TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A 21-year-old Topeka driver who hit a pedestrian and dragged her under an SUV, was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison for a hit-and-run that killed another woman.
Nolte-Photo Shawnee Co.
Alexia Nolte was sentenced Wednesday for second-degree murder, aggravated assault and failure to stop at an accident.
Nolte struck 25-year-old Robin Kuebler on April 3 in Topeka. Kuebler died at the scene.
Nolte received the highest sentences possible for each conviction. Before the convictions, Nolte didn’t have a criminal history.
A witness at a preliminary hearing in May said Nolte struck Kuebler, took aim and drove over her. The witness said Nolte’s vehicle had ample room to go around Kuebler.
Jordan Green, Kuebler’s fiancee, said he and Nolte exchanged words before Kuebler was struck.
STEVENS COUNTY– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), and the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office, have made an arrest connected to the murder of a 2-year-old boy.
Lahey -photo courtesy Stevens County and the KBI
Just after 4 p.m. Tuesday, the Stevens County Sheriff’s Office received a call which caused them concern for the welfare of a child residing at 2046 Road Y in Moscow, Kansas, according to a media release from the KBI.
Upon arrival at the residence, deputies questioned the homeowner, 34-year-old Mikhail Lahey, Sr. Then, they discovered a deceased male child in the home, who was identified as 2-year-old Mikhail Lahey, Jr.
Deputies detained Mikhail Lahey, Sr. at the scene and questioned him. Just after 11:30p.m. he was booked into the Stevens County Jail for first-degree murder.
Authorities have not released details on the cause of death, Lahey’s bond or when he will make a first court appearance.
KANSAS CITY (AP) – Animal control workers who were called to an east Kansas City home encountered Catfish, a 6-foot alligator that its owner said is as “gentle as a kitten.”
photo courtesy City of Kansas City, Missouri
Eventually, a specialist was called to remove the 150-pound alligator. Two boa constrictors and a rabbit also were taken from the home.
The Kansas City Star reports the tenant, Sean Casey, said he owned the alligator for four years and called him “a big cuddly lizard.”
John Baccala, spokesman for the city’s Neighborhood and Housing Services department, says Kansas City does not allow homeowners to have alligators.
None of the four workers who removed the alligator was injured.
Catfish will be housed at the Monkey Island Rescue and Sanctuary in Greenwood for now. The boa and rabbit were taken to an animal shelter.
SEDGWICK COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating a case of vandalism and have
photos courtesy Wichita Police
arrested a 16-year-old boy, according to officer Charley Davidson. He was booked into the Juvenile Detention Center on charges of auto theft, destruction to property, attempted burglary, criminal possession of a firearm by a juvenile and intimidation in reference to the destruction to property cases at North High School, 1437 N. Rochester and P4 Firearms, 1556 N. Broadway in Wichita. Police will present the case to the district attorney.
——–
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating two reports of vandalism.
Just before 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, police responded to an unknown accident call at North High School, 1437 N. Rochester in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.
Police located damage to gym doors at the school and to a City of Wichita fire hydrant on the school’s property.
At approximately 9:30 a.m., Officers responded to a burglary call at P4 Firearms, 1556 N. Broadway. Upon arrival, Officers located damage to the front doors of the business.
The investigation has revealed, overnight two unknown suspects used a blue Ford Van and a tow rope at P4 Firearms attempting to force open the front doors, causing damage. The same blue Ford Van was then driven onto the North High school’s property and backed into the gym doors causing damage to the doors and building. The suspect also struck a fire hydrant.
The blue van was located unoccupied in the 1400 block of north Emporia, and determined to have been stolen. There was no loss reported from either location.
There were no injuries reported, according to Davidson. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
WASHINGTON (AP) —Attorney General Jeff Sessions has resigned as the country’s chief law enforcement officer.
Sessions announced his plan to resign in a letter to the White House on Wednesday.
We are pleased to announce that Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States. He will serve our Country well….
President Donald Trump announced in a tweet that Sessions’ chief of staff Matt Whitaker would become the new acting attorney general.
