Coming up, what did you tell us?

On Election Day?

Wyandotte County picks a new mayor.

What it says is that the people are ready for change.

The people are ready for accountability and transparency, and they believe that I will do that.

Voters say yes to a four day school week in independence.

Prairie village voters roundly reject any change to its government.

And are the assessor's days numbered in Jackson County as voters choose to make it an elected position for six years?

This settlements in Jackson County have been done incorrectly.

They've been down illegally.

They've been out unfairly.

And we need to fix that.

It's a big step in restoring the public's trust in the county.

the assessment debacles that we've experienced.

Have.

Have really eroded that.

Trust.

We look at election days, biggest winners and losers.

Plus, after all the talk and breathless headlines, Kansas drops plans for a special session to redraw its political map.

What does that mean for Sharice Davids history?

Dropping her roommate plans to be U.S.

Senator Davids.

Also, this Half-Hour, the Royals pick this election week to make a new splash on their proposed new ballpark.

Those stories and the rest of the week's news straight ahead.

We can review, is made possible through the generous support of Dave and Jamie Cummings, Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Courtney S Turner Charitable Trust, John H. Mize, and Bank of America Na Co trustees, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello.

I'm welcome.

I'm Nick Haines.

Glad to be with you.

By the way, I just ran into one of our long time viewers at Costco this week who stopped me to say, can I get your opinion on these big election races?

And I said, of course, are you in Kansas or you in Missouri?

And they all know I'm interested in what was happening in New York City and Virginia.

You know, I know people are interested in those elections.

I know it's a big deal, but we jealously guard the time we have on this program to talk about things that are happening right here in our own backyard.

And, believe me, is a lot happening this week here to dissect those results.

And all of the other top headlines locally is Brian Ellison, who tracks the region's top political stories for KCUR news.

Tracking the news from behind a microphone at 95.7 FM KCMOtalk Radio Pete Mundo from the Johnson County Post.

Kyle Palmer is with us and leading your editorial page of your Kansas City Star, Yvette Walker.

you voted, but what did you actually tell us this week and why?

Well, there were literally hundreds of big and small local races being decided this week.

Brian complete the sentence.

The biggest local winner on election night was blank, boring, stable, civic government.

I oh my goodness, people are changing the channel.

I know, I'm so sorry, but but but voters did a lot of things, around the metro that were just not that surprising.

They did not buy into, to protest votes or or, angry displays.

You look at Prairie Village, where where six candidates who were not, the, the PVV United group that has raised a lot of concerns about government there.

They turned away that entire slate.

They in the Casey k mayoral election, Crystal Watson won 9400 votes to 8000 votes in a campaign that was largely quiet, calm, focused on the issues and the qualifications of the candidates.

it was a year where the the tenor of American politics did not seem to translate down to our election.

You all actually making a good point.

We did bring in those Wyandotte County mayoral candidates, and we had two individuals who work here, put them in separate rooms because I was worried how they were going to be, but they were all huggy with each other before and after the show, which is actually rare when we do those programs.

Paint.

The biggest winner on Election Day locally was blank Jackson County taxpayer.

They get the win with Frank white a month ago now.

Fast forward 9010 vote on electing an assessor.

That leads to interim executive Phil Oda.

I think having the wherewithal to say we're going to blow out and fire Gayle McCann, Bailey.

That number was kind of the final thing he needed to say.

This is what the people of this county want.

And after years of issues with those assessments in Jackson County, this is hopefully the start of solving the issue.

Biggest win out for you on election night?

A vet was who or what.

I would say Krista Watson and I just because she's the first black female mayor, and CEO of Wyandotte County.

because you're right, we had we talked to both mayoral candidates together in the same zoom room, and it was very calm.

so I would say, and as we said, in our endorsement, there were two good candidates for the city, and they got one of them.

The good news is she won.

That's what the bad news is.

She now has to actually do something.

Yeah, she the former mayor, said it was almost impossible to get anything done in Wyandotte County.

He even felt it was a danger.

It was a risky thing to show up to work people would routinely ignoring in that office.

So she's got a lot of work to do.

He does.

