From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week.

A long awaited crackdown on bad landlords, as a sweeping new plan in Wichita aims to protect tenants from black mold and bug infestations.

But will it be enough?

Also, a high stakes battle for political power in Topeka, the intense and polarizing fight over redistricting that will shape Kansas politics for the next decade.

But first, a political firestorm rocked the Kansas GOP.

A bombshell report exposing racist and anti-Semitic chats leading to firings, widespread condemnation and the complete shutdown of the state's Young Republicans organization.

That's what we're talking about right now on Kansas Week.

Welcome to Kansas week.

I'm Gerald Cirillo.

A political firestorm is rocking the Kansas Republican Party, which announced this week it will deactivate its entire Young Republicans organization.

The move comes after a bombshell report by Politico that exposed encrypted chats, where the group's chairman and vice chairman used racist and anti-Semitic language.

The chats included racial slurs and the use of the white supremacist code 1488.

The fallout was swift.

The group's vice chair, William Hendricks, was fired from his job in Attorney General Chris Kovac's office.

Kovac called the comments, quote, inexcusable.

The revelations have sparked widespread condemnation from top Republicans and Democrats alike across the state, who called the rhetoric disgusting and a betrayal of Kansas values.

Here to talk about this and some of the week's other news is Sedgwick County Republican Party Chairman John Whitmer.

Republican State Representative Pat Proctor, Democratic state Representative Henry Helgeson and Wichita Eagle opinion editor Dionne Leffler.

Dionne, I'll start with you.

Surely you have an opinion on this.

It's it's, highly disturbing topic that, no one should be proud of, quite frankly.

Well, it is a highly disturbing topic, but the, the tone of my column was that this problem goes way beyond just a few text messages, that were sent by, by these, young Republicans.

You know, somebody, you know, somebody signaled that that stuff's okay, and, you know, it maybe they took a little too far on their language.

But really, I mean, when you look at it, this is the same party that two weeks ago, thought it was just absolutely hilarious, to post images of, Governor Laura Kelly, with a sombrero and, the, the head of the Department of Children and Families, morphing into a lucha libre wrestler in a post about, the governor's resistance to handing over the personal data of basically over 100,000 kids welfare recipients, over 100,000 Kansans, so that they could be investigated by Ice and foreign governments.

It's, you know, and when you look at it and when you place it against the context of the attacks on Dei, for example, diversity, equity and inclusion, this problem here and it goes beyond just, you know, some, some, some text messages that were.

Absolutely.

Who do you think that who do you think that person is when you said somebody has made this okay.

Who do you think that person is?

Is it President Trump?

Well, I think it's I think it's a system.

You know, I think it's frankly the leadership of of this party.

And it starts at the top with President Trump, who is you know, I mean, you know, they're eating the dogs.

They're eating the cats.

You know, I mean, it's just, you know, every time, you know, and when you look at, at the president, and, and Senator Roger Marshall's, reaction to the, Washington, DC air crash, it was because of di, you know, it's because, you know, and and one of the messages in this text file, was basically the same thing as saying, well, you know, I look at the pilot when I get on the plane, which, you know, and and if it doesn't look like a person who I think should be, it doesn't look like the kind of person that I think should be a pilot.

I get nervous.

Well, that's almost exactly the same thing as and and granted, they said a little more graphic language, but it's almost the same thing that Roger Marshall said.

Let me move over to John Whitmore, chairman of the Sedgwick County Republican Party.

Diane mentioned some posts with sombreros, with Governor Kelly.

You made some of those posts yourself.

How how do you defend what he has said?

I never made any of those posts.

But let me let me back up to a couple of things.

First off, what was said by two young Republicans, completely inappropriate and completely abhorrent, and was condemned appropriately.

The one who worked for Attorney General Kovac was fired immediately and should have been.

And I don't think any of what they were saying represents Republicans and they handled it.

I think the attorney general's office handled it appropriately.

The state party handled it appropriately, and it was immediately condemned.

And I think that's a full stop right there.

Now, the reaction was above was way overblown.

From Governor Kelly, who immediately tried to politicize this from the Wichita Eagle, who has immediately tried to politicize this and make it about Republicans and paint every Republican with a broad brush as racists, sexists, homophobes.