The attorney general had endured more than a year of stinging and personal criticism from Trump over his recusal from the investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Trump blamed the decision for opening the door to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation and began examining whether Trump’s hectoring of Sessions was part of a broader effort to obstruct justice.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Kansas State cornerback Duke Shelley was arrested this week for failure to appear and released after paying a $500 bond, though his status for this weekend’s game against Kansas remains in question.
Shelley -photo KSU Athletics
A school spokesman said any punishment will be handled internally.
The Wildcats’ best cornerback, Shelley had a warrant issued by Manhattan Municipal Court after he was cited for driving without proof of insurance and having expired tags. He was arrested Tuesday.
The senior from Georgia has 33 tackles and three interceptions this season, even though he has missed the past two games with a leg injury. Wildcats coach Bill Snyder expected him to return at some point this season, possibly in time for the Sunflower Showdown against the Jayhawks.
Patton – photo KSU Athletics
In October police arrested K-State football player Daquan Patton, 21, for failure to appear, according to the Riley County Police Department arrest report. He failed to pay an earlier speeding ticket, according to RCPD.
Patton is a red shirt junior linebacker from Cedar Park, Texas, according to the KSU football roster.
PAWNEE COUNTY — Authorities are investigating after a series of fights broke out Tuesday at the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility.
Two or three of the living pods remain on lockdown Wednesday following the incidents, according to Kansas Department Corrections spokesperson Samir Arif.
There were no serious injuries reported and all inmates were accounted for, according to Arif.
There was extensive property damage to all five (5) housing units, according to the Pawnee County Attorney’s office.
The facility houses “youthful offenders” 18-25 years of age, according to Arif. The facility provides programs to assist with preventing these individuals from going deeper into the criminal justice system.
Pawnee County Sheriff Deputies responded to the scene including their K-9 Unit, Noa, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Ford County K-9 Unit, Ford County Sheriff/Dodge City Police Department Special Response Team (SRT) and the Stafford County Undersheriff. Larned State Hospital Safety and Security were placed on standby.
Additionally, numerous EMS/Fire Department personnel were placed on standby at the University of Kansas Health System – Pawnee Valley Campus in Larned.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas State University student has been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend in Wichita.
Dane Owens -photo Sedgwick CountyRowena Irani-photo courtesy Downing&Lahey
Jurors found 29-year-old Dane Owens guilty Tuesday of first-degree felony murder and aggravated burglary in the October 2016 killing of 22-year-old Rowena Irani. She was studying psychology at Wichita State University.
Prosecutors say Owens parked his truck several houses away from her home, walked through an unlocked door and fired at her when she walked around a corner. He then left the home without helping her, throwing her cellphone in one pond and his gun in another
Her mother found her several hours later suffering from a gunshot wound to the head, and Irani died the next day. The defense said the shooting wasn’t intentional.
Owens was Sophomore social work major at Kansas State when the shooting happened.
Kansas Governor-elect Laura Kelly celebrates her victory over Kris Kobach on election night
Democrat Laura Kelly fended off perhaps the most energizing and divisive figure in Kansas politics on Tuesday to become the next governor of Kansas.
Kelly beat out self-described “full-throttled” conservative GOP nominee Kris Kobach, the secretary of state who’d forged a kinship with President Donald Trump while dabbling in anti-immigration and voter fraud crusades across the country.
He lost to a 68-year-old state senator from Topeka who ran as a moderate, banking on a reputation in the Legislature as someone willing to find compromise rather than as a charismatic force for change.
Instead, Kelly called for Kansas to roll back the clock a decade to when previous Democratic governors formed coalition governments by cobbling together support from party regulars and Republicans uncomfortable with its far-right factions. Kobach represented the most aggressive version of that conservative wing.
Kelly pledged to restore school spending and move past the tax-cutting, service-slicing ways of former Gov. Sam Brownback’s time in the office.
To win the overwhelmingly Republican state, she walked a delicate line of appealing to moderate GOP voters while trying to enthuse bleed-blue Democrats. She also championed the endorsements of several high-profile Republicans from an earlier era of Kansas politics.
Her campaign focused time and again on Brownback, arguing to voters that Kobach would return the state to the policies that carved away tax revenue and triggered cuts in a range of services.