Absolutely.

Kyle, the biggest win on election night for you was who?

Overland Park voters overwhelmingly chose to reelect Kurt Skoog to be mayor of Johnson County.

It's like 70% of the vote.

That was 70 to 30% of you.

Bear in mind, four years ago, he won his first term with just more than 50% of the vote against business executive Mike Sinicki.

So this year, Overland Park voters seem to endorse the vision he has for the city, the direction he's been taking it.

His opponent, Farris Farris I tried to make it a campaign issue.

Out of the donations that Skoog received from from developers and entities tied to developers, but voters apparently disregarded that and seemed to agree with Skoog vision for the city so far.

Did they also disregard the fact that the whole spat over potentially having a Royal Stadium there at 100?

And I think we.

Will get into that in the show, I believe.

But yeah.

So Ferris also tried to make that a late campaign issue as well, and has said that he would, you know, welcome the royals to stay in the Kansas City metro area and kind of sidestep that question with out of the campaign.

But it does remain a possibility.

Pete Mundo, the biggest loser on election night here in our metro, was blank.

Well, anyone who, ran on a more Republican side of the aisle in these local races that I know are nonpartisan.

But let's be honest, I saw the Johnson County Democrats put out a big statement saying we won, and we had a great night.

And they did.

On the flip side, anyone who identified loosely or directly with the Johnson County Republican Party got blown out.

The local Republican Party in Johnson County is dead.

There is no stability.

There is no direction, there is no money.

And they are getting smoked.

And all these local races they have for years.

And Tuesday night, if that's not the ultimate wake up call for some of these folks locally, I don't know what is does not have any implications for next year's, bigger races that happen in this area, including the race for governor in Kansas.

No, because they're different styles of races.

I mean, and it's a year away.

Yes.

And, you know, I'll tell you what to last year in 24, there was a hope from Laura Kelly that some of the statehouse and state Senate races in Johnson County, she would flip.

They spent a lot of money on them, and the GOP held pretty strong on some of those state Senate and state House races.

So we haven't seen that translate to state or even congressional races yet.

But thus far, it seems like on the super local level, they're getting their clocks cleaned.

Charlotte O'Hara, who is running for as a Republican candidate for governor, former Johnson County commissioners, you know, Kyle said this week, this is now the wake up call to say we need to actually have Partizan elections in Johnson County.

And we need to start that push again.

It's happened before they tried to make these, Republican, Democrat label races not leave it to people to decide and work out for themselves.

I mean, I think Pete is right that even though these are technically nonpartisan races, clearly voters were taking their cues from the party list that the Democratic Party released.

I think one figure said that 94% of the candidates they endorsed on that list, one that has come up in years past.

I mentioned the Overland Park mayoral race four years ago.

That was an issue four years ago.

Seems kind of quaint now, but there were some bickering back and forth about whether they should bring Partizanship into it.

And now I think it's more clearly a thing that voters have weighing on their minds.

Now, as you're talking, what was the Biggest loser or who or what was the Biggest Loser on election night?

Well, the results in Prairie Village were decisive and I think somewhat surprising in how decisive they were.

The six candidates who, aligned more with the Democrats and supported the new city hall project, all won by double digit percentage point margins.

Just two years ago, Prairie Village was maybe the lone red bright spot in local elections because this group, Prairie Village United, was effectively able to organize around some housing and zoning issues and able to win four council seats.

The six candidates that group endorsed this year all lost.

And in turn, the city also rejected this amendment to abandon the mayor council form of government, which was also something that that group had supported.

And so it was a pretty firm rejection of all those policies and also the way they campaigned throughout this fall.

But this may not be the end of it, because also, Eric Mickelson, the mayor of Prairie Village, he's up for reelection next year.

Will he decide after all of this to say, you know, this was too much aggravation?

I proved my point.

I'm not going to run again.

And I was amazed.

I was looking through all of my notes that the mayor of Overland Park, a mayor of privilege, makes $1.

Is that what it is?

You know it's not worth the hassle.

I will not be the I will not be the person to put anything in here.

Michael.

Okay.

All right.