That's where it's gotten out of hand.

These Ryan right there, Republicans got a couple of kids that are idiots.

Okay, you're right, they're Republicans.

So it doesn't make every Republican a racist, sexist, homophobe.

And just in the same way that J. Jones doesn't represent every Democrat who wants to go out and assassinate their opponents.

Nor have I seen Di on Lefler write an article condemning every Democrat.

Laura Kelly has yet to condemn Jones for his comments.

I've yet to seen Dion Leffler make any op ed or come out in his paper condemning J. Jones and the Democrats for their reprehensible comments.

I'm not familiar with J. Jones, but Jones is the Virginia Attorney general candidate who explicitly called for the murder of Republican House members and their children and their children.

That is far worse than than some end up dog in the comments made on Facebook.

And these tweets are terrible.

But they didn't call for anybody's murder.

And yet, I've not heard a peep out of Laura Kelly about J. Jones out of the Wichita Eagle.

So again, so you've got a two tiered system here, but the minute something happens.

All Republicans are racist.

Dion let me go ahead and respond.

Okay.

First of all, John tends to be a bit hyperbolic.

Well, the truth hurts.

The truth hurts.

I'm waiting.

I'm waiting for you to say.

Have you.

Go ahead.

Dion, do you condemn J. Jones?

When you and I talked recently, you said, well, that happened on the East Coast, so it doesn't apply to me.

That's what you said.

What I said was I could find a list of people who said degrading things.

Right.

I'm waiting for you to condemn after.

I'm waiting for you to condemn.

Let him talk.

Let let Dion talk, okay.

I condemn it.

Okay.

Because I forced you to.

Henry.

Helguson.

Well, let me let me let me finish.

Go ahead quickly.

The thing is, you know, I could come up with a whole list of people who are who say reprehensible things half a continent away from Kansas.

And these guys are here.

They are your people.

They are people that you were grooming.

But you said you were a Republican.

Your people, they're your people, too, if you're a Republican.

Okay.

Calm down.

Henry.

Henry.

Helguson, what do you think about this?

It's obviously looking for the boxing gloves.

No, we're not going to get that far.

It's a disturbing topic.

Obviously, everybody condemns this.

How do we stop?

It's.

It's disturbing because it's not only Democrats.

It's not only Republicans.

It's the country.

Yes, we have had periods in our in our history where there has been a great deal of conflict.

We have had also individuals that would step forward and say, you're too far.

And whoever this Jade Jones is, I'll take right off.

It's crazy.

He's too far.

Yeah, but I also know that some of those comments have been going on in the Republican Party, but the Democrats and the Democrat Party go overboard, too.

Yeah, we have to have people that believe if they believe in democracy, they believe in civility.

You two and I have known each other for umpteen years.

And while we will disagree on many of the things, we also believe in civility in that I know you too, and your hearts and what you believe in.

And it's not that you it's not hate.

It's that aggressive positions.

And I have my progressive positions.

We need to stand up in this country more and more for the middle ground of civility and working together for the better.

Democracy.

Compromise.

Isn't that that?

Isn't that what politics has been about forever is working together and compromise?

Well, you know, I, I, I condemned this when I read about it.

You know, I know these two young men.

I know a lot of young Republicans.

And what those two young men said in those posts that was offensive to the extreme does not reflect the my values, the values of the Kansas Republican Party, which is led by an African-American female.

Or the values of the young Republicans that I know.

And I said that on Twitter.

And boy, did I get a backlash.

And it wasn't from Democrats.

It was from young Republicans.

And what they were saying was, how can you be bent out of shape about this language when you have, Jay Jones threatening to kill his political opponents when you have people celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk on TikTok by thousands of them.

And what I said in response to that, and I feel really strongly about it, is we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard or we're just like those people.

And so we have to police our ranks when when we see somebody go beyond the pale and say something that offensive.

It's our responsibility, especially leaders.

It's our responsibility to hold them to a higher standard.

Yeah.

Our next.

No, I gotta move.

I gotta go on.

Henry.

Sorry.