“The people of Kansas spoke, and they spoke so loudly. They put partisanship aside,” she told supporters giddy over a Democratic win in the Republican-dominated state. “Kansans voted for change. … A change in tone in the state. That tone will come to Topeka now.”
In her victory speech, she congratulated Kobach and independent Greg Orman on their campaigns. An otherwise raucous crowd went quiet.
“No,” she chided her supporters gently, “we’re going to be civil.”
She said the election wasn’t so much a Democratic win as a “wave of bipartisanship. … Partisanship was put above all else and it tore our state apart,” Kelly said. “That ended today.”
Kobach spoke to supporters briefly, mostly thanking his family and campaign staff for weathering the grind of the campaign.
He said his loss resulted from political forces pushing against Republicans in the midterm election.
“Headwinds all the way,” Kobach said.
He said Kelly had too much money. Much of Kobach’s campaign was financed by running mate Wink Hartman whereas Kelly relied more on smaller donors. Other spending in the campaign came from independent groups, notably the Republican Governors Association.
Still, Kobach insisted Tuesday night that he couldn’t keep up in the money and advertising parts of the campaign.
“I wish campaigns were all about debates and every single voter watched the debate and that would be different,” he said. “But spending money on campaigns matters.”
Orman, who made a close run for the U.S. Senate four years ago, turned out not to be a factor in the race. Kelly supporters had pressured him to drop out, fearing he would capture the votes of moderate Republicans who would otherwise opt for the Democrat.
In the end, Orman pulled about 6 percent of the vote. Kobach would have needed nearly every one of those votes to overcome Kelly. At the most, Orman’s candidacy might have denied her a clear majority — not of the plurality that swept her into office.
In other statewide races, Republicans maintained their grip on races farther down the ballot. In the race for secretary of state, State Rep. Scott Schwab beat former Google executive Brian McClendon. Attorney General Derek Schmidt bested a candidate the Democratic Party had abandoned. Vicki Schmidt ran away with the insurance commissioner’s race. Jake LaTurner will remain treasurer.
The governor’s race
When Kelly begins her term in January, it will be the first time since 2011 that Republicans haven’t controlled the governor’s office, the Kansas House and the Kansas Senate.
Kelly’s election revives the prospect that Kansas could expand Medicaid coverage. After moderates made sweeping wins in the 2016 election, the Legislature voted for the expansion in 2017 but failed to overcome a veto by then-Gov. Sam Brownback.
Kelly has made clear her support for Medicaid expansion, which represents an embrace of the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Lawmakers might now rally behind expansion.
Her victory likely will mean an end to tax cuts, and the possibility of tax increases to pay for greater state aid to local school districts and an array of social programs. Those were virtually impossible under Brownback and his successor, Jeff Colyer.
Young supporters at Kelly’s Topeka election party said they were inspired by her positions on immigration and education — issues where she differed sharply from Kobach.
“She’s been so active with college students,” said Alyssa Evans of Russell. “I just wanted to show her that we’ve been paying attention and we do care that she’s been coming to different universities.”
Brecken Shimel of Hutchinson pointed to the differing personas of the top candidates — Kelly’s mild-mannered ways versus what he called Kobach’s delight in “intellectual combat.”
“She’s not as hateful as Kobach when it comes to, well, mostly everything,” Shimel said.
In 2014, fewer than 870,000 people voted in the governor’s race and Brownback beat Democrat Paul Davis by about 3.5 percentage points — despite a steady string of polls suggesting Davis was leading in the days running up to the actual voting.
This year, more than 1 million Kansans voted in the governor’s race. Kelly got about 48 percent, Kobach 43 percent and Orman roughly 6 percent.
The election returns showed a split in Kansas mirroring that in the country. In places where people live close together — the Kansas City suburbs, Wichita, Topeka, college towns — the Democrat won. Where they live far apart, the Republican piled up votes.
Even as statistically sound polls continued to suggest Orman was doomed to fall far behind the main contenders, he stayed in the race. His campaign treasurer quit a week before the election and endorsed Kelly, saying Orman had promised to drop out of the race if his stock hadn’t risen beyond spoiler status a month before the election.
