(Updated to include comment from Brandon Johnson)
A video emerged Thursday morning of an altercation between Democratic state Rep. Ford Carr and Wichita City Councilman Brandon Johnson at a downtown Topeka establishment.
The video shows Carr and Johnson in a profanity-laced argument at the Celtic Fox where onlookers tried to separate the two men while one lawmaker was shoved to the floor.
“It really was just yelling and screaming and talk,” Carr said in an interview Thursday. “There were no blows thrown.”
It was unknown who took the video that was sent to the Sunflower State Journal on Thursday morning.
The argument occurred Wednesday night when rumors about the incident started circulating across political circles.
In an interview Thursday morning, Carr said tensions escalated in a discussion he was having with Johnson over state and local funding for testing residents who learned a couple years ago about a chemical spill contaminating the groundwater beneath their homes near 29th and Grove in Wichita.
Carr had persisting concerns that money allocated by the state could not be accessed until Wichita and Sedgwick County provided a local match. He was worried that money could be returned to the state general fund if it wasn’t accessed.
He had been at the bar where he sat down at a table with Johnson and Sedgwick County Commissioner Ryan Baty where they laid out plans to secure the state money.
“The basically start patting themselves on the back for the plan,” he said.
Carr said he told them that he would not commend them for doing something he thought they should have done months ago. He said they had “dropped the ball.”
He said an argument ensued and Johnson’s tone heightened.
“I matched his bravado,” Carr said, adding that he felt threatened at one point as tensions mounted. “Any time the bravado is raised against me, I’m pushing back.”
He felt someone grab him from behind as the argument heated up and pushed them off, not knowing that it was Democratic Rep. Henry Helgerson of Eastborough.
Carr said he believed that Helgerson was trying to break up the confrontation, “but at that point I was focused on the conversation I’m having.
“That was a reflex action,” he said. “I was moving him out of the way.”
“I’ve certainly been in enough confrontations during my lifetime that I know this is not something you look away from when you’re involved in this sort of situation.”
Carr said his only regret was that Helgerson got tangled up in the argument.
Carr, who represents District 84 in Wichita, is the ranking member on the House welfare reform and legislative modernization committees.
Johnson issued a statement responding to the altercation.”
“I’m not going to speak about the incident in Topeka. That event will be properly investigated, and the video, and those present can speak to the specifics of what happened and by whom.,” he said.
“I don’t want that incident to in anyway distract from the genuine, positive efforts and progress we’re making to for residents to address the vitally needed testing and remediation at the 29th and Grove neighborhoods.”
House Minority Leader Brandon Woodard issued a statement in response to the incident.
“We are taking this matter seriously and are committed to resolving it,” he said.
“Our focus remains serving the people of Kansas and advancing policies that meet their needs.”
Carr video
