By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
PHILLIPSBURG – A group of Republicans from around the Kansas 110th District will gather at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Huck Boyd Community Center, 860 Park, Phillipsburg, to choose a replacement for the Kansas House seat vacated by Travis Couture-Lovelady following his resignation to accept a job as state liaison with the National Rifle Association.
“Because he is a Republican, the Republican County Party Chair of the county with the most registered voters in the legislative district … is responsible for calling a convention to elect a replacement,” said Clay Barker, Kansas GOP director. “The people that do the voting are the Republican precinct leaders in the 110th.”
The district has approximately 65 precinct leaders that are eligible to vote – either in person or through proxy.
“Usually a half to two-thirds of the precinct leaders will physically show up. And usually most, if they are not physically there, they have given their proxy to someone,” Barker said.
Normally the meeting would be led by Robert Pinkerton, Phillips County Republican Party chairman, but as he is in the running for the seat, another leader for the meeting must be nominated.
Once a chair for the meeting is found, attendees will then vote on the rules for the meeting.
“It’s usually a pretty straightforward process. I’ve been doing them all over the state,” Barker said.
Along with Pinkerton, others have expressed interest in the seat, including Palco Mayor Don Steeples and, more recently, Ken Rahjes, who moved from Elwood, Neb., to his family’s farm in Agra last week in order to be considered.
A typical meeting to replace an open seat includes nominations, short speeches from each candidate and sometimes audience participation, according to Barker.
As the meeting is considered a political meeting instead of a government meeting, there are no open meeting requirements, but the meeting will be open to the public, as is customary.
Although a number of people have expressed interest, there are no requirements to be elected, outside of the requirements of holding office – including party affiliation.
“Usually people hear about it pretty quickly and figure out how the process works,” Barker said. “They could just show up. There’s no filing. You don’t have to do anything ahead of time as long as someone will nominate your name. … They could elect anybody who meets the minimum requirements to be elected.”
The vote for the replacement is conducted through secret ballot, with the candidate receiving a majority of votes winning the seat.
In case of a plurality, the recipient of the lowest amount of votes will be dropped and another vote cast.
With the election this week, a lot can still change, however.
“There are a lot of rumors. Sometimes people check it out and decided they don’t have enough votes ahead of time and they don’t push it,” Barker said.