Some supporters remained convinced even early Tuesday evening that Orman could pull off a shocker. Sean Reilly, a retired school teacher, hung his hopes on an unscientific poll of self-selected voters that suggested he might win with a plurality just shy of 40 percent.
“Over 7,000 people on the poll,” Reilly said. “They don’t have a dog in the hunt.”
And, it turned out, they weren’t representative of the electorate.
In the end, he may have denied Kelly a clear majority but not a win. Orman promised to advocate for those independents who voted for him and challenged the coming Kelly administration to avoid partisanship.
“Despite the fear, the anger and the hate that both parties threw at them,” Orman said, voters “still stood up and voted for me. I am so very grateful.”
Secretary of state
In the secretary of state’s race, conservative state Rep. Scott Schwab continued Republicans’ hold on the office by beating out former Google executive Brian McClendon. While one Democrat was appointed to briefly serve in the office in recent years, only Republicans have won election to the post since the middle of the 20th century.
Kobach elevated the job’s profile, using the force of his personality and headline-grabbing claims about immigration and claims of widespread voter fraud to catapult himself to national prominence as a Fox News regular and a sometimes-confidant to President Trump.
Schwab promised voters a less controversial tenure, although he’d been a key player in the Legislature backing Kobach’s wide-ranging efforts. Schwab said he at least wouldn’t oppose efforts to strip the secretary of state of one-of-a-kind powers to directly prosecute voter fraud cases granted during the Kobach years.
McClendon promised an aggressive re-make of the office aimed at making voting easier and using his Silicon Valley know-how to tailor the job’s record-keeping chores to business needs.
Schwab pledged Tuesday night to help county clerks navigate Kansas statutes and avoid conflicts with the American Civil Liberties Union, which was often at odds — and campaigned against — Kobach.
“We’re gonna make sure you get the understanding of what the legislature wanted so you will be able to execute on elections in a way that you don’t have to worry about the ACLU trying to kick down your door anymore,” Schwab said.
Madeline Fox, Nomin Ujiyediin, Brian Grimmett and Amy Jeffries contributed to this report.
Scott Canon is digital editor of the Kansas News Service. You can reach him on Twitter @ScottCanon.
————-
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democrat Laura Kelly won the Kansas governor’s race Tuesday, prevailing over Republican Kris Kobach after promising to slam the door on conservative budget and tax-cutting policies that were followed by persistent budget problems.
Kelly, a veteran state senator from Topeka, defeated Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, even though Kobach is President Donald Trump’s closest ally in a state that Trump won handily in 2016. Independent candidate and Kansas City-area businessman Greg Orman trailed far behind.
The Democratic governor-elect made former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his ill-fated 2012-13 experiment in slashing state income taxes — not Trump — a key issue in her red state. Budget woes made Kansas a cautionary example of how not to do trickle-down economics, and Kelly was visible in the successful and bipartisan effort in 2017 that reversed most of the cuts.
“They spoke with a single thunderous voice,” Kelly said of voters in her victory speech at a Topeka hotel. “Kansans voted for change, a change not only in the direction of our state but a change in the tone in our state.”
Kelly wooed GOP moderates and independent voters upset with Brownback’s tax-cutting experiment. She said her victory signaled greater bipartisanship.
Kelly’s message resonated with even Republican voters such as Kimberli Evans, a 43-year-old federal employee from Topeka, who voted for the Democratic nominee. She said fair funding for public schools is one of her big concerns.
“I believe that the Brownback experiment did not work and needs to be reversed,” Evans said after casting her ballot.
Kobach had criticized the $600 million-a-year income tax increase and campaigned on shrinking government so that the state could resume cutting taxes.
Kobach brought some celebrity to the race, having built a national profile as an advocate of tough immigration policies and strict voter identification laws. He has advised Trump and served as vice chairman of Trump’s since-disbanded commission on voter fraud.
He narrowly ousted Gov. Jeff Colyer in the GOP primary in August after Trump defied a split among his advisers and tweeted an endorsement of Kobach. Trump carried the state easily in the 2016 presidential race and had a rally to help Kobach’s campaign in October. Donald Trump Jr. had two fundraising events for him.
“We fought the good fight,” Kobach told his supporters at another Topeka hotel. “This one just wasn’t God’s will.”
