Good morning everyone:
It was wall-to-wall coverage of Aaron Coleman and the House race for District 37 last week.
Can’t remember a time when one race covering just a sliver of the state — or any state that we’ve worked in — has received so much attention.
Without Coleman, it might have been a dull week. But he kept reporters hopping with the off-and-on House race.
But does anyone really know Coleman or the incumbent, state Rep. Stan Frownfelter? A study last year suggests not so much.
A national survey of 1,500 people by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that 81% didn’t know their state legislator. A third didn’t know their governor.
Let’s get on with the stories we published last week and other news you may have missed but need to know.
- A deep look at the insiders on the U.S. Senate campaign.
- A Republican has withdrawn from the House District 83 race.
- The National Education Association launched a campaign against Roger Marshall.
- Gov. Laura Kelly is seeking federal money for unemployment benefits.
- Democrat Aaron Coleman pulled out of his House race, then got back in.
- The governor renominated Carl Folsom III to the Kansas Court of Appeals.
Now onto other news you may have missed but need to know…
Senator’s billboard flap
Republican state Sen. Kevin Braun on Friday removed local government logos from a billboard on Kansas 7 after at least one local government complained.
Braun said he removed the logos out of courtesy to at least one city that was being “harassed” into forcing him to remove the emblems.
Mike Taylor, public relations director for the Unified Government in Wyandotte County, sent an email to Braun on Friday morning asking the senator to remove the government logo from his billboard.
The Unified Government logo, along with the emblems for the cities of Lansing, Leavenworth, Bonner Springs and Edwardsville, were on Braun’s billboard. 
“Your campaign sign using the Unified Government logo is creating a lot angst and an ethics complaint,” Taylor wrote.
“The concern is your use of our logo leaves the impression the UG is endorsing you. As you know, the UG can not endorse any candidate,” Taylor’s email stated.
“If you want to put the words KCK and Wyandotte County, that’s fine, but you can’t use the UG logo,” Taylor wrote.
Braun said he didn’t intend for the billboard to lead the public to believe he was endorsed by any of the local governments whose logos were on the sign.
He noted that the billboard did not say “vote for me” or indicate explicitly that the cities were endorsing him.
“I am very proud of the cities I serve and they all deserve recognition from me,” Braun said in a text message.
“Although I have been advised there was no legal issue whatsoever as the logos are in the public domain, out of respect for the cities who are apparently being harrassed, I will update the billboard this evening,” he wrote.
By Friday night, the logos had been covered over.
In a response to Taylor, Braun said, “What I think this comes down to is a political issue and some immature people with a political agenda (feigning) hurt feelings.”
Braun is in a hot Senate race against Democratic state Rep. Jeff Pittman for the Senate District 5 seat in Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties.
Health of the Midwestern economy
The health of the rural Midwestern economy showed signs of improving in the last month, but it’s still struggling to return to where it was before the pandemic, according to this month’s edition of Creighton University’s Rural Mainstreet Index.
The Rural Mainstreet Index measures the views of bankers across 200 rural communities with an average population of 1,300 in 10 states where agriculture and energy are vital cogs in the economy.
The 10 states are Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The index ranges between 0 and 100, with a reading of 50 representing neutral growth.
The overall index for the Midwest in August increased to 44.7 but was still below neutral growth, even if it was up from 44.1 in July and April’s record low of 12.1.
The survey showed Kansas with a rating of 50.8, up from 46.4 in July.
The state’s farmland-price index increased to 52.7 from 47.0 in July, and the new-hiring index for Kansas inched up to 54.8 from 54.4 in July.
Compared to August 2019, Kansas’ Rural Mainstreet economy has shed 5.9% of its employment, representing 25,000 jobs.
By comparison, the Rural Mainstreet Index for Iowa was 46.8, an increase from 43.1 in July.
In Nebraska, the rating bumped up to 52.9 this month from 49.3 in July. In Missouri, the index rose to 42.7 this month compared to 38.4 in July.
“Farm commodity prices are down by 10.4% over the last 12 months,” said Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss.
“As a result, and despite the initiation of $32 billion in USDA farm support payments in 2020, only 8% of bankers reported their area economy had improved compared to July, while 18.4% said economic conditions had worsened,” he said.
Business outlook
Almost half of Kansas small-business owners believe it will take more than six months for their operations to fully recover from losses stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, new census survey data show.
The latest data from the Small Business Pulse Survey show that as of mid-August, 49.2% of small-business owners in the state believe it will take more than six months to return to normal, compared to 47.2% nationally.
About 11.5% thought it would take four to six months to recover, compared to 14.7% nationally, according to the most recent survey done Aug. 16-22.
About 20.5% of Kansas small businesses said there has been no impact on their level of operation, compared to 15.3% nationally.
About 10.5% said they had already returned to their normal level of operations, compared to 9.1% nationwide, the Census Bureau reported.
The survey data presented some good news, showing that Kansas’ small businesses reported to be hurt less by the pandemic than the rest of the country.
About 43% of Kansas small businesses said the pandemic has had a moderately negative effect on their operations, compared to about 44% nationally.