Redistricting was a major polarizing topic dominating Kansas politics this week.

The debate, which has seen battles in many states, is now laying out intensely right here in Kansas.

Cindy Ferguson reports on where the fight stands right now.

That means that Kansas will be a totally Republican state, at least when it comes to federal representation.

This is what political analyst doctor Russell Aubin Fox says could be Kansas's future if talks of redrawing Kansas his current districts are successful.

Yeah, it's true that most voters in the state of Kansas are in fact, Republicans.

But that's not the case for Johnson County.

Kansas is lone Democrat.

Sharice Davids represents the third district, right now.

Doctor Fox says voters in Kansas City and the surrounding area have repeatedly elected Davids to represent them, even after the last redistricting effort to push her out.

But now Republicans in Kansas want to redistrict again at President Trump's request, all as a way of trying to minimize the voters that support us.

Sharice Davids.

You're going to see the Republicans in Topeka propose a map that probably will completely take apart Johnson County.

Potential maps split Johnson County into two and even three separate districts.

If successful, it would advance the Republican Party at the national level, allowing it to maintain control of the House after the 2026 midterm elections.

He says Republican voters may support it.

Maybe you're not going to care that much about state representation, and you're just going to say, hey, whatever serves the national political party, that's what I want to support.

But for Democratic voters in district three, Fox says this change would essentially leave them without a voice.

It's going to prevent them from speaking, as a single voice to try to influence representation.

They'll be separated from other people.

It's going to minimize their power.

Fox says it's unusual for Kansas to redistrict again after only two years instead of the standard ten.

And for President Trump to be so directly involved in it's happening.

Still, he says it isn't necessarily unconstitutional.

It violates the practices that have developed over a couple of centuries.

But I mean, no, it's not unconstitutional.

If they can come to an agreement on a map, then I think it's, you know, definitely going to happen.

Representative Proctor, I'll start with you.

Democrats have made this about race and gerrymandering.

Is that true or false?

A vast majority of Kansans voted in favor of President Trump and his America First agenda, including me.

And I think that they want that agenda to continue forward.

And California and other blue states are engaged in the same fight right now, trying to gerrymander the other way in order to, get more seats in Congress so they can stop that agenda.

So I think that if Kansas can be a part of, counteracting that effort and trying to make our congressional delegation reflect the people of Kansas, then I think we got to do that.

But seven fought with four congressional seats.

75% of them are Republican.

Isn't that reflective of I like I said, I think that, Kansans want the America first policies to go forward.

And we all remember what America was like two years ago and don't want to go back there.

And so I think that the best way that Kansas can help the president and help this country continue to move forward to this golden age is to redistrict.

Henry Helguson, Missouri just did this same thing.

They split Kansas City into three different districts.

Is Kansas going to follow suit?

Well, I haven't gotten a call from the president yet, so I'm not sure where the map is, but, it doesn't matter.

Well, it does.

You, the Republicans, have the power, so they're going to make the decision.

Is it fair?

Is it right to those individuals?

And you brought up the idea that the majority of Kansans voted for the president.

Well, the majority of the people in Johnson County voted for the incumbent and voted for it.

Even though you gerrymandered the district again last year or two years ago, she won again.

You know, there was a time when I first came to the legislature there wasn't any representatives or senators from Johnson County.

Johnson County has gone more and more toward my party.

It's done that because that's where the voters are changing, are moving in the direction of policies that I believe in.

But Johnson County doesn't make up the entire district, either.

No, but between that and wind, you can put a pretty good most of the district together with that.

The idea is you got the power, you got the votes.

You're going to do whatever you want.

It's not necessarily representative of what the people up in that area want.

And in fact, from the polls I've seen, they have said we like it the way it is.

And I think the comment that said by most Democrats is this is thievery.

It's, unfair.

You know, you're disenfranchizing the population.

Well, you got the votes and that's the way it's going to play.

But how will pay when the parties shift?

And you should we should do this on fairness and what the what the citizens want.

Not necessarily what the president or a few politicians want.

John Whitmer thievery.

You know, I don't know.

I guess I would ask what voters in Illinois or some of these other states that have done the same thing.