The contrast between Kobach and Kelly was stark because Kelly not only portrayed Kansas as in financial recovery but also had a list of places where she’d like to bolster spending, including higher education, early childhood education and mental health services.
Kansas is considered a deep red state with party registration 44 percent Republican and 25 percent Democratic. But its dominant Republican Party sometimes splits between moderates and conservatives, leaving an opening for a Democrat to peel off disaffected GOP voters. In recent decades the state has alternated between Republican and Democratic governors.
Kobach cited that historical trend in telling supporters that the race came with, “headwinds all the way for our team.”
That GOP rift emerged this year with the nomination of Kobach, who concentrated on motivating his conservative base rather than wooing moderate voters. Kobach said that if elected he would encourage immigrants living in the state illegally to leave Kansas.
Kelly said Kobach’s immigration policies would hurt the state’s economy, particularly in western Kansas, which depends on immigrant workers for the meatpacking industry.
Ellie Smith, a 24-year-old Democrat, stay-at-home mom and musician from Topeka, said Kobach’s positions on immigration “hurts my heart.”
“I believe that everybody belongs here,” she said.
TOPEKA (AP) — Immigration and health care were the most important issues for Kansas voters casting midterm election ballots, according to a wide-ranging survey of the American electorate.
As voters cast ballots for governor and members of Congress in Tuesday’s elections, AP VoteCast found that nearly half of Kansas voters said the country is on the right track while the other half said the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Here’s a snapshot of who voted and why in Kansas, based on preliminary results from AP VoteCast, an innovative nationwide survey of about 139,000 voters and nonvoters — including 3,963 voters and 780 nonvoters in the state of Kansas — conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.
___
RACE FOR GOVERNOR
Democratic state Sen. Laura Kelly defeated Republican Kris Kobach, the outspoken secretary of state and strong ally of President Trump.
Kelly captured a sizeable lead with women and younger voters in Tuesday’s race.
Jerry Wright, a 26-year-old die-cut machine operator from Topeka, said he’s a Republican but didn’t support Kobach. He said he wanted a break from former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax-cutting.
“We need time to recover from that,” Wright said.
Voters ages 45 and older were split between the two candidates. College graduates were more likely to favor Kelly while those without a college degree were divided between Kobach and Kelly.
___
TOP ISSUES
About a quarter of Kansas voters considered health care to be the most important issue in this election while another quarter named immigration as the top issue.
Margaret Masilionis, an 84-year-old state worker and self-described “proud Democrat,” took exception to President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigration.
“We all came from immigrants, Masilionis said. “I don’t understand how we can exclude people and go to bed at night feeling that we’re fair Americans.”
But Keith Noe, a 79-year-old semi-retired farmer who lives outside the small town of Lecompton, said he wanted to see the border wall built, saying his views were shaped by living near the Mexican border in California in the 1990s.
“The farmers down there had to shut down their dairies down there because of illegal aliens coming through,” Noe said. “They cannot raise any crops where there’s good fields to raise them because of people tramping through. There was a constant flow even then.”
Kansas voters also named the economy, foreign policy and gun policy as top issues in this election.
___
STATE OF THE ECONOMY
Voters had a positive view of the nation’s economy — about 6 in 10 voters said the nation’s economy is good, while the remaining said it’s not good.
The state’s low unemployment rate, currently 3.3 percent, has remained exceptionally low.
The economy is on an upswing, said Angie Turnbow, a 43-year-old owner of a small Topeka business that makes uniforms and other items for sports teams.
“I probably am a little bit more conservative, and I definitely think there is something to be said for encouraging growth in small businesses, businesses in general, American business,” she said.
___
TRUMP FACTOR
Kansas voters have a mixed opinion of President Donald Trump with half saying they approve of his performance as president and the other half saying they disapprove.
Trump was a factor in the election for about half of the state’s voters, who were split on casting a ballot to support the president or oppose him.
Trump is doing a “terrible job” said James Jenkins, a 48-year-old truck driver from Topeka and a registered Democrat.
Perry Schmiedeler, a 22-year-old Washburn University of Topeka student and a registered Republican, said Trump is doing a fine job but the president didn’t sway his votes for other offices.
“It’s not as bad as everyone thought, I think,” he said of Trump.
