I will be voting in the Sunflower Primary. I don’t know if I can support them in the General.4/25/2019 By Edward Rosson
I will be the first to admit that I never thought I would be writing this article. I have been a loyal Sunflower voter for 25 years. Every election, I voted Sunflower up and down the ticket. That may change in 2019. The Sunflower candidates for Governor fail to live up to the values and ideals of the Sunflower party I used to know. Don’t get me wrong, they say all the right things on policy. I still believe that the Sunflower platform is the best in politics. Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to quell my fears on their leadership qualities. Both candidates in the primary have shown a distain for self-sacrifice in the interests of Kansas. Isabella Southwick is content to double dip. She wants to run the Kansas Department of Education while also making money from her husband’s charter school. She explicitly refused to donate the money to remove any conflict of interest. This comes on the heel of her flip flopping stance on Corporate PAC money. Senator Uriarte meanwhile has never wavered in his willingness to put his D.C special interests ahead of the Kansas voter. He failed to tell us that he moved his family from Kansas and has shown a continued eagerness to take their dirty money. We recently conducted a public poll on the Kansas electorate, the results of which are overwhelming. 89% of voters said that it was important for their candidate to reject corporate PAC money. The only way I can explain their behavior is that they simply have higher priorities than the people of Kansas. That is not to say that any other candidate will do. Senator Boyce takes the same special interest money. Even worse in my eyes, he has changed his political stances like a chameleon changes color. If he wins the Free State nomination, I will probably return to the fold. There is only one candidate in this race who has shown any willingness to confront the corporate corruption at every level in our political system. Mayor Jack Griswold has pledged to take on the broken machine style politics in Topeka. He has never accepted Corporate PAC or lobbyist donations. He has called out the greedy practices of the Healthcare industry and pledged to enact policies to end their rampage. We don’t see eye to eye on many policy questions (he is a Free State guy after all) but he does have my vision of what needs to be done to break the gridlock in Topeka. If he wins the Free State nomination, I will probably vote for him in the general.
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By Edward Rosson
After a thorough investigation, Sunflower Spotlight uncovered that Senator Sebastian Uriarte and his family no longer live in Kansas. Documents show that Senator Uriarte purchased a 675 thousand 3 bedroom 2 bath home in DC 3 years ago. We also discovered that Senator Uriarte's kids have been enrolled in a prestigious private school in Maryland. This was not previously disclosed to voters and reeks of career politics. The Senator claims to understand the urgent issues of Kansans but seems to have spent as little time as possible in the state he represents. This legitimizes the rumors that I've heard in Sunflower circles that Senator Uriarte has alienated some party activists by neglecting local party functions. Plenty of U.S Senators make the commute between DC and their home states. While the Senate is time demanding and most have residences in the DC area, Sunflower Spotlight could only find a handful of examples where it became their primary residence. There appeared to be even fewer examples where their families moved full time to DC. On top of this, he is a proud recipient of dirty money from the special interests he schmoozes with in DC. Voters will need to weigh this considerations when deciding who should lead Kansas in the crucial times ahead. It is the view of Sunflower Spotlight that the voters should choose a candidate with as little baggage. Given the scandals reported elsewhere on Isabella Southwick's campaign, this may be a difficult decision. By Edward Rosson
On Tuesday, Kansasdebates hosted the first primary debate of the Kansas gubernatorial election. Jaylen Cavil and I thoroughly grilled the candidates and sought to expose the underlying motivations behind the candidate’s political philosophy. On this end, we feel that the debate stripped away much of the posturing and allowed for an honest discourse. I decided that for the purposes of this week’s article, the debate can largely speak for itself. Instead, I wanted to take an opportunity to delve deeper into the political and moral quandaries present in the platform of both candidates running for the Free State nomination. The subject that struck me was the Free State party’s stance on healthcare. In the debate, Mayor Griswold and Senator Boyce gave a strong defense of the free market’s abilities to provide good healthcare outcomes to Kansans. Both candidates opposed an expansion of Medicaid for people near the poverty line. More broadly, both candidates expressed dissatisfaction with the Affordable Care Act and the policies it implemented. These factors led me to wonder: What exactly would the healthcare policy of the Free State party look like if it was implemented? The reason I pose this question is that the ACA is largely a manifestation of their ideals. The Affordable Care Act is a market based solution that seeks to use competition to provide good healthcare. It provides baseline regulations to protect preexisting conditions, which both candidates have endorsed. Both campaigns failed to present an alternative that would manifest itself differently in a substantive way. At the same time, Free State candidates recognized (correctly) that the status quo just isn’t cutting it for the state of Kansas. Of the two candidates, only Mayor Griswold seemed to hint that the healthcare industry could be operating in bad faith. I believe that it is abundantly clear that the marketplace is failing to serve the people of Kansas and this country. The solution isn’t to embrace the market, it is to embrace the marketplace of ideas. The candidates of the Sunflower party are leading the way on this. They support Medicaid expansion, which would give 150,000 Kansans healthcare and much needed revenues to our rural hospitals. They are open to exploring a statewide healthcare program. This is the future of healthcare and we need to embrace bold policies to combat big problems. The heartbreaking thing is that the Free State Party seems willing to take on bold ideas. Both Free State candidates endorsed reparations for those affected by the drug war and increased subsidies for small farmers. Why is it such a difficult leap to have the government play a larger role in healthcare? In poll after poll, Medicare and Medicaid has been found to be extremely popular by large majorities of Kansans. Voters must support a candidate who fights for the actions needed to solve the issue. The free market is what brought us to this point. The idea that it can fix this mess simply isn't true. By Edward Rosson