Twenty-eight percent of Kansas small business reported that the pandemic had a large negative effect on their operations, compared to 33% nationally.
Just 22.3% of the Kansas small businesses said the pandemic had little to no effect, while 17.1% nationally said it had little impact.
The Census Bureau collects the data as part of its Small Business Pulse Survey, which gauges changing business conditions during the coronavirus.
The survey complements existing U.S. Census Bureau data collections with details about about the challenges small businesses face.
The Census Bureau is now in the second phase of its weekly surveys. It conducted its first phase on business attitudes in the spring.
Voter turnout
Kansas saw its highest voter turnout for a primary election in 24 years when voters went to the polls earlier this month.
Turnout for the Aug. 4 primary was 34.2%, the highest since it reached 39% in 1996 when Sheila Frahm and Sam Brownback waged a fierce campaign for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate.
The secretary of state’s office had projected turnout for this year’s primary to be 28%.
Before this year, the highest primary turnout since 1996 came in 2018, when 27.1% voters cast a ballot.
Turnout was 23.5% for the 2016 primary, 20.2% in 2014 and 23.2% in 2012.
The state sent out 315,096 mail ballots to Kansas voters, compared to 51,455 during the 2018 primary election.
Almost 83% of those ballots were returned this year, compared to about 59% that were returned two years ago.
This year, there were contested Republican primaries for U.S. Senate and in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Congressional Districts.
There also were 13 primaries — 11 Republican and two Democratic — for the state Senate. There were 41 primaries — 29 Republican and 12 Democratic — in the state House.
How we vote
Some interesting data from the secretary of state’s office gives some insight into partisan differences in how we vote.
The office estimated that about 67% of Democrats who cast a ballot during the primary voted by mail. About 32% of Republicans voted by mail.
On Election Day, about 59% of Republicans voted in person, compared to about 28% for Democrats.
Meanwhile, about 9% of Republicans voted in person during the early voting period, compared to 5% of the Democrats who cast a ballot in the primary.
Democrats choose new chair in Sedgwick County
Sedgwick County Democrats have chosen Joseph Shepard, the former student body president at Wichita State, as their new chair.
Shepard, who ran unsuccessfully for the Wichita school board last year, is the director of Multicultural Engagement and Campus Life at Newman University.
He previously worked as a program specialist for the Kansas Leadership Center.
He has a master’s in public administration from Wichita State as well as a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and corrections.
“I am excited to serve alongside the great executive leadership to fight for working-class families,” Shepard said in a Facebook post Saturday.
“Thank you to our previous executive leadership, especially Jimmy Yeager for the great work he did as chair,” he wrote. Now, we’ve got work to do, races to win, and working-class families who need us.”
Blue Valley legal fight coming?
A lawyer for a parent in the Blue Valley School district is raising questions about the process school officials used to determine how to approach the 2020-2021 school year during the pandemic, which included the suspension of all sports.
The letter from attorney Ryan Kriesghauser wants to know how the decision was reached and whether it complied with the state open meetings law.
“The purpose of this letter is simply to ask the BVBOE to operate transparently and according to standard operating procedures under Kansas law in exercising its policy authority over the Blue Valley School District,” the letter states.
The letter says it is unclear if the superintendent made the decisions about instruction and extracurricular activities or whether it was made by an unelected committee.
“Either way, this decision was not publicly voted on by the BVBOE, the proper body to make the decision under Kansas law,” the letter states.
The letter asks for a response from the school district by Tuesday. Here’s more coverage from KMBC.
Pandemic & private schools
House K-12 Education Budget Committee Chairwoman Kristey Williams last week made a pitch for legislation to allow students to take their state aid and transfer it to a private school if in-person instruction is not available during the pandemic.
Appearing before the special committee examining the state’s emergency management laws, Williams urged lawmakers to consider what she described as an education savings account.
Williams said the base state aid money that would have gone to the local school district could be diverted into these accounts and held on the student’s behalf.
The student’s parents could then access the money to pay for an alternative to public education, such as a private school or private tutoring.
The proposal comes as schools struggle with how to educate students during the coronavirus pandemic.
“With many school districts using remote learning environments exclusively, parents are looking for alternative education options that involve in-person instruction,” Williams said in her written testimony.
“The use of an ESA would potentially give those parents more flexibility in finding an alternative education for their child.”
She suggested that the idea was something for lawmakers to consider next year.
“The question remains: When our public schools do not provide a direct in-person learning opportunity for students, what are options for taxpayers, what are options for students and for parents?” Williams asked the committee.
“That is going to be a very important question that we’re going to have to struggle with in 2021,” Williams said.
Game On for Kansas Schools, a grassroots advocacy group for public education, criticized the idea on social media, saying it won’t enhance student achievement.
“We’ve been concerned that some would use the pandemic as a pretext to push their anti-public school agenda,” the group posted on Twitter.
“We continue to oppose vouchers,” the group wrote. “We will maintain our vigilance even through a pandemic.”
COVID-19 & colleges roundup
It was a bad week for colleges and universities in Kansas and nationally as they try to reopen in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic. Cases are exploding as thousands of students come together, further exacerbating the health crisis facing the country. Here’s the roundup of news about the latest COVID-19 flareups on college campuses.
