A lot of people have been asking me whom I will vote for, this November. At this time, I am going to provide you with some information that I hope will help you in choosing which candidate you decide to back. I did have telephone conversations with all three candidates, and I will tell you about my impressions from those conversations, and other interactions, so that you can make your own informed decision when you go to the ballot box this November. The first candidate I spoke with was Sam Brownback. Brownback evaded every direct question I asked him, with vague answers that did not in any way address my concerns. He seemed very uninterested in learning about anything having to do with mass incarceration, medicinal marijuana, the plight of our veterans, and he definitely did not want to discuss education funding. When I told him that the vast majority of Kansans support medicinal marijuana, he told me, well, I dont believe in that. I told him it was not his job to force his beliefs on the people. His job is to make decisions based upon what the people want. He had no response to this. He did not answer my questions regarding the lack of transparency in his administration, and he became very uncomfortable when I brought up the subject of cronyism, and his relationship to certain special interest groups and the corporate donors that finance his campaigns. His tax breaks may have helped certain small businesses to an extent, but he could not tell me how he plans to replace the money that he took away from our disabled, from our senior citizens, and from the services that so many Kansans rely upon on a daily basis. From what I can tell, Brownback has little interest in listening to the people he was elected to represent. I also spoke with both Paul Davis, and his running mate, Jill Docking. I only spoke with Davis briefly. While he did not seem to have much of a response to my concerns regarding the injustices in our judicial and law enforcement systems, he did acknowledge the need for medicinal marijuana. He was more open with me than Brownback was, and I got the impression that he was actually listening, with interest, to what I had to say. My conversation with Jill Docking was very refreshing. Docking came across as very genuine, and sincere. Neither she nor Davis voiced any objection to the ideas of using industrial hemp as a revenue source, or for legalizing medicinal marijuana. I felt as if both she and Davis were interested in these commonsense solutions. Lastly, I spoke with Keen Umbehr Sr., the libertarian candidate in the race. Umbehr and I have both been treated with a certain level of indifference and exclusion by the media, who choose to focus on Brownback and Davis, while, for the most part, ignoring other candidates. I ran into Keen several times while out campaigning, far more so than I did Davis or Brownback. Keen responds to questions with direct answers and offers solutions, rather than simply pointing out problems. Keen does not have any corporate backers, and he seems far more concerned with issues of transparency and accountability than his opponents do. I agree with Keens positions on the problems posed by mass incarceration and he is very concerned about the issues our veterans face when they return home from war. In closing, I do not necessarily agree with any of these candidates on every issue, and for me, voting for a candidate comes down to the question of who I can trust to be an honest steward of our tax dollars, and who will do the right thing, even when no one is looking. If we look for candidates who we agree with 100% of the time, we might not ever get to vote for anyone. I encourage you to thoroughly research and reach out to each candidate in this race, and decide for yourself who you think will be the most honest person to govern our state.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:18:57 +0000
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