If you look at you look at Virginia or Illinois, some of the other states where a 35, 38, 42% of the population are Republican, but they don't have a single representative of Congress because Democrat states have been doing this.

California is going to do it where they're disenfranchizing Republican vote Disenfranchizing Republican voters.

But Gavin Newsom did this only in response after President Trump.

California's been doing it for decades.

I was born and raised in California.

They've been doing this for decades.

Democrat states have been doing this for decades.

You know, they're going to cry and moan and groan about, you know, it's not fair.

It's wrong.

It's mean, it's dirty, it's muddy.

Well, you all set the rules.

We're just finally playing ball.

Maybe we should reach higher.

And this would be an ideal time to say.

And I think you're right.

Let's.

Unfortunately.

But let's.

The Democrats have set the rules.

No, I just finally decided to play by them.

Diane.

Go ahead.

Well, you know, I mean, goes back to our earlier discussion.

I mean, let's get rid of the one nonwhite non male representative.

And again, they playing the race card.

Yeah.

You know that's all you do.

But you're playing the race card.

It's just you know all this hand-wringing you took in the last redistricting you took and you split up Wyandotte County so the black voters would have their would have their votes and not get and they would have been caught.

And the Supreme Court found they had nothing to do with race.

Oh, yeah.

Why do you always go and assume this is a race thing or because you guys do it, you guys.

So I just I want to say the last, first time.

First of all, I was in the room when we were drawing the maps the last time, and the last time we were drawing the maps, all that was being considered was Republican, Democrat, unaffiliated.

There was no this many white voters, this many black voters, this mean Hispanic voters.

And then the next thing I'd say is, I keep hearing this hand-wringing about, oh my God, we're going to split up Johnson County.

Well, no matter how you slice it, Johnson County and Wyandotte have too many voters for one congressional district, so you have to draw the line somewhere.

Last time we drew the line down I-70 and split Wyandotte.

You know, if we go back and we redistrict and we end up splitting Johnson County, which I don't know, because there are no maps.

We haven't even called ourselves and nobody's seen me out yet.

But, if we, if we do that, I don't understand how I don't understand how you would like us.

Would you like us to, you know, ship people out of Johnson County so they have fewer people so that we have enough for one, you know, to put them all in one congressional district.

It just doesn't make sense.

Yeah.

Our next story, the Wichita City Council, is set to crack down on bad landlords next Tuesday with a vote on a sweeping set of new housing regulations and ordinances.

The move comes after persistent complaints from renters, who report living with black mold, bug infestations and collapsing ceilings.

Council member Brandon Johnson says too often that landlords care more about a paycheck than fixing the issues.

The new plan includes a rental registry requiring landlords with two or more violations per year to register with the city for closer inspection and monitoring.

The proposal would also ban discrimination against tenants using government subsidized housing vouchers.

Henry Helguson, state representative from the State side, from state lawmakers vantage point, has the state dealt with anything like this?

I mean, we don't have a city council member here, but has the state dealt with any sort of housing regulations like this?

We've had discussions, for years about having housing standards, but it hasn't gone anywhere.

I think the majority, both Democrats and Republicans, believe that that should be a local issue, because those are complaints, that vary from one city and one area to, you know, the less populated areas I approve.

I applaud the council for moving ahead in this direction.

And, you know, I think it's very much needed.

Yeah.

Pat Proctor I you know, I think this is a market problem more than it's a problem of regulation right now.

It's a seller's market.

We don't have enough housing.

We don't have enough in fordable housing.

And so these landlord, you know, these folks that are trapped in these properties, they don't have any place else they can go.

So, something we have done in the legislature is expand the incentives to build more housing so that we can get more housing stock, whether that's apartment buildings or single family homes.

I think if there's more housing, then it gives these renters that are in these, you know, these bad apartments, some kind of option of someplace else to go.

Right now, they don't have any place else to go.

So I think this, you know, using government and increased regulation to address this problem is probably not going to succeed the way just expanding the market.

Will this cause rents to rise?

I mean, the more regulations you put on landlord, any business owner, the more hoops they're going to have to jump through.

Diane.

Oh, this is a god awful mess.

And it has been for the last 20 years or better.