Anyways, Eric, Michael's in south, but I will say he didn't he didn't facing an opponent four years ago or two years ago.

And so as much ire as sometimes he generates from his opponents, no one challenged him at the ballot box.

Two years ago.

The biggest loser on election night in our metro, Brian, was what I think it was, Jackson County government, as we have known it, to sort of echo the point Pete made a moment ago.

The vote on on whether the assessor should be elected was 88% in favor.

I don't know what else you could possibly get.

88% of the people in Jackson can agree on anything.

what I think is, in many ways is the final nail in the coffin of the administration of Frank white Jr.

It was one last chance for voters to say, we don't want to go back to the way the county has been run.

whether that will translate to real change is is an interesting and open question.

I mean, after all, the new election of the assessor doesn't start until 2028.

So the first thing interim County Executive Phil, a voter has to do is appoint another assessor who the voters have said that shouldn't be appointed a vet.

The biggest loser on election night was blank.

I'm going to agree with Kyle.

I think it was it was PVA United, basically.

they they everything that they tried to do to to push through that ballot initiative, which was flawed in the first place.

You know, originally it was a two part.

It was an abandoned the current form of government and adopt something else.

The adopt was not able for some kind of technicality to be able.

So then you have a ballot that just says abandoned, you're going to blow up your government for what?

But that wasn't their fault, as you point out.

It wasn't.

They wanted to.

They did.

It wasn't allowed by a court ruling.

Absolutely.

So I I'm I would say that they probably are the biggest.

Loser of the night.

All righty.

Pete Mundo complete the sentence.

The biggest lesson we learned from this election was blank.

Well, to open the show the way you did, Nick, I think the point is people still don't care about these local elections like they should when you're at Costco and they're asking you about the new York City mayor's race, but they can't tell you who's running in their Lenexa City Council race.

you got a problem.

I mean, all the conversations we have over the last two years on this show, property tax issues and and school board issues, and what's happening with this teacher getting fired and the why?

Well, these are the people who make those decisions.

And the turnout was low, as we expected.

It's about mobilizing a small base.

And then you'll have people who did not vote on Tuesday who will be complaining in 2026 when taxes go up and school board issues come up and they did not vote.

And that just never seems to change.

I saw in Kansas City, Missouri, though they didn't have a lot on the ballot, but 92% of the public stayed home.

The turnout was 8% in Kansas City, Missouri, but they only really were voting on that assessor in Prairie Village.

They said it was the voters turned out, than in any Prairie Village city election in the least 27 years.

That is correct.

And and the turnout in Johnson County overall was, I think, about 25%, which isn't great compared to presidential and congressional years, but still far ahead of what it used to be.

But in Prairie Village especially, turnout was very high.

The biggest lesson of that.

Education is important.

And I'm and I'm saying that because of what we saw in independence, a lot of people thought that parents, would not want to continue the four day school week because, let's be honest, it's inconvenient.

What are you going what are you going to do with your kids on that fifth day?

but they made the point that teachers, they're getting better teachers, the the the rates, the the the rankings for student success is going up.

So no matter if that fifth day is going to be a problem, it's important to get our kids educated.

And that did continue.

And I was always, you know, it did pass.

And they said the, you know, the performance of students had gone up in independence.

So why aren't we seeing all of these school districts in Johnson County racing to start full day weeks?

They're that's a good question.

I think.

I mean, I kind of look this up before the show, but I, you know, there are a few dozen districts in Kansas, mostly in rural, you know, western and southern Kansas that have four day weeks.

But I'm sure if one Johnson County school district does it, the others will, too, because they're always in competition for teachers, retaining teachers.

And so, but it hasn't really come up.

And we had several school board races this year where it was not a non-issue.

And the biggest lesson for you, Brian, election 2025 I think the lesson is that politics are still local and that there it is okay to have an election and have civic engagement.

That is not about MAGA, that is not about pro-Trump or anti-Trump.

The issues that decided most of these races.

And I do agree there's some underpinnings to some of these conversations that might allude to national questions, but, but, but in electing the KC k mayor and electing the Prairie Village City Council, the issues were not, whether you support Donald Trump or not, it was about local development.

