Breaking down the Wyandotte County election results

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com  

With all of the votes in, here's how Wyandotte County voted last night in competitive races - I'm not including the one-candidate elections.

• As expected, President Obama carried Wyandotte County heavily. He won 67 percent of the vote, while Mitt Romney won just over 30 percent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson won just 1.4 percent of the vote.

• In what might be the oddest number, Libertarian candidate Joel Balam nearly beat U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder in terms of Wyandotte County voters. Yoder edged out Balam in the U.S. House of Representatives race 19,522 votes to 18,101 votes. Yoder barely crossed the 50 percent mark, but results from Johnson County pushed him over the 70 percent mark in the Third District.

• Kansas Sen. David Haley crushed Joe Ward, 16,917 votes to 4,332.

• Kansas Sen. Kelly Kultala won Wyandotte County by a margin of 5,636 votes to 4,794. However, Republican challenger Steve Fitzgerald used a strong performance in Leavenworth County to edge Kultala out in the entire district.

• Pat Pettey ran up the score on Chris Steineger in Wyandotte County, winning by nearly 4,000 votes. She earned 9,734 votes to Steineger's 5,745 in Wyandotte County. She won the race easily.

• Kansas Rep. Louis Ruiz cruised to an easy win in the 31st District, winning 3,933 votes to 1,557.

• After trailing early, Kansas Rep. Tom Burroughs won with a comeback against Republican challenger Tony Bukaty. Burroughs earned 4,758 votes to Bukaty's 3,467 total.

• Out in the west, Kansas Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore defeated Republican challenger Shawn Shipp by a 6,989-3,430 margin.

LIVE-BLOG: Wyandotte County, America votes

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

Welcome to the official election blog post!

During the night, I'll update results primarily from Wyandotte County's elections, but will jump in with national coverage when it merits - i.e., if Ohio, Virginia and/or Florida are called earlier than expected.

Polls in Kansas are not closed as of yet - they close at 7 p.m.

Stay tuned for further updates.

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7:25 p.m. - No results are available for any of the Wyandotte County races yet. Here's the link to the Secretary of State's Website. As expected, Mitt Romney is doing well in Kansas early on.

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7:51 p.m. - Sorry for the lack of updates, but no results are in.

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8:00 p.m. - Our first results for a Wyandotte County race come courtesy of Johnson County voters. Democratic challenger Pat Pettey has opened up a 59-41 percent lead on Republican Chris Steineger, the current senator from Kansas District 6. This would be a pick-up for the Democratic Party in Kansas if the results hold. In real numbers, Pettey leads by a count of 611-425.

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8:22 p.m. - There have been no results reported for the Wyandotte County races in the past 20 minutes or so.

However, the presidential election is tightening quite a bit. President Obama is the projected winner in both Pennsylvania and Michigan, meaning former Gov. Romney very likely needs to win Ohio, Florida and Virginia to win the Electoral College. All three states are "too close to call" right now.

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8:35 p.m. - No additional results yet for the local races. The State of Kansas has been called for Romney. Obama, meanwhile, has won Wisconsin, according to multiple media outlets.

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9:18 p.m. - Finally, some hard results. First, the senate races, which brings mixed news for both parties.

- David Haley has a strong lead on Joe Ward: 2,715 votes to 1,205.

- Kelly Kultala will have to make a big comeback to win. She's currently down over 1,000 votes to Republican challenger Steve Fitzgerald.

- Pettey continues to expand her lead. She leads among voters in both Johnson and Wyandotte counties.

In the House races, there's only considerably results in one race. Kathy Wolfe Moore leads Republican challenger Shawn Shipp by a 1,821-932 margin. Moore, a Democrat, looks to keep that seat in the Democratic column.

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9:36 p.m. - Here are some updated results in Wyandotte County. These are just Wyandotte County votes.

David Haley    6197    71.10%
Joe Ward    2498    28.66%

Steve Fitzgerald 1138    50.35%
Kelly Kultala    1121    49.60%

Pat Pettey    DEM    2021    60.40%
Chris Steineger    REP    1309    39.12%

Fitzgerald has a large lead in Leavenworth County, but he's also winning Wyandotte County - which could be the upset of the night in terms of local elections.

There's no voters outside of Wyandotte County in the Haley-Ward race, so Haley looks in good shape there.

