The candidates for the Kansas House 60th District position clashed on several topics during KVOE’s final Candidate Forum of this general election cycle.
Republican incumbent Mark Schreiber and Democratic challenger Mic McGuire differed on several topics, starting at the beginning of the program when McGuire challenged Schreiber on food sales tax and last year’s Medicare votes.
Schreiber, meanwhile, says his experience — in the Legislature and elsewhere — speaks for itself.
When it comes to legalizing marijuana, medical or otherwise, Schreiber says the state is taking a cautious approach for a reason, referencing recent meetings of a joint interim committee last week — which included testimony from Oklahoma state officials on their approach to marijuana.
McGuire says Kansas is missing out on revenues now going to neighboring states.
Schreiber and McGuire also differed on the intent of the two special ballot questions, one which would have the Legislature possibly gain authority to revoke or suspend rules and regulations and another to preserve the rights of voters to keep electing the sheriff’s position. Schreiber says the so-called legislative veto can help eliminate surprises from different agencies, although he says those agencies typically do a good job in presenting policy changes, and the constitutional change for electing sheriffs was brought up by a number of sheriffs who say it’s a change that makes sense. McGuire says the special questions are just a power grab by the Republican supermajority in both chambers.
One area where both candidates agreed was on education funding, notably special education. Both are in favor of fully funding special education.
As mentioned, this is a big week for different processes before the official general election Nov. 8. Voter registration ended Tuesday, so attention shifts to the advance vote, with mail ballots starting to get mailed Wednesday and Lyon County’s special offsite voting event beginning Wednesday at the Lyon County Fairgrounds Anderson Building. Offsite voting hours will be from 10 am to 4 pm Wednesday and Friday, 10 am to 6 pm Thursday and 9 am to 1 pm Saturday. Advance voting at the Lyon County Courthouse begins Monday.
Be sure to get informed about the upcoming election. KVOE’s online Voter Information page, courtesy of Community National Bank and Trust, features information about the upcoming local and area races, links to the two special questions on the ballot, polling places, the general election calendar and links to KVOE’s Candidate Forum online news stories. Candidate Forum audio is in the KVOE.com Audio Vault.