It was about, local, standards and good, good governance.

And I think that's important to note that Americans and, and Kansas City and metro area people in particular do still care about local government and things that are not on the national stage.

You know, beyond the election.

There were some lots of other big things happening this week, and we're going to get to them after all the talk and headline grabbing news stories, Kansas Republican leaders have dropped their push to redraw the state's political map.

It was a move seen as an effort to squeeze out the only Democrat in the state's congressional delegation, Sharice Davids.

The Senate had the votes, but the House struggled to get enough signatures from Republican lawmakers to trigger a special session.

Pete, why did Missouri manage to do this?

So remarkably swiftly?

Yet Kansas couldn't get it off the ground?

Well, Missouri obviously has Governor Kehoe, who led the way on this, which was really top of the list.

Kansas was always an uphill battle.

Governor Kelly was obviously always going to veto this if it got there.

They needed the supermajority to approve going back into a special session, and then the supermajority would have to be there to override the veto.

And they didn't have the votes on the House side.

The Senate had it led by Tim Masterson, who was running for governor and potentially looking for that big Trump endorsement.

The House was always going to be the harder left.

What I thought was interesting in talking to Tim Masterson this week is that the no side was not out of Johnson County.

He said he was surprised it was out of parts of more rural Kansas, which was interesting to me.

But they still are likely to go back to this in January when session begins.

Would it be too late in January to start doing this, or do they still have time?

Well, I wouldn't put money on any scenario right now with the way these redistricting fights have gone in other states, I don't think we can predict how fast or how quickly it would go.

I will say there is a lot of, anger and, and against this type of proposal in Johnson County, we've seen thousands of people show up at rallies against redistricting.

So I think if they were to pursue that in the regular session and put Johnson County lawmakers on the record voting for are against it, you could see some backlash in the fall.

Now, the announcement came just as the influential Washington site Politico reported that Sharice Davids was inching towards a run for the U.S.

Senate seat currently held by Roger Marshall, according to Politico, David's just met with California Senator Adam Schiff, who the vice chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, to talk through the logistics of a Senate campaign.

Now that there's no special session, does this end the chatter that Davids is running for Senate?

Brian I am sure, Nick, it won't end the chatter.

However, I do think there is, good reason to not read too much into a meeting like this.

Sharice Davids is the only federal officeholder in Kansas who's a Democrat.

Of course, she is having conversations like the one she had with Adam Schiff.

I don't think that necessarily means that we should get ready for her to to to navigate a Senate run.

Kansas, does not have a good record of electing Democrats to the U.S.

Senate.

and she, as she is in a has what has appeared to be a reasonably safe seat, certainly barring this redistricting effort, when a lot of people raise questions about whether that was a good move for her politically.

So Pete knows Sharice Davids for Senate campaign signs.

Well, never say never.

I mean, if there's a time for the Democrats to try to line something up, Sharice Davids, in what could be a very good year for Democrats trying to run under the Laura Kelly coalition, drive up voter turnout in her home district of Johnson County, knowing full well if that third district doesn't change.

It's pretty much a left leaning district at this point.

You could get a generic Democrat potentially in to fill her seat while she goes to run for U.S.

Senate against Roger Marshall, who is very much aligned with President Trump.

The stars have to align.

I'm not predicting it, but if there's a time for them to try it, it's not crazy to think that 26 is that time.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, by the way, is on a statewide listening tour, and it's swung through Kansas City this week.

Food aid, health care, property taxes all high on residents minds as the Democratic governor hosted public forums in Kansas City, Kansas and Leawood.

She's going to be out of office next year.

It's the purpose of these big forums.

Could she be building up her own ground for a possible U.S.

Senate run against Roger Marshall?

She's 75 years old.

She has told you, and she's told others that she's really not interested in in running.

I think there's a lot of, reason why that.

Yeah.

I mean, I agree with Pete that that if there is a time, maybe 20, 26 is the time, but but nothing she has done indicates that she is interested in continuing her political career beyond this term as governor.

What I will say, it appears to me she is doing is burnishing her credentials, building a legacy.

