Voters asked Lawrence City Commission candidates about the budget, Haskell Indian Nations University, affordable housing and other topics important to them at a buzzing forum Saturday.
Like speed dating but for civic engagement, the “Speed Campaign Event” welcomed voters to become acquainted with the candidates. Around 85 people attended.
Twelve candidates are campaigning ahead of the Tuesday, Aug. 5 primary election. The top four vote recipients advance to the Nov. 5 general election to vie for one of two seats on the ballot.
“I really like the speed dating setup because it really allows residents to kind of meet face to face with our local representatives,” Lawrence voter Tiffany Gonzalez said. “And I also met our former state representative, Christina Haswood. It really shows how much the community is involved. I got to meet local residents in Lawrence, too, who I probably wouldn’t have met in the bubble that I live in.”
Gonzalez said she only wishes there was more time. Attendees picked a candidate to begin with and then rotated to the next every five minutes.
The speed campaign event lent itself more to individual conversations than a panel discussion. But several attendees said it was often difficult to hear with multiple conversations occurring simultaneously.
League of Women Voters of Lawrence-Douglas County, NAACP Lawrence Kansas Branch, and the Lawrence/Douglas County Chapter of Women for Kansas opted for the format because of the large candidate pool.
Candidates Mike Harreld, Steve Jacob, Bart Littlejohn, Amanda Nielsen, Kristine Polian, Bob Schumm, Peter Shenouda, Courtney Shipley, Eric B. Hyde and Alex Kerr were stationed at tables making a circle in the Lawrence Public Library auditorium.
Sylvie Rueff, Lawrence voter, said she was able to roll off a few of her planned questions but had hoped to meet the two candidates who weren’t there.
Lawrence Branch NAACP President Ursula Minor, who facilitated the event, told attendees Paul Buskirk could not be present because of a prior engagement. Mike Courtney could not be present and sent a stand-in from his campaign.
One of Rueff’s inquiries resonated with others. Multiple people wanted to know if and how the city could support Haskell through recent cuts and continued broken promises by the federal government.
“I was interested in finding out, in relation to the attacks on Haskell, what the city’s position might be, I mean, just what posture they would take,” Rueff said.
Lawrence voter Maggie Goddard said she read Lawrence Times’ “meet the candidates” article beforehand to learn what priorities candidates had. She said she heard attendees ask about the New Boston Crossing and similar projects in the works, and she was also curious about the recently proposed recreation facility fees.
“It was interesting to hear the differences across the candidates, especially like the parks and rec fees – that one seemed to be a stark difference between people,” Goddard said. “I think it makes a big difference to the families that depend on those resources, if access would be denied and they don’t have the ability to pay for it.”
Other questions from folks were related to budget management, why candidates chose to run, rising costs of living, how candidates perceive the current Trump administration, tax abatements for developers, small business support, and the relationships between city staff and city commissioners.
Gonzalez lives in the Prairie Park neighborhood, which she said is “sorely underrepresented over there when it comes to local services.” And since representatives are not voted in by districts in an at-large election like this one, balanced interests matter to her.
“I wanted to know, how would they make sure that there’s fair representation across the city and they’re not just fighting for their own neighborhoods,” Gonzalez said.
Early voting in Douglas County commenced Wednesday. The names of 13 candidates running for city commission — including Ruby Mae Johnson, who has suspended her campaign — will appear on Lawrence voters’ ballots.
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Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Nathan Kramer (he/him), a multimedia student journalist for The Lawrence Times since August 2024, is a senior at Free State High School. He is also a news photo editor for Free State’s student publication, where he works as a videographer, photographer and motion designer. See more of his work for the Times here.
More coverage: Election 2025
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