Both Kultala and Steineger are in danger of losing their Senate seats, however.

U.S. Attorney will monitor election complaints in Kansas

Federal prosecutors will be on duty during election day to respond promptly to complaints of possible election fraud and voting rights violations in Kansas, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said today.

Jared Maag, Criminal Chief for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Leon Patton, Assistant U.S. Attorney, will be available to the public at 785-295-2850 while the polls are open on Nov. 6.

“Anyone who has evidence of electoral corruption or voting rights abuses should call my office immediately,” Grissom said.

Grissom said he does not expect any problems during the voting, but warned that there are criminal penalties under federal law for any efforts to fraudulently influence the outcome of the election or to prevent another person from exercising the right to vote.

Maag and Patton will join prosecutors in other districts as part of the  Justice Department’s nationwide election day program.  They will be responsible for overseeing the district’s handling of complaints of election fraud and voting rights abuses in consultation with Justice Department headquarters.

The FBI also will have Special Agents available to receive allegations of election fraud, intimidation, suppression and other election abuses.  The FBI can be reached by the public at 816-512-8200.

VIDEO: Louis Ruiz at political forum

Louis Ruiz spoke at last week's candidate forum at Kansas City Kansas Community College. Ruiz' Republican opponent, Tim Kelb, was not at the forum. The video is courtesy of KCKCC.

Voter registration deadline tomorrow

If you are interested in voting and are not registered yet, you only have 24 hours left to go in order to register in Kansas.

Tomorrow is the final day to register. You can register online here at the state's Website.

Along with registering to vote, you can also choose to vote early this election cycle. Below is information on how to do just that in Wyandotte County.

Information is courtesy of the Unified Government:

To vote an Advance Ballot by mail:

• Visit our web site at www.wycokck.org/election to download the Advance Ballot Application; or

• Call the Election Office at (913) 573-8500 to request an Advance Ballot Application and we will mail an application to you.

• Fill out the application, sign it, and mail or bring it to the Election Office. A separate application is required for each election in which you want to vote by Advance Ballot.

To vote an Advance Ballot in the Election Office:

Come to the Election Office, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., weekdays, during the Advance Voting period. Advance Voting at the Election Office will begin on Tuesday, October 23rd, and ends on Monday, November 5th at 12 o'clock noon, the day before Election Day.

Legislative candidate forum at KCKCC on Wednesday

By ALAN HOSKINS

Candidates for a half-dozen Kansas legislative seats are expected to take part in a Community Candidate Forum at Kansas City Kansas Community College Wednesday, Oct. 17.

Open to the public, the forum will be held from 6-9 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center on the KCKCC campus at 7250 State Avenue.

Candidates for the following contested races have been invited:

Kansas House of Representatives

District 31 – Tim Kelb (R) and Louis Ruiz (D), 6:05-6:30 p.m.
District 33 – Tony Bukaty (R) and Tom Burroughs (D), 7:05-7:30 p.m.
District 36 – Kathy Wolfe Moore (D) and Shawn Shipp (R), 8:-5-8:30 p.m.

Kansas Senate

District 4 – David Haley (D) and Joe Ward (R), 6:35-7 p.m.
District 5 – Steve Fitzgerald (R) and Kelly Kultala (D), 7:35-8 p.m.
District 6 – Pat Pettey (D) and Chris Steineger (R), 8:35-9 p.m.

Addition information is available from the Kansas City Kansas Area Chamber of Commerce at 913-371-3070.

Today's Poll: Do you think Todd Akin should step down in the U.S. Senate race in Missouri following his comments on rape?

Conservatives poised to control Kansas Legislature

While Wyandotte County may not have been the center of the Kansas political universe last night, there were some developments that could impact Wyandotte County.

In what was branded as a "Republican Civil War" by media outlets, the conservatives defeated the moderates in several Republican primaries held across the state.

Here are some of the articles about our little state:

• The Huffington Post

• The Wall Street Journal

• The Kansas City Star

Election Day in Wyandotte County

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

There are three races in Wyandotte County to keep an eye on today.

Arguably the main event of the evening comes in the 5th District Republican nomination race in the Kansas Senate.

Steve Fitzgerald and former Kansas Sen. Mark Gilstrap will compete for the GOP nomination in order to take on current Kansas Sen. Kelly Kultala. In either matchup, it will be a rematch from 2008.

Kultala defeated Gilstrap in the Democratic Party's primary, when Gilstrap was a Democrat. Later on, she defeated Fitzgerald after a late surge of votes on Election Night in 2008.

The 5th District includes portions of Western Wyandotte County and Leavenworth. Based on the general pattern of Wyandotte County getting results, it could be a late night before this race is over or at least called.

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Meanwhile, former Unified Government Commissioner Pat Pettey looks to move on in her race, as she takes on fellow Democrat Mario Escobar in the 6th District.
The winner of the race will take on current Kansas Sen. Chris Steineger in the general election.

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The third primary election will include a very small part of Wyandotte County, but it still counts.

Lake Quivera Republicans will choose between Mary Pilcher-Cook and Tom Wertz for their party's nomination.

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While election day here is not as busy as other places, these are still important races to vote on.

If you live in these districts and if you're registered to vote, do it. Not to bore you with the "it's the democratic process" lecture, but it's one of the view times a year where the population gets to exhibit power. Take advantage of it.

I will be here until all the races are done.

As we edge closer to the general election, we'll be doing candidate questionnaires in an effort for readers and voters to get an idea of who they should vote for depending on what they believe.

Kansas polls opened up at 7 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m. tonight.

18 percent turnout predicted by Kobach

By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD, The Lawrence Journal-World

Despite the political war going on in the Republican Party, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach on Thursday predicted a low 18 percent voter turnout in Tuesday's primary election.

He also said he doubted there would be any problems with the new law that requires voters to show ID to vote.

Kobach said part of the reason for the small voter prediction is that congressional races have been low key.

None of the four Republican incumbent House members face a primary opponent. The most contested congressional race is the three candidate field in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 2, which includes Douglas County.

And even though there is intense competition between moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans in state House and Senate races, Kobach said legislative races don't necessarily drive people to the polls.

Kobach said another indicator of a low turnout is that advanced balloting has been slow.

Conservative-Moderate GOP battles in Kansas reflected in campaign finance reports

By SCOTT ROTHSCHILD, The Lawrence Journal-World

Now that both sides in the conservative-moderate war in the Kansas Republican Party have shown their cards, it remains for voters to decide who has the winning hand.

Republican and Democratic voters go to the polls Tuesday for both party primaries, but the major attraction will be GOP races across the state.

At stake is control of the state Senate.

Currently, a moderate coalition in the Senate has been able to fend off some conservative thrusts from Gov. Sam Brownback and the House. But Brownback, the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, and Americans for Prosperity have waged a full-throated battle to take over the Senate.

Campaign finance reports that trickled in late Monday show a wave of corporate money supporting conservatives, while teachers and unions backed moderates.

For the campaign finance reporting period that ended last Thursday, the political action committee of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce spent more than $280,000 in Republican races, much of that on mailers and broadcast advertising for conservatives trying to knock off moderates. On July 19, Wichita-based Koch Industries, run by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, contributed $125,000 to the Chamber PAC, the PAC report shows.

Meanwhile, moderate Republicans received significant funding from what is called the Kansas Jobs PAC, which raised $181,000 and spent $156,035.

Of the money raised, $100,000 came from the Senate Republican Leadership Committee, which is led by Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton. The company operating the Wichita-area casino contributed $50,000 to the Senate Republican Leadership PAC. The Kansas Jobs PAC also received $50,000 from the Kansas National Education Association PAC; and another $30,000 came from union PACs, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Carpenters District Council.

The Kansas Jobs PAC is helping moderate Senate incumbents who are being challenged by conservatives, and moderate challengers to conservative incumbents.

In state Senate campaigns, Kansas law limits contributions to $1,000 a candidate.

But both the Kansas Chamber PACs and Kansas Jobs PAC are getting around that limitation by paying political consulting groups to produce campaign material independent of the candidates.

In addition, the campaign finance reports don’t show how much is being spent by issue advocacy groups, such as Americans for Prosperity, which was founded by the Koch brothers. AFP doesn’t have to reveal how much it spends nor where it receives funding because it is a tax-exempt “social welfare” organization. AFP has been active in the state Senate campaigns, producing mailers critical of moderate Republican incumbents.

But state Sen. Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson, who is considered a conservative Republican, said the Kansas Jobs PAC report shows that Senate Republican leaders “have an open alliance with the most liberal unions in Kansas to attack conservatives and implement the Obama agenda.”

He added: "Kansas voters know what the Teamsters and big special interest government unions stand for - job killing taxes and total implementation of ObamaCare. Now we know this Senate leadership stands with those unions and against the best interests of Kansas."

But Joshua Lewis, chief of staff for Senate President Morris, said, "Senator Bruce should check the facts: every Republican voted in favor of protecting Kansans from Obamacare. The state is facing a $2.7 billion deficit, our schools could face cuts of up to 40 percent of their current budgets, and some so-called conservatives are now talking about raising the sales tax to pay for the budget deficit.

"Leadership does not control the Kansas Jobs PAC. What Senator Bruce forgets is that in a Republican state like Kansas, many teachers are likely Republican and union members. Our teachers have the most important job of educating our future generations - is Senator Bruce saying that their voices are unworthy of being heard in the political process?"

On the conservative side, Koch Industries’ $125,000 contribution to the Chamber PAC is large by Kansas standards.

In addition to Koch Industries’ donation to the Kansas Chamber PAC, the organization received high-dollar contributions from several businesses, including $10,000 from The Lawrence Paper Co.

For the moderates, the Kansas National Education Association’s $50,000 contribution to Kansas Jobs PAC was made up almost entirely of smaller donations in the $25 to $100 range.

GUEST EDITORIAL: There never has been a more important election

By KELLY KULTALA, Kansas Senator

I would like to respond to Senate President Steve Morris’ guest column, which was published on July 23rd, 2012 in The Leavenworth Times.  

As a state senator myself, I agree with Senator Morris’ assertions that extreme tactics from outsider groups are overshadowing the real issues of concern in this upcoming election.

In just four months, the voters of Kansas will cast their ballots for 125 Representatives and 40 State Senators.  To see what’s at stake, all you have to do is look back to the last election.

In 2010, Kansans elected a far-more conservative House of Representatives, who along with Governor Sam Brownback, have slashed $100 million from K-12 public schools, cut $200 million from the state’s 10-year transportation plan, and enacted a $4.5 billion tax cut plan that will benefit the state’s wealthiest tax filers and bankrupt our state by Fiscal Year 2018.

In just two years, these legislators have placed our state on the brink of financial ruin, and risked the well being of every Kansas schoolchild, working family, and senior citizen.

Now, with the unprecedented financial backing of out-of-state special interest groups, extreme conservative candidates are poised across the state to oust moderate Republican and Democratic senators in the 2012 elections.  If these outsider groups are successful in their attempt to take over the Kansas Senate, the chamber’s moderate majority coalition will be destroyed.  And the Senate will be lock-step with their allies in the House and Governor’s office. 

Kansas schools have already endured seven rounds of devastating cuts.  Homeowners have experienced a 65 percent increase in local property taxes in the last decade.  And our disabled and elderly neighbors have waited far too long for needed state services. 

If this moderate majority coalition isn’t maintained, Kansas four years from now will be far worse off than the state we all love today.

More than any other time in history, our state is at a significant crossroads.  The path we take – and as a result – the future of our state depends on the decisions made at the polls in November.  There truly has never been a more important election that this one.

Wyandotte County Democrats to caucus Saturday

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

The Wyandotte County Democratic Party is invited to caucus this Saturday.

Though very little drama is expected (President Barack Obama has no opponent), Democrats are encouraged to come out and still offer support, according to the Wyandotte County Democratic Party.

Caucuses will be held from 1 - 4 p.m. The caucus process is expected to begin at 2 p.m.

More information from a news release:

If you turn 18 before November 6 election day, you may participate.

The presidential campaign caucuses are organized by state senate districts. The Wyandotte County districts and the state senator representing the district are listed below:

District 4 (represented by David Haley)
Trinity Community Church
5010 Parallel Parkway
coordinated by State Rep. Valdenia Winn

District 5, Wyandotte County portion (represented by Kelly Kultala)
Open Door Baptist Church
3033 N. 103rd Terrace
coordinated by Barbara Ikerd

District 6 (represented by Chris Steineger)
Turner High School
2211 South 55th Street
coordinated by former State Rep. Pat Pettey