By AMY JEFFRIES

The campaign to fill CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s Kansas congressional seat is underway.

The election on April 11 will be the first congressional contest to be decided since President Donald Trump took office. Republicans near and far are treating it as an early test of the new president’s agenda.

At a nominating convention Thursday in Wichita, Republicans picked State Treasurer Ron Estes, an Osage native, to be their candidate for the 4th District seat.

By Saturday, Estes was passing the hat at the state GOP convention in Manhattan, but he said donors had already pledged about $100,000 to his campaign.

Alan Cobb, a former Trump campaign adviser and staffer for Sen. Bob Dole, came in second to Estes for the nomination. He told state party officials he would transfer the $100,000 raised for his prospective campaign to the county parties to aid get-out-the-vote efforts.

The 4th District has been a safe Republican seat for two decades and so hasn’t typically drawn much attention from national campaign groups or their fundraising firepower.
But this time the National Republican Congressional Committee has agreed to joint fundraising with the state party, meaning individuals can write bigger single checks (up to $272,000, with the $2,700 limit distributed to the Estes campaign, $10,000 to the state party and rest split among three NRCC accounts) and more donations are likely to come from outside Kansas. The Republican National Committee will also be involved in fundraising for the special election.

Even the White House’s campaign arm has reached out. Kansas GOP officials are angling for a presidential visit.

“I think the president is interested in making sure the Republicans maintain a strong majority in the House so he can get his agenda passed through,” National Committeeman Mark Kahrs said Saturday in Manhattan.

Others at the convention, including Sen. Pat Roberts and Gov. Sam Brownback, speculated that Democrats are hungry to hand Trump an early defeat.

“Just think what a big deal it would be if President Trump, in the first special election of his presidency, loses a Republican seat in a red state,” said Secretary of State Kris Kobach, addressing the 4th District committee members at the state convention. “They want that scalp so badly.”

National Democratic organizations are interested in the race and may pitch in. But the Democrats’ candidate, Wichita civil rights lawyer and Army veteran James Thompson, is a political newcomer and will first have to show that he can make it competitive.

Thompson’s campaign website, which went live soon after he was nominated Saturday in Wichita, makes almost no mention of Trump. Instead his campaign takes aim at Brownback for his economic and education policies – a tactic that worked for Democrats who defeated more than a dozen legislative conservatives this fall.

Chris Pumpelly, Thompson’s campaign manager, sees this special election as a continuation of the 2016 election season in Kansas. He branded Estes as a “Brownback clone.”

“(Estes) could not stand up to Sam Brownback. How in the world could we expect Ron Estes to stand up to Donald Trump when he attacks our Constitution?” Pumpelly asked.

Pumpelly said hundreds had signed up to volunteer in the first 24 hours of Thompson’s campaign.

“While Ron Estes is taking his PAC money and his big checks from D.C., we’re going to be working on getting people in Kansas involved, and that’s why we’re going to win this race.”

The phone banking, Pumpelly said, would start Monday.

When the news of the Democrats’ nomination broke, Republicans in Manhattan were quick to tag Thompson as a Bernie Sanders progressive. (Indeed, Thompson was inspired by Sanders’ presidential run.)

“There’s a lot of folks that are pushing the Bernie Sanders mindset, which is not gonna win in the 4th District,” Estes said.

In the caucuses back in March, Sanders bested Hillary Clinton more than 2-to-1 in the district. In November, Trump won 60 percent of the vote.

Estes, who cast an electoral vote for Trump, said he’s eager to get to Washington to help the president repeal and replace Obamacare, reform the tax code and ease regulations on businesses.

“You know he campaigned on some things, and now he’s a man of his word and he’s actually out doing them,” Estes said.

Along with the Republican Estes and Democrat Thompson, Libertarian Chris Rockhold will be on the ballot. Independents have until Feb. 18 to collect 3,000 signatures and petition.

