Douglas County Democrats host candidate forum in time for early voting to begin

As a final opportunity to hear from candidates before early birds begin submitting their ballots, the Douglas County Democrats hosted a virtual forum Tuesday evening.

Early voting for the Tuesday, Aug. 6 primary election begins Wednesday. See this article for key info on how to cast your ballot.

Daniel Smith moderated Tuesday’s panel, which was livestreamed via Zoom.

Smith moved swiftly to give three Douglas County Commission candidates running in the newly added districts, each Douglas County District Attorney candidate and two additional incumbents on the ballot time to speak. Each answered a few questions and commented on their top priorities.

Douglas County Commission race

County commission candidates invited to Tuesday’s forum included Mike Kelso and Gene Dorsey, Democrats for District 4, and Erica Anderson and Nicholas Matthews, running as Democrats for District 5. Smith said during the forum that Matthews would not be joining as he was traveling.

District 4 covers Eudora and its smaller surrounding areas, and District 5 covers Baldwin City and its smaller surrounding areas. Each also includes parts of Lawrence. Douglas County voters in November 2022 voted to expand the commission from three seats to five.

Kelso, Dorsey and Anderson all agreed property tax increases and the need for more affordable housing are pressing issues they’d address if elected.

A third main concern for Kelso is the commission’s relationship with the public, which he said he’d work to improve. Dorsey echoed that.

“We need to actively listen when the citizens of Douglas County, whether they’re in your district or not, when they want to talk to you, whether that’s via a phone call, a chat in the store, an email or public comment at a meeting, we need to listen,” Kelso said. “Because we never, ever can forget we work for them. They elected us, and we owe it to them to listen to their needs and their concerns.”

Dorsey said he’s concerned about how property taxes are negatively affecting older folks living on fixed incomes. 

“While we might’ve solved the homeless problem for some, we may be creating it for others,” Dorsey said. “So we need to take care of that by spending money wisely.”

In addition to infrastructure planning, changing how money is allocated would be a focus of Dorsey’s; for example, he’d rather the county hire internal counsel to save money on outside attorneys, he said. And although he’s a proponent of renewable energy, he noted that some in the community, mostly rural residents, don’t approve of the current wind energy regulations.

Anderson said fiscal responsibility is a priority for her. When she’s gone door-knocking, she said folks expressed concerns about recent youth violence and rising costs of food, housing, transportation and health care. She said her background in public health gives her a foundation to start addressing those issues.

“We need to ensure that our infrastructure has the correct framework in place so that everyone can age in place, whatever that means for each individual and their own needs,” Anderson said. “If that means the bus infrastructure, if that means taxi infrastructure, if that means biking infrastructure – what does that mean for each individual?”

Additional candidates running for Douglas County Commission, who are not facing challengers in the primary election, include Democrat and incumbent Karen Willey for District 3; Republican Timothy Bruce and Libertarian Steve Jacob for District 4; and Republican Rich Lorenzo and Libertarian Kirsten Kuhn for District 5. Republicans John Landon and Pam McDermott are also running in the primary to represent District 3. 

Douglas County District Attorney race

Three Democrats are running for Douglas County District Attorney, including incumbent Suzanne Valdez and challengers Tonda Hill and Dakota Loomis. The winner of the Aug. 6 primary will advance to face Republican Mike Warner in the Nov. 5 general election.

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Hill said she’s tough on violent crime, but she clarified her views on jailing people for marijuana offenses.

The DA’s office does not currently prosecute marijuana possession or drug paraphernalia possession, and all three candidates agreed Tuesday that they’d uphold that. They said in those cases, they’d partner with treatment centers like the county’s Treatment and Recovery Center, if necessary.

“I do not believe that simple possession should require incarceration. Jails should be reserved for violent offenders,” Hill said. “Prosecuting marijuana means that I will use my discretion to either dismiss the case, lead the case to diversion or an alternative source, to really make sure that we’re seeing if the individual has an addiction problem.”

Hill said she might propose increasing bail for violent offenders. She’d support free diversion program applications and no associated fees.

Loomis also said he’s an advocate for diversion programs. As the Baldwin City prosecutor, he’s removed diversion application or supervision fees and has requested court fees to be waived for those with financial barriers, he said. 

Citing socioeconomic inequality, Loomis said he opposes cash bonds and that his office would use “nonbiased matrices” to evaluate if an arrestee is a threat to the community or a flight risk before recommending bond access.

“In essence, the goal of my administration would be to restore trust to the office and trust that everyone will be treated with respect and dignity, and that we will have an office of prosecutors, staff, investigators who will focus our resources wisely on the most serious crimes,” Loomis said.

Valdez said her office currently files cases in which they referred folks to treatment centers. The only drug-related prosecutions should be for distribution and not for possession or usage, she said. 

“I just want to say this, folks, we can’t prosecute our way out of addiction,” Valdez said. “We can’t prosecute our way out of mental health issues. We can’t prosecute our way out of youth violence. These are crises that are public health concerns.”

Other incumbent Democratic candidates

A few other Democratic candidates who are running unopposed in the upcoming election spoke during the forum Tuesday.

• Douglas County Clerk Jamie Shew: In 2004, Shew became the first Democrat elected to run the county clerk’s office since 1912. He’s up for reelection again this year.

Elections are only half of Shew’s job, he said. During the other half, he and his office manage finances that are leaving the county and manage other documents for the county. In recent years, Shew said his office has increased administrative efficiency at the county courthouse.

However, the election side is most notable.

“A huge thing I pride ourselves in is going above and beyond to make sure that everybody’s ballot gets counted and it gets counted correctly,” Shew said. “So a lot of the stuff that we’ve done with elections, I’m really proud of the access that we’ve provided over the past few years.”

• Rep. Barbara Ballard, Kansas House District 44: Ballard, a Lawrence Democrat who has represented the city in the Statehouse since 1993, is up for reelection.

Ballard said when she was first elected, the Legislature was fairly equal between Republicans and Democrats, but over the years has become increasingly Republican-dominant. Currently the ratio is 85-40. 

Medicaid expansion and fully funding public education will be priorities, Ballard said. She said she advocates for electing more Democrats in hopes for better moderation and bipartisan work, but ultimately wants people to participate in the election process.

“Please, people, turn out to vote,” Ballard said.

Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.

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