- Fraternities and sororities are bearing the brunt of COVID-19 at Kansas universities.
- COVID-19 cases more than doubled at the University of Kansas last week.
- COVID-19 outbreaks in Riley County are linked to Kansas State University sororities.
- K-State is planning to install devices in dorms to lower the risk of COVID-19.
- Kansas ranks sixth nationally in positive test results for COVID-19.
- The Midwest is starting to get hit hard by COVID-19 as students return to college.
- Faculty at the University of Iowa call for online classes with the school reporting more than 500 COVID-19 cases.
- More than 550 test positive for COVID-19 at Virginia colleges and universities.
- More than 1,000 students test positive for COVID-19 at the University of Alabama.
- College towns are closing bars and restaurants as COVID-19 cases surge.
- College students in Indiana are being suspended for violating rules that prohibit large parties or social gatherings.
- Indiana University ordered eight Greek houses to quarantine after a spike in COVID-19 cases. The university added three more houses to the quarantine list Saturday.
U.S. Senate race roundup
- The Associated Press’ John Hanna looks at how Congressman Roger Marshall and Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier — two physicians — are taking different approaches on health care.
- The Guardian profiles Bollier.
- Marshall predicts mail fraud in states conducting their elections primarily by mail.
- Marshall predicts there will be a COVID-19 vaccine by Thanksgiving. Here’s the coverage from KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney.
- Marshall visits Ottawa, says Bollier is the messenger of “gloom and doom.”
Pandemic bad news for rural hospitals
This can’t be good news for Kansas. Kaiser Health News reports that the coronavirus pandemic presents a bleak outlook for rural hospitals. Last year, a record 18 rural hospital closed, and 14 have already shut their doors this year. More than 170 have closed since 2005. A sobering read for a Sunday.
Gubernatorial emergency powers
Kansas never reached this point, but the Kentucky Supreme Court is set to hear a case that will decide whether Gov. Andy Beshear’s emergency orders issued during the pandemic are constitutional.The state’s attorney general is challenging those orders.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers there are looking for new ways to limit Gov. Tom Wolf’s emergency powers after they’ve been defeated in the courts.
COVID-19 delays voting case
The legal case over the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for registering to vote will be delayed two months at the U.S. Supreme Court because of the coronavirus.
The court granted the American Civil Liberties Union’s motion for a 60-day delay in responding to the state’s request for the Supreme Court to hear the case.
The response was due Sept. 2. It is now due Nov. 2.
The pandemic has not only forced the ACLU attorneys out of their offices, but closure of schools and child care facilities is also requiring them to care for their kids.
“Previously scheduled personal and professional commitments, as well as new challenges resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency and resulting disruptions to professional and personal life, during the initial 30-day response period would make it difficult for counsel to prepare the response in this case,” said the filing from ACLU lawyers Dale Ho and Mark Johnson.
Night coyote hunting
The state wildlife commission last week agreed to allow hunters to use artificial light and thermal-imaging equipment when hunting coyotes at night. The new rule starts in 2021.
Hunters will be required to purchase a night vision equipment permit for $2.50 to use artificial light, scopes and equipment that amplifies visible light.
The new rule is intended to help control the state’s growing coyote population.
The equipment will be permitted from Jan. 1 to March 31 and can only be used for hunting coyotes. The equipment cannot be used from a vehicle while hunting.
The equipment can’t be used on department lands and waters, including Walk-in Hunting Area properties.
District 30 judicial applicants
A screening panel will meet this fall to fill a seat on the bench in the 30th Judicial District.
The Judicial Nominating Commission is set to meet Sept. 30 to fill the vacancy in Sumner County created when Judge R. Scott McQuin retired earlier this month.
The 30th Judicial District covers Barber, Harper, Kingman, Pratt and Sumner counties.
The candidates are:
- Shawn R. DeJarnett, Wellington, city attorney for Derby and Wellington, and private practice lawyer.
- Timothy J. Henry, Cheney, retired public defender.
- Chrystal L. Krier, Wichita, private practice lawyer.
- Candace R. Lattin, Medicine Lodge, district magistrate judge, Barber County.
- Kassie L. McEntire, Great Bend, field staff attorney for St. Francis Ministries.
- Scott E. McPherson, Anthony, district magistrate judge, Harper County.
- Gaten T. Wood, Sharon, county attorney for Barber County, counselor and city attorney for Medicine Lodge, and private practice lawyer.
Here and there
The state Transportation Department has named Pam Anderson as its new fiscal bureau chief. She started in mid-August.
Anderson has been with the agency for 15 years, most recently as chief accountant in the federal aid unit within the department.
Anderson has been involved in implementing several agencywide computer processing systems.
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Jerry Grasso has taken the helm at communications over the Kansas Department of Labor.
Grasso joined the agency after working as the vice president of marketing and communications at the YMCA of Central Kentucky.
He previously worked as a senior communications consultant for Equifax and as senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Lexmark International.
Grasso earned a bachelor’s in history from Kansas State University and has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Julie Menghini, who had been handling communications for the agency, will now concentrate on government affairs.