The special election will be decided on the 82nd day of Trump’s presidency.

Amy Jeffries is an editor for the Kansas News Service, a collaboration covering health, education and politics based at kcur.org You can reach her on Twitter @amyoverhere.

JEFFERSON COUNTY – A Kansas teen died in an accident just after 3:30p.m. on Friday in Jefferson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2006 Kia Optima driven by Afton Alaine
Burdick, 16, Circleville, was westbound on 266 Road at U.S. 75 four miles north of Holton.

A semi hit the Kia after the driver failed to yield to traffic on U.S. 75 Highway

Burdick and the semi driver Michael Jeffery Brey, 52, Winnipeg, Manitoba were transported to the hospital in Holton where she died.

Burdick was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit filed by a former University of Kansas rower who says a Jayhawk football player sexually assaulted her in 2015.

The ruling Thursday by Judge J. Thomas Marten in a lawsuit filed by Sarah McClure mirrors Marten’s ruling last week in a similar lawsuit filed by another rower, Daisy Tackett. She said she was assaulted by the same player in 2014.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports McClure’s lawsuit against the university will continue. But she will not be able to argue that Kansas should have known there was an increased risk of sexual assault at apartments where football players lived with less supervision than in residence halls.

No charges were filed against the player but he was banned from campus in 2016.

SALINE COUNTY- Law enforcement authorities in Saline County are investigating a suspect for alleged child abuse.

Following a report from elementary school staff on Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies arrested Connor Riley, 25, rural Bridgeport on Thursday, according to Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan.

Riley was the guardian of a 5-year-old boy.

The child showed signs of bruising on his face and head. Riley faces one count of child abuse.
Authorities placed the boy in protective custody.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A government report shows Kansas had fewer farms and ranches last year and fewer acres used for agriculture.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the 59,600 farms counted in the state in 2016 was down 800 farms from the previous year. All of those losses came in operations that had less than $100,000 in agricultural sales.

The number of farming operations with sales of more than $100,000 remained unchanged in Kansas.

Land used in farms and ranches in the state totaled 45.9 million acres. That is down 100,000 acres from the prior year.

Farms size averaged 770 acres, up eight acres from the year earlier.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita police are looking for two males who entered a pharmacy through a drive-through window took about $10,000 in prescription medications.

Sgt. Nikki Woodrow says the Walgreens pharmacy was closed when the theft occurred early Thursday.

The thieves took drugs such as OxyContin, oxycodone and hydrocodone but didn’t take any cash.

Police did not release the race or approximate age of the suspects. One was wearing a camouflage hooded sweatshirt, a white T-shirt, dark pants and gloves. The other wore a dark hooded sweatshirt and dark pants.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the Kansas Legislature’s debate over raising income taxes to help balance the budget (all times local):

10:55 a.m.

The Kansas Legislature has approved a big increase in personal income taxes to help balance the state budget in a move that defies Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

Senate approved a bill Friday that would generate more than $1 billion over two years. The vote was 22-18.

Senators acted the day after the House approved the measure, so the bill goes to Brownback. He has strongly criticized the bill and said he would not sign it, but he has so far stopped short of saying specifically that he would veto it.

The bill would abandon core tax-cutting policies Brownback championed in 2012 and 2013 to help close projected budget shortfalls totaling nearly $1.1 billion through June 2019.

Supporters did not have the two-thirds majorities necessary to override a possible veto.

_____

7:35 a.m.

Majority Leader Jim Denning says the Kansas Senate is moving quickly on a bill to increase income taxes to help balance the state budget because members want to move on to other issues.

Denning said he believes supporters of the House-passed bill can keep amendments off of the measure during a debate Friday so that they can send it to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. The bill would raise more than $1 billion over two years starting in July by abandoning core tax policies championed by Brownback.

The House passed the bill Thursday but it did not have a veto-proof, two-thirds majority.

