Since when did Kansas become the center of the political universe?

President Trump heading back to Kansas Saturday, and J.D.

Vance here again.

All the Democrats are selling is a fat load of bull@$!%.

As the campaigns hit the final stretch, we pick apart the races to watch and the ones flying under the radar.

Plus, we dissect the campaign tactics that paid off and the ones that spectacularly backfired.

Those commercials are beginning to really irritate me.

Plus, the rest of the week's news from the jail up for sale to the final four heading to the new cheap stadium.

Your week revealed next week in review, is made possible through the generous support of Bob and Marlese Gourley, the Francis Family Foundation, through the discretionary fund of David and Janice Francis, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Hello, I'm Nick HaInes, and glad to have you with us on an action packed pre-election edition of the program, hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week from KCUR News Lisa Rodriguez, former star staffer, now Mr.

Kansas City Stack on Substack Dave Helling tracking Kansas City's top stories from behind the microphone at KCMO Talk Radio, 95.7 FM, Pete Mundo and KCUR political analyst Brian Ellison.

Now guess who's going to be here this weekend?

President Donald Trump again.

He's heading to Salina on Saturday for a second major rally to shore up support for Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall, locked in a tight reelection campaign against Adam Hamilton.

And for the second time in a month, J.D.

Vance was in our area, this time in Topeka.

All the Democrats are selling is a fat load of bull@$!%.

I'm asking you to send me back for one for one more term, for six more years.

Now, those lines from Roger Marshall getting lots of news attention this week.

Pete, did he misspeak or is he committing to only serve one more term if he's reelected on Tuesday night?

I know that's been out there, but I really think that's almost an irrelevant topic in this race.

I don't think anyone is looking at this saying, Doc Marshall has been around too long, or he's hung around longer than he should have.

The people are going to decide on Tuesday whether or not he's hung around too long, but the term limit conversation and whether or not one more term makes the difference is almost irrelevant to where this debate has been in the last few weeks.

Nobody's saying, well, I was going to support Adam Hamilton, but if he only saves one one more term, I think I'll go for him, which is what Peter saying.

Of course, there are a lot of other reasons to make judgments in this Senate race, but the length of term is.

And by the way, Kansas has a history of senator serving for a long time, Bob Dole, Nancy Kassebaum, who ran for a third term, Pat Roberts.

So I don't think the judgment will be made on that basis.

There are a lot of other things to talk about.

I did see, though, Susan Collins, the senator from Maine, told her voters that she would only serve two terms.

And that was 30 years ago, Brian.

So, you know, we're not going to always you know, we can't guarantee that's going to happen anyway.

Well, that's right.

Even if they say they're only going to serve one term, six years is a long time and they can say, well, circumstances changed.

Yeah.

What now?

First we get to Donald Trump in a moment.

But let's start with JD Vance, who was already here in Topeka.

What do we learn from that visit, if anything we haven't heard before?

Lisa, I don't know that we learned a whole lot.

We heard a lot of the same talking points aligning Adam Hamilton with the far left, saying he's a faux moderate, questioning his, his credentials as a pastor.

Even so, it was a lot of the same.

But what we're seeing in these big, headlining events is not really an effort to change anyone's mind.

This is an appeal to people who are staunch Trump supporters who were maybe planning to sit this election out.

So it's not surprising that we're not hearing anything new.

This is just a rally for people who are going to sit out to get up and vote in this election.

There was one sliver of news, I suppose, Peter.

Another was that the vice president will announce $57 million in federal grants to support the meatpacking industry, including ten plants in Kansas.

It comes a week after President Trump touted $8 billion in relief money for farmers to offset diesel costs.

Is that an impactful pre-election announcement that moves the election needle, or is it just too little, too late?

Well, we'll find out Tuesday.

I hate to cop out on the answer, but the reality is they're trying to get the Trump voter in rural Kansas out where the president was winning these margins 80 to 20.

In some of these counties.

He needs those people to show up.

We've seen very big early turnout in Johnson County.

You need the Trump voter in more rural Kansas to get up, get out there and vote turnout the base.

If he doesn't, Roger Marshall is in big trouble.

I think that's right.

And I think what is interesting to me about those promises is that they are a move away from some of the themes we've heard throughout the campaign attacking the wokeness of the Democrats, the focus on culture war issues.

It seems to be acknowledging that affordability, that that costs of blue collar folks, of agricultural folks needs to be a bigger part of the rhetoric of Republicans as we get close to Election Day.

Now, the president back in Kansas on Saturday in Salina, what does a second visit from the president do that he couldn't accomplish in just one visit?