Keen Umbehr, the Libertarian candidate for governor, met with Kelly Lenz, Farm Director for WIBW Radio, on August 21, 2014, to discuss the station’s criteria for inclusion into the Kansas State Fair Gubernatorial debates which is scheduled to be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, September 6, 2014.
Mr. Lenz and Umbehr had a frank discussion about the history of the radio station’s debate criteria and their decision not to modify the one portion of their criteria which required a candidate to raise $50,000 of non-personal campaign funding.
Umbehr has committed $50,000 of personal money to his campaign and raised approximately $16,000 in non-personal campaign funds.
During their discussion, Umbehr expressed his belief that the citizens of Kansas have the reasonable expectation that the Kansas State Fair debate would allow voters to hear from all three gubernatorial candidates on the ballot in the general election, not just from the Republican and Democrat candidates.
WIBW Radio’s decision to exclude the Libertarian candidate from the debate, Umbehr says, “denies thousands of Kansas voters the opportunity to hear the exchange of ideas on the serious issues facing the state of Kansas, such as: the governor’s discriminatory income tax plan, school finance and the denial of due process for teachers, RPS funding, the SEC complaint against Kansas and governmental accountability and transparency – just to name a few.”
Ultimately, Mr. Lenz declined to modify WIBW’s debate criteria but did offer an accommodation option in recognition of the fact that the Libertarian party had achieved general ballot access and that Keen Umbehr’s name would appear on the November 4th ballot. The accommodation included a one-hour radio program on September 9, 2014, between 6:00 to 8:00 a.m. Mr. Umbehr accepted Mr. Lenz’s invitation.
Umbehr stated that although he is disappointed about not being able to debate his two opponents at the Kansas State Fair, as a Libertarian he fully supports the freedom of a private enterprise to develop policies which they believe best suit their company goals. “That’s what liberty is about,” Umbehr said.
Keen Umbehr went on to say that he hoped Governor Brownback and Democrat candidate Paul Davis would make a request to WIBW Radio asking them to relax their criteria for inclusion and allow the Libertarian candidate for governor to participate in the Kansas State Fair debate.
“There will be three names on the November ballot and in the interest of fairness, Kansans should be allowed to hear from all three candidates.”
A recent Public Policy Poll showed Umbehr at 9% with 15% undecided. Umbehr stated that he believes the 9% represents Kansans who have heard about his common sense, middle-ground vision for Kansas, and the 15% are those who are looking for such a candidate.