I've been here 27 years.

It's been a mess.

It was a mess when I got here.

And it's it's a it's as big a mess.

Bigger mess today.

One time I was doing a story about, natural gas rates, and I was sitting in this guy's house interviewing him, and the water heater fell through the floor.

Now, it's a good thing that I was there, and that I am from California, because I know how to turn off the gas.

Or that whole house would have blown sky high.

And when I talked to him, I found out that this guy, you know, this guy was paying a third of his income in rent under the under the program and the landlord of this slum dwelling was getting $1,300 for this house, that because the because the rents are determined by the average cost of housing in Wichita and you know, so there so there, you know, you got slumlords making bank and you got tenants who are living in squalor.

And if you complain, you have to leave and you may never get another place.

And they face retaliation if they complain.

Well, you so yeah.

So John Whitmer, this is this is a plan.

Brandon Johnson has been talking about this for years.

He's obviously gotten support with Mike Hodges, who has come on the council in the last couple of years.

Is that enough support?

Will it get passed the council on Tuesday?

I don't know, I hear it's close.

I'm afraid to come in.

I'll be called a racist again.

But, you know, any time government steps in, I'm always hesitant because one thing we don't need is more regulation.

I do, I am concerned about rent controls because I've read this particular ordinance and there are elements of rent control which I don't like.

The government doesn't have any place setting rents.

I also don't like there's elements in here that impose new, restrictions on things like income.

There are also preferred classes that are set it up in here to give special, special exceptions for other residences.

And I don't like that we shouldn't be setting aside special protections for anyone.

Everyone should have equal access.

So we'll see what happens.

I think it's going to be very close and people are concerned they should show up Tuesday at 9 a.m.

and make their voices heard.

And our last story of the Meigs School District is now considering a major security upgrade after a gun was found at the high school last month.

A new survey of parents, staff and students shows 71% support new safety protocols, including permanent weapons detection systems at school entrances.

The survey was launched after three students were arrested for bringing a loaded gun to Meigs High School on September 11th.

The school board reviewed the results this week and will discuss potential next steps at its next meeting.

Diane, anything we can do to keep guns out of school is is good, but we keep hearing these things come up, unfortunately.

Well, and the thing is, it's like maze is like a prison anyway, you know, I mean, they've already got metal detectors.

They do random searches of lockers and cars in the parking lot.

I mean, it's, it's, you know, it really astonished me that anybody got a gun into that place.

It's just, you know, it, you know, no, guns should not be in schools.

That's that's a bad thing.

John.

Let me go ahead.

I mean, the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

So maybe that's what they should look at.

Is, you know.

And do we do even at school?

You mean in school?

Absolutely.

If you've got a if they've got resource officers that are on campus, that's the best way to stop it.

You know, meeting a student should bring no, but I say resource officers.

Yeah.

Well, maybe that's a teacher who's property.

Yeah, absolutely.

Maybe that's a teacher who's properly trained and equipped.

Maybe that's the option.

So Representative Proctor, you brought that up as well.

Are you are you supporting the teacher?

I remember teachers, I absolutely I mean, they don't, you know, our teachers don't, lose the, their Second Amendment rights as soon as they go to work.

I mean, you know, you hear these stories about, school shootings and it takes minutes or even hours for, law enforcement to be able to get into the building to respond.

Whereas if there have been a teacher in the building with a gun, you know, and we could use it then, they might have saved a lot of lives, but I just say, it sounds to me like the system worked.

It sounds to me like the security that they have at the May school, allowed them to find these three the these firearms.

And, before they were used, you know, in any way on the campus.

So, I it's a it's obviously a local school issue, but yeah, I do absolutely support teachers.

Representative Halvorson with about 30s.

No, we can keep guns out of the schools.

And we've had this discussion and this argument at the House floor.

I am one of those individuals that believe that we should not have schools, guns brought to schools by teachers, by students.

We should encourage people to be less violent and more responsive to the needs of everyone.

And we're having that discussion in a room for people that are armed states where if that's the legislature, that's a wrap for this week.

Thank you so much to John Whitmer Proctor, Henry Helguson and Diane Leffler for being here.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

We'll see you next week.