___
STAYING AT HOME
In Kansas, a majority of registered voters who chose not to vote in the midterm election were younger than 45. A large share of those who did not vote — nearly 8 in 10 voters — did not have a college degree. Republicans accounted for 4 in 10 of nonvoters while Democrats made up about 2 in 10.
___
AP VoteCast is a survey of the American electorate in all 50 states conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press and Fox News. The survey of 3,786 voters and 755 nonvoters in Kansas was conducted Oct. 29 to Nov. 6, concluding as polls close on Election Day. It combines interviews in English or Spanish with a random sample of registered voters drawn from state voter files and self-identified registered voters selected from opt-in online panels. Participants in the probability-based portion of the survey were contacted by phone and mail, and had the opportunity to take the survey by phone or online. The margin of sampling error for voters is estimated to be plus or minus 2.0 percentage points. All surveys are subject to multiple sources of error, including from sampling, question wording and order, and nonresponse. Find more details about AP VoteCast’s methodology at https://www.ap.org/votecast.
___
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the midterm election in Kansas (all times local):
9:15 p.m.
Democratic candidate Sharice Davids raised $2.7 million in the last quarter in her bid to unseat incumbent Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder in the Kansas 3rd District. CREDIT SAM ZEFF -Kansas News Service
Four-term Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder has been defeated by LGBT Native American Democrat Sharice Davids.
Davids excited voters and Democratic donors with her unusual profile. She is a member of the Wisconsin-based Ho-Chunk Nation who received a law degree from Cornell University and was a White House fellow during former President Barack Obama’s administration. She is a member of the LGBT community and has fought mixed martial arts bouts.
She won the GOP-leaning 3rd District encompassing the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City that President Donald Trump narrowly lost in 2016. He was among 25 Republican incumbents seeking re-election in a district Trump lost.
Yoder is chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.
TOPEKA —Republican state Sen. Vicki Schmidt has been elected Kansas insurance commissioner.
Republican Vicki Schmidt is the new Insurance Commissioner
The Topeka lawmaker defeated Democrat Nathaniel McLaughlin of Kansas City, Kansas, in Tuesday’s election.
Schmidt is a pharmacist who has served in the Senate since 2005. She is chairwoman of its Public Health and Welfare Committee and has been a key player on health legislation.
She’s also a GOP moderate who has supported expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the poor and disabled following the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act.
McLaughlin is a former regional manager for a health services company and has served as president of the state NAACP chapter. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2016.
Incumbent Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor this year.
———-
Republican incumbent Jake LaTurner has won a full, four-year term as Kansas state treasurer after being appointed last year to the office.
LaTurner prevailed in Tuesday’s election over Democratic state Sen. Marci Francisco of Lawrence.
He was appointed in April 2017 by former Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to replace Republican Ron Estes, who won a special election for the Wichita-area congressional seat formerly held by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Republican state Sen. Vicki Schmidt has been elected Kansas insurance commissioner.
The Topeka lawmaker defeated Democrat Nathaniel McLaughlin of Kansas City, Kansas, in Tuesday’s election.
Schmidt is a pharmacist who has served in the Senate since 2005. She is chairwoman of its Public Health and Welfare Committee and has been a key player on health legislation.
She’s also a GOP moderate who has supported expanding the state’s Medicaid health coverage for the poor and disabled following the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act.
McLaughlin is a former regional manager for a health services company and has served as president of the state NAACP chapter. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2016.
Incumbent Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor this year.
______
10:15 p.m.
Republican Derek Schmidt has won a third term as Kansas attorney general.
Schmidt easily defeated Democrat and Lawrence attorney Sarah Swain in Tuesday’s election after the Kansas Democratic Party refused to support her.
The Democratic Party called on Swain to drop out of the race in June because of a poster in her law office showing the superhero Wonder Woman pulling a lasso around a police officer’s neck. Critics said the poster promoted violence against law enforcement officers.
Swain apologized but said it was meant as a metaphor for cross-examination and a zealous defense of clients. She also said she had seen injustices caused by “less-than-honest police officers.”
Schmidt is a former Kansas Senate majority leader who was first elected attorney general in 2010 and re-elected in 2014.
