More on money

A Kelley vs. Goodwin race would start out on pretty equal financial footing. Reports filed Dec. 31 show Goodwin had $13,276.48 cash on hand and Kelley $15,797.98. Both reported quite a few PAC and business contributions from the last period, and not much from individuals.

Of course this was updated 3 and half months ago and could look different right now

Don Betts

Don Betts, the state Senator from Wichita, was in Winfield this week campaigning. It's a good year to be a Democrat, but we'll see whether Betts can raise enough money he probably needs to compete.

As of Dec. 31, financial reports showed he had about $10,000 cash on hand, Tiahrt had more than $1 million.

Mars update

Foss Farrar just spoke with John and the municipal court clerk. Apparently he was charged initially with domestic violence, disorderly conduct and public intoxication (Traveler story did not have domestic violence charge) In the end, though, the prosecutors must have felt like there wasn't much there — he pled guilty to disturbing the peace and paid $60 fine and $70 court cost.

Apparently, his wife called police because her husband was upset and she was concerned about him. He was arrested near the college on Central.

John Mars

John Mars filed to run against County Commissioner Carmelita Clarkson in the Democratic primary. Clarkson is the anti-administrator commissioner; her opposition to Leroy Alsup is well known. I wonder if Mars will make this an issue. Frankly I was surprised to see Mars get involved again — he didn't run for re-election to the Ark City school board last year and he got into some legal trouble this fall.

I was also surprised to see that Mars, even though he lives in central Ark City, is part of Commission District 3, which stretches all the way to Udall.

Here's the written description of the district (I couldn't find a map on the Web) Represents all those residents living in the townships of: Fairview, Harvey, Maple, Ninnescah, Omnia, Richland, Rock Creek, Salem, Silver Creek, Vernon, Walnut and Windsor. Also those residents of Arkansas City living in precincts: 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 2A and Winfield residents living in precincts: 1 West, 3 Ward, 4 Ward and 5 West

Politics of immigration

As of Friday evening, efforts to pass tougher immigration laws in Topeka were still bogged down. As it stands now, it looks like the business/farm lobby is getting what it wanted – a limited bill.

Area rep. Kasha Kelley said a bill in the House last week was so watered down she voted against it. Kasha has been a friend of business but not on this one. The chamber of commerce led the fight against strict employee verification and penalties for hiring illegal residents.

I understand the frustration over illegal immigration, but imagine if Creekstone got their business permit pulled, or had to shut down for a time, because they were accused of violating this law.

Good for Ark City?

Local donors

There aren't too many people from this area listed as donors to presidential campaigns in Federal Election Commission filings, as far as I can tell.

From Ark City, Greg and Diane Kelley of Ark City each donated $750 to Mike Huckabee, the biggest contribution to any candidate. In Winfield, Kent Olmstead donated $300 to Hillary Clinton. John Zerener $544 to Edwards and Sigurd Daehnke donated $221 to Brownback.

Yours truly has donated $100 to Obama, but only contributions of $200 and above come with identification of donors.

The FEC Web site has a searchable database. The easiest database I've seen to search is at the Huffington Post.

http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com

Abrams runs again

Steve Abrams is running for another term on the state board. There's a group of people organized to recruit moderate candidates to replace the conservatives and I'm sure Abrams is a target. http://www.ksalliance.org/.

He beat Tim Aiken of Derby in 2004 in the Republican primary. Word is that Aiken might run again. He'd probably be better off running as a Democrat — the social conservatives are hard to beat in primaries.