And she does still have one more budget fight in her with this legislature.

And so it does seem to me she's trying to apply some pressure to the Kansas legislature to not just go its own way with the budget which they have created for themselves.

The power to do that.

75 in Congress.

That gives her two terms.

You know, I mean, she's got plenty of time with the way that thing is.

She'd be one of the youngest people I know.

I know the Kansas City Royals chose this election week to make a big news splash.

They send out a survey to thousands of fans this week asking them to pick the site of their new ballpark.

They offered three choices North Kansas City, Overland Park or downtown Kansas City.

18 months after a failed stadium vote.

Brian, are the Royals really going to base their decision?

What these fans say?

Well, I don't have any inside information on that, Nick, but it sure doesn't seem like they would.

As best I can tell, what is the purpose of this survey that they took?

I mean, I think they are trying to send the message to the community.

Surveys are partly about gathering information, but I think they are also partly about shaping conversation.

And it does seem to me that the survey is to say to the world, we haven't decided yet.

All options are still on the table that gives them more leverage and more ability to have conversation with all of the potential suitors.

What people need that site, the former sprint campus in Overland Park, getting hot under the collar, clutching their pearls, wailing with indignation that the Overland Park was still one of the sites being considered.

Rural clutching in Johnson County, Nick doesn't have it.

I mean, listen, people still look at that site and that possibility, I think, as as distant, but it still is a possibility.

And the fact that the Royals are including and I will say the choice they put on was Overland Park, Johnson County.

They did not specify that site that that has been the site they have confirmed, and that one of the royals affiliated organization does now own the mortgage for that site.

But it also has been put out there that potentially the the old brokerage site could also be a possible landing place, but you can't find a lot of people in Johnson County who are openly excited about this possibility, with the possibility of traffic and everything else that would come with it.

but the possibility does still remain.

How much credence should we put, though, in the Royals saying, well, it's one of these three sites when the last time around they, they shortlisted the sites and then just before Election Day changed completely and chose a site in the crossroads that wasn't one of the shortlisted sites completely.

The primary criticism, and of course, why they lost was the lack of transparency.

The people felt like they didn't care what the people thought, and they wanted to know more information.

They wanted questions answered and they weren't answering the questions.

So as you say, Brian, this could be an opportunity to at least say, no, we do care what you think.

We want to know what you think and whether or not that's true, I don't know.

I want to give credit this week to the Business Journal, which had an interesting cover story this week titled Where Will They Sleep?

They're talking about the 650,000 out of town rivals for the World Cup in June.

It's a pressing issue, they say, when there's only 65,000 hotel rooms within a 100 mile radius and Airbnb is projecting it'll house 11,000 guests in its metro area listings.

So I'm taking off my shoes and socks to count here.

But adding those two numbers together means we're still looking for more than 500,000 places.

Or if people are doubling up, 250,000, where do they stay?

Put your house.

Thank you.

They're staying with you.

listen, I think remember that 650 number is spread out over, what, 8 or 9 weeks?

It's a long period of time.

On top of that, I think that's always been an aggressive number, to put it politely.

So listen, you're going to have people coming in for different teams, different countries.

We don't even know what countries we're getting.

So I don't know how you make that estimation when you have no idea what countries you're getting.

If you're getting one of the big European countries or South American countries, that's different than getting one of the, for lack of a better way to put it, third world countries.

So this is how it goes.

I think that these numbers are all guesses at this point.

Well, it did come up briefly in the election, so we want to tie it back to that.

There were some cities, Fairway and Westwood among them, who are contemplating changing their Airbnb regulations, some other cities.

To make it easier or harder.

Well, to make it, to make it harder.

Shawnee and Prairie Village, also in the last year or two have also put new regulations on Airbnb.

So people are thinking about this.

I think there would be some homeowners out there who would want to put their home up, during next summer.

But, some cities are starting to wrestle with what that exactly would look like.

How about opening up your house?

There is a World Cup crash course on how to put a room or your entire house up for rental, doing what could be a lucrative time.

It's next Friday and Saturday at the Moment Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

Brian, are you looking for a bit of extra cash?