On Thursday, the media was invited to the opening press conference of 4 gubernatorial campaigns. What ensued should give any voter pause. All four campaigns displayed difficulty explaining their political platforms. Some took policy positions far outside of the political orthodoxy of any mainstream party. Sunflower Spotlight shined a light (pardon my pun) on these problematic stances and fiercely cross examined the communications director of each campaign. Those who follow me know that the Sunflower party is in my view the only viable party for Kansas. That being said, Thursday was a rough day for everyone. Hopefully, each campaign will revise and correct the positions staked out in these disastrous press conferences. I have broken down my analysis to cover each campaign individually. Here are my thoughts: The Isabella Southwick campaign sent out Communication Director Josh Hughes to answer the media’s questions. I had two takeaways from the exchange. The first was a refusal to swear off corporate PAC money. This opens up the Southwick campaign to bias towards big industry instead of the views of Kansans. The second issue was a profound lack of knowledge on healthcare policy. Coms Director Hughes claimed that the campaign supported the Medicare expansion provision in the Affordable Care Act. This provision doesn’t exist. The Southwick campaign must shore up its policy knowledge if they hope to convince voters that they can lead the state of Kansas. Senator Brandon Boyce sent out Communication Director Garrett Miller to address the media. He opened with a robust policy statement that outlined the campaigns vision. Miller defended Senator Miller’s acceptance of Corporate PAC money and at times seemed enthusiastic about the idea. Miller also confirmed that Senator Boyce will reject any effort to roll back protections for pre-existing conditions. This will be appealing to moderates. Outside of these statements, Senator Boyce seems to hold positions largely in the Free State party orthodoxy. On Thursday, this campaign seemed to be the one to beat. Sunflower campaigns should be prepared to take on Senator Boyce. Gabe Mullen, Communications Director for Senator Sebastian Uriarte faced the media. Mullen expressed the need for safe communities in Kansas and endorsed allowing concealed carry on college campuses. This is an important issue for our party. Unfortunately, Senator Uriarte felt compelled to be hypocritical. In the announcement video for the campaign, he pledged to take on the special interests in Topeka. In this press conference, he showed that he is more than happy to take their money. Both Sunflower candidates seem content to take dirty money from lobbyists and business PACS. We in the Sunflower Party should hold them accountable. The final candidate was Mayor Jack Griswold and his communication director Anil Bhandari. This press conference was the most interesting. For starters, Bhandari seemed to have some difficulty on the subject of Marijuana. After using de-criminalize and legalization interchangeably, I forced him to clarify his position. He said that Griswold supports decriminalization as a way to achieve legalization but opposed any legislation to legalize Marijuana. This certainly seemed odd to me. Additionally, Bhandari said that the Mayor doesn’t support Medicaid. This was bizarre given that Medicaid is one of the most popular programs in the history of the United States. This program gives hundreds of thousands of people in Kansas healthcare. The final gaff was on climate change. Asked about whether humans impacted climate change, Bhandari said that they do not factor in science into their climate positions. This was an explosive statement and Bhandari seemed at a loss for words on how to clean up the damage. He finally said that the Mayor believes in human caused climate change. This issue seems like it will haunt the Griswold campaign for the foreseeable future. On a positive note, Mayor Jack Griswold has confirmed exclusively to Sunflower Spotlight that he will reject Corporate PAC Money and the support of Free State affiliated PACs. This puts him as the only candidate who will be beholden only to the voters of Kansas. If he cleans up these policy mistakes, that could be a compelling reason for Free State voters to support him. These press conferences were quite awful all around and damage control seems to be most campaign’s immediate concern. Fortunately, this is early in the campaign cycle and there is plenty of time to address these issues. As always, stay tuned to Sunflower Spotlight to keep up on the latest news in the Kansas gubernatorial election! By Edward Rosson
The voters of the Sunflower party have an important choice ahead. Governor Bradley Smith is term limited and the voters must decide the future of the party in this next election. The Smith years have been dominated by partisan gridlock and inaction on the pressing issues Kansans care about. The party must nominate a strong leader to lead the ticket. I’ve been informed that two candidates are preparing to announce bids for the Governor’s mansion. A thorough vetting must occur to ensure that our candidate can defeat the Free State Party. A Free State Administration would destroy our Healthcare, sell our land out to special interests, and embolden criminals to terrorize our communities. The first candidate rumored to take the plunge is State Senator Sebastian Uriarte. The son of immigrants, Senator Uriarte has fought for environmental justice and worked on numerous Sunflower Party campaigns. Sources close to the campaign say that Uriarte would make environmental issues the core issue of his campaign. The source also floated the idea of running on universal healthcare for Kansans, an increasingly popular idea that has yet to be fully embraced by the Sunflower party establishment. Time will tell to see if bold policies will pay off during the primary. When I asked Senator Uriarte about his rumored candidacy, He stated that “we need a strong candidate to break up the partisan gridlock in Topeka and deliver on the issues important to Kansans.” He added that he might be the candidate to do it. The other candidate is Isabelle Southwick. Isabelle is a mother of three who practices criminal law in Wichita and is a member of the criminal law advisory committee. A source close to the candidate told me that Isabelle is planning on running hard on education reform. They added that they are looking into criminal justice reform, a position unusual for a Sunflower candidate. Isabelle Southwick confirmed exclusively to Sunflower Spotlight that she is running for governor. When I spoke to her, Isabelle said that she is “running to create a better Kansas. I want to strengthen Kansas for the next generation and continue the great legacy of the sunflower state.” With the whole primary ahead, these two campaigns will have the obligation to convince the Sunflower party that they can maintain the governor’s mansion and deliver on the policies that Kansans have demanded over the last several years. Stay tuned to Sunflower Spotlight for exclusive stories and top notch commentary. |
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