Current lawmakers representing Lyon County and their challengers have different viewpoints on how the state’s coronavirus response should move forward and whether political blame should be assigned for the response effort so far.
Following Monday’s comments from Governor Laura Kelly that “certain legislative leaders” were in part to blame for a hodgepodge of county responses as a contributing factor to the state’s ongoing increase of both new cases and deaths, Senate Vice President and 17th District Senate Republican Jeff Longbine of Emporia told KVOE News he sees things differently — especially in how the emergency management plan developed from the end of the regular legislative session through the special session that followed.
Longbine’s challenger, Democrat Steven Vecchione, agrees with Governor Kelly, saying public health is the governor’s main focus.
60th District House Republican Mark Schreiber has not commented, but Democrat challenger Todd Maddox has.
76th District House Republican Eric Smith of Burlington says the state response effort is using different priorities now than it did at the start of the pandemic, and the original metrics should still be in play.
51st District House Republican Ron Highland says the widening rift between Governor Kelly and Republicans can be overcome — if you look at the big political picture.
Kansas will likely go over 54,000 overall cases since March when Wednesday’s data is announced. The state currently has 53,959 cases and 600 deaths since the pandemic started in mid-March.
Lyon County, meanwhile, has 1,207 overall cases and 27 deaths since the pandemic came to the county in late March. When Lyon County’s stats are combined with those of neighboring counties, there are over 1,440 cases and 36 deaths since March.