I just don't know what I would do with the dogs.

Okay.

All right.

But if folks don't mind the dog hair and, and the draft through the window in the guestroom, possibly.

You know, I think the the folks who are coming to Kansas City are going to be, flexible about their options.

and I agree with Pete.

There's so much that is hard to predict about when and where and exactly who and what kind of resources they'll be bringing with them that I, I don't know that we can really speculate, do more than speculate.

Oh, you mean we have to talk about it on another show then?

Because I haven't sold the promise.

We'll be ready.

When you put a program like this together every week, you can't get to every big story grabbing the headlines.

What was the big local story?

We missed the Titanic sales again, as Union Station's latest blockbuster exhibit brings tech magic to let you experience one of the world's most famous disasters.

These were the scenes in Kansas City ten years ago this week, as the city shuts down and schools closed for the Royal School Series parade, scores of local churches and nonprofits stepping up to help food aid recipients still in limbo during this government shutdown.

Now corporate America lending a hand Hy-Vee now offering free kids meals at every location with a hot food counter.

Eligible adults getting a meal for three bucks.

Despite doomsday predictions of their demise, it seems independent bookstores have become one of the rare survivors of Amazon's takeover of American retail.

This week, Kansas City's granddaddy of old booksellers marks its 50th birthday.

Tara in Kansas City screamed the headlines in news stories around the country this week, as Worlds of Fun temporarily shuts down its mama roller coaster ride after a lap belt allegedly sales almost tossing a young girl from the fast moving ride.

I'm sorry, this is really emotional because it's so cruel to scream that she screamed.

I've never heard anything like that before in my entire life, and a new.

Hollywood movie shines a light on an historically famous but remarkably unknown Kansas City.

And Sarah Rector, often called the richest black girl in America.

The story Sarah as oil hits movie theaters coast to coast this weekend already.

Did you pick one of those stories or something completely different?

I did, it's got to be Food Aid, and I think it's very interesting to see the, the grocery store is stepping up.

I question, though, because harvesters, which is, of course, our primary way of getting, food to people, churches and other places get a lot of their food from, from grocers and stuff to grocers and other places.

But if the grocers are now kind of doing their own thing, I wonder if that's going to somehow hurt what harvesters is able to do.

I could be completely wrong on that, but I wasn't.

But I think it is a quite important port and an important talk, topic.

And there are a lot of people, frankly, who are suffering but don't say anything.

They suffer in silence because it could be embarrassing.

Brian, my attention was drawn this week to a story broken by KCRW's Peggy Lowe and Wired magazine.

There was a heck of a list in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department of 62 officers, past and present, over the past couple decades who committed misconduct, and on a list that is deemed, where they are deemed incredible for, for use in prosecutions.

It's it's an interesting glimpse into the culture and the practices of the KC Police Department.

It's a reminder of the the Roger Lipski scandal.

and course died by suicide a year ago, just before he went to trial.

It's also an interesting moment, as k as we've been talking about in elections, looks to kind of turn the page and move into a new season.

there are still a. Lot of, of.

Demons to exercise.

Pete.

Well, I didn't see my wife's birthday on that list.

Nick.

I was very disappointed.

And I'm going to end with that kind of photograph of her with you all.

Thank you very much.

so I will just go back to where we started.

We didn't really dive into this specifically.

It ties into the bigger picture, the Gail McCann Baby force resignation, which resulted in a firing in Jackson County as the assessor.

It is the icing on the cake of what has been a brutal several year stretch for Jackson County.

And I think that this is going to play a big role over the next few months.

And Phil is running right out of the gates as the interim executive director, and he's proven to be a pretty darn good pick so far.

tragedy in Johnson County.

There was a ten year old boy riding on an electric scooter a couple weeks ago that was struck by a car and killed in Leawood, and that has really, hit close to home for a lot of people.

You see kids riding these devices around Johnson County a lot going very fast.

And it has sparked a pretty passionate conversation from parents and city officials alike about what to do, whether to crack down on these devices more.

And we saw parents show up at the Louis City Council meeting earlier this week, including the mother.