Closing arguments: Lots of last letters before Tuesday’s election

Re-elect Cruse

I am a staunch and enthusiastic supporter of District 4 County Commissioner Lacey Cruse. She is a holistic thinker and leader. She thinks outside the box, she pushes the envelope, she isn’t satisfied with the status quo or, most certainly, a Band-Aid approach to our community’s future.

I know from my experience as mayor that the Wichita community does not take kindly to a holistic approach because it means looking at things in a different way.

It means stirring the waters and pushing people outside their hierarchal and bureaucratic comfort zones. Also, a holistic approach could, God forbid, mean raising taxes or reallocating tax monies.

Consequently, the pool of money seldom changes and the same old approaches keep occurring. Oh, make a little adjustment here or there and patronize them — them being the taxpayer or the squeaky wheel.

In the Oct. 20 issue of The Eagle, Ryan Baty, Cruse’s opponent, blames her for deteriorated relationships in the county during COVID. Please, there were deteriorated relationships during that time and to this day on the county, state and federal level. Does he want to blame Cruse for those?

And what does Baty mean by relational capital? He says civility. I’ve only seen ego pouting. Cruse’s job is not to sooth the egos of her colleagues; it is to champion the greater good.

I know a bit about some missteps in public service as I had a few. I fessed up to them and so did Cruse. She’s the first to admit she’s not perfect, but then who among us or the commission is? My vote is for Lacey Cruse.

Elma Broadfoot, former mayor, Wichita

Cruse control

I don’t live in Sedgwick County Commission District 4, but that didn’t keep me from supporting Ryan Baty’s run against Lacey Cruse.

She should have saved her money and resigned after making headlines for getting banned from an Old Town gay bar.

We don’t need someone making decisions for Sedgwick County that can’t conduct herself in public.

Robert D Petersen, Wichita

Pros or Pols?

Who would you rather have establishing regulations regarding your health care, local environment, safety, consumer protections, etc.: Civil-service professionals with education, training, and experience in their specialization, or professional politicians in the Legislature, subject to pressure from lobbyists, donors, and ideology?

If you prefer the experts, vote “No” on Constitutional Amendment Question 1.

Remember that the Legislature has the power to end counter-productive regulations simply by enacting laws.

Short-circuiting this process would be dangerous and a violation of the constitutional separation of powers. Be sure to vote and to vote “No” on Question 1.

Paul Enos, Lawrence

Amendment needed

The Wichita Eagle’s editorial board is correct in calling Question 1 a “power grab” in one respect: it takes some of the unquestionable authority from unelected officials who make the rules and puts it into the hands of Kansas citizens who must live with those rules.

The Founding Fathers’ concept of checks and balances may seem onerous to unelected public servants, but legitimate power must come from the consent of the governed.

This amendment would enable the Legislature to place an important check on unelected power. The Legislature, in turn, is held directly accountable to the people of Kansas through the elections process.

Elizabeth Patton, Wichita

Stop whiners

If Derek Schmidt is elected governor, he plans to put in place his “parents bill of rights.”

If you think we have a teacher shortage now, wait until this is put into place and see how many teachers we have left. As a retired teacher I can tell you that parents are always welcome and encouraged to visit with their child’s teachers, and most parents know that. This proposed bill is not for those parents.

It’s aimed specifically at that very small minority of parents who are known by teachers as the whiners and complainers. Every school has them. They gripe about everything and never offer any solutions.

These are the parents who complain about transgender students, have racial biases and want to ban books. I can’t imagine even one teacher voting for anyone who would support this policy.

Kenneth Breeden, Wichita

Economic heroes

Laura Kelly and David Toland are economic and community development super heroes.

Their campaign slogan should be “Jobs for Kansas workers and customers for Kansas businesses.”

The $14 Billion in new business investment they have recruited to Kansas will benefit generations of Kansans.

Four years ago the state pension fund was underfunded and the highway fund had been robbed to pay for the previous administration’s tax cuts favoring the wealthy. Schools were underfunded and the state was in debt.

The Kelly Administration has balanced the budget, paid back the pension fund, fully funded schools for four years, and established a well funded rainy day fund.

If a private sector CEO experienced this level of success they would be sought after by every major corporation. We need to re-elect the Kelly/Toland team on Tuesday.!

Mike Bruner, Humboldt

Finding Steven

Steven Johnson, the candidate running for state treasurer, owns and lives in a $500,000 home in the Deer Creek area in Overland Park.

Overland Park is a great town. But the problem is Steven Johnson is the state representative for the 108th District, 170 miles away.

So the folks in central Kansas — Ellsworth, Rice, McPherson and Saline Counties — lost their state representative.

The law requires that the state representative live in the district. But Johnson has not resigned. He should resign at once and let the local precinct committee folks pick a replacement.

Also, he is accusing State Treasurer Lynn Rogers of voting for the largest tax increase in Kansas history as a senator in 2017, even though Johnson was chairman of the House Tax Committee and voted for it at the same time.

Both men voted to reverse the disastrous Brownback tax experiment. We were the only state in the nation that had no income tax on privately held businesses, but they both did the right thing and reversed that in 2017.

As someone once said about a young Arkansas Governor named Bill Clinton, Steven Johnson is “too clever by half.”

Marty Keenan, Wichita

Rogers a treasure

Kansas is blessed to have Lynn Rogers as state treasurer.

Thanks to 30 years’ experience as a banker working with Kansas farmers, Rogers has done an outstanding job of modernizing and managing the state treasury, rather than using it as a springboard for a congressional seat.

His long service as a school board member earned him the credibility to be elected State Senator before being tapped by Gov. Kelly as lieutenant governor.

When Kelly needed him to assume the role of state treasurer, he did. Now he’s running for election.

His opponent is basically AWOL other than cute commercials.

Rogers is known for competence, integrity, and transparency….an excellent resume for state treasurer.

His priorities are “kitchen table” issues that affect whether you retire, pay bills, or save for education.

His opponent (whose record as State Representative is unimpressive) is endorsed mainly by party officials. Rogers has my vote.

Susan Osborne, Wichita

McCorkle serves

The leadership of the Kansas Republican party has used its current power to keep Medicaid Expansion from being discussed, despite almost 80% of Kansans supporting it and all our neighboring states having already expanded.

The leadership ignores the economic and health benefits if it passes and the 40%+ of our hospitals that are at risk of closure if it doesn’t.

House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins is the major deterrent to expansion and has an obvious conflict of interest, given his ties to the insurance industry.

His opponent, Mike McCorkle, is much better qualified and committed to voter inclusion, health care expansion, and seeing inflation reduced.

Meanwhile, Hawkins is attacking McCorkle with innuendos of his “living overseas,” without mentioning that McCorkle was serving his country!

Guy McCormick, Wichita