whitmer that Glasscock was the one who approved the ad campaign against Whipple.
Glassock dismissed the accusation, noting that Capps contradicted himself during the interview by saying at one moment he didn’t know who produced the video but then later accused the party chair of approving the ad.
The incident Glasscock reported occurred the night before Wichita’s mayor’s race in which Whipple is trying to unseat incumbent Mayor Jeff Longwell.