Denning said senators can’t go forward with work on issue such as school funding until they’ve decided how to close projected budget gaps totaling $1.1 billion through June 2019.

 

 

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators who see a big income tax increase as the best way to balance the state budget hope their bipartisan plan clears the Legislature.

The GOP-controlled state Senate planned to debate a bill Friday that would raise more than $1 billion over two years by rolling back key policies championed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

The Republican-controlled House passed the bill Thursday.

Brownback has strongly criticized the measure but has stopped short of saying outright that he would veto it. Supporters in the House fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.

Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since GOP lawmakers slashed income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at Brownback’s urging.

The bill would raise rates and end an exemption for farmers and business owners.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The toxicology report on Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura won’t be released to the public following his death last month in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic.

The Kansas City Star reports that authorities in the Dominican Republic told the paper Thursday that the finding only will be released to Ventura’s family and attorneys. Tessie Sanchez, a spokeswoman for the Dominican attorney general’s office, said the toxicology report is not a public document.

The results are an important piece in determining whether the Royals are obligated to pay the remainder of Ventura’s contract, which is valued at $20.25 million. Royals officials initially said they were told toxicology results would be completed in about three weeks.

Ventura was 25 on Jan. 22 when he died northwest of Santo Domingo.

SHAWNEE COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating a suspect for a stabbing and have made an arrest.

Just after 11p.m. on Wednesday police responded to a residence in the 400 Block of N.E. Grattan in Topeka after report of a stabbing, according to a media release.

Upon arrival, officers found a man and woman who had been cut by a suspect who fled the residence on foot.  Emergency crews transported to the victims to a local hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

The suspect in the case Brian Downing, 35, Topeka, is in custody on requested charges of aggravated battery, according to police.

WASHINGTON – A federal jury returned guilty verdicts Thursday in the case of a Chinese scientist, who was charged with conspiring to steal samples of a variety of rice seeds from a Kansas biopharmaceutical research facility, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall for the District of Kansas.

Weiqiang Zhang, 50, a Chinese national residing in Manhattan, Kansas, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property and one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.

Evidence at trial established that Zhang worked as a rice breeder for Ventria Bioscience in Junction City, Kansas. Ventria develops genetically programmed rice to express recombinant human proteins, which are then extracted for use in the therapeutic and medical fields. Zhang has a master’s degree in agriculture from Shengyang Agricultural University in China and a doctorate degree from Louisiana State University.

According to trial evidence, Zhang acquired without authorization hundreds of rice seeds produced by Ventria and stored them at his residence in Manhattan. The rice seeds have a wide variety of health research applications and were developed to express either human serum albumin, contained in blood, or lactoferrin, an iron-binding protein found, for example, in human milk. Ventria used locked doors with magnetic card readers to restrict access to the temperature-controlled environment where the seeds were stored and processed.

Trial evidence demonstrated that in the summer of 2013, personnel from a crop research institute in China visited Zhang at his home in Manhattan. Zhang drove the visitors to tour facilities in Iowa, Missouri and Ohio. On Aug. 7, 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found seeds belonging to Ventria in the luggage of Zhang’s visitors as they prepared to leave the United States for China.

 

RENO COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Reno County are investigating a suspect on drug charges and have made an arrest.

Police arrested Andre Harris, 20, at a dorm on the Hutchinson Community College campus.

An employee of the college smelled marijuana coming from the suspect’s room. They came into the room and found two bags of marijuana sitting on top of a scale. That led to a search of the room where they allegedly found 17 more individual bags of marijuana. Total weight coming to around 27 grams.

Harris took ownership of the marijuana, but denied he was selling it. But, police apparently found a text on his phone from someone wanting to purchase marijuana.

He faces possible charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute within a thousand feet of a school.

In court, he asked for a reduction of the $7,500 bond and Magistrate Judge Cheryl Allen agreed to lower it to $5,000.

He’ll be back in court next week to see if the state has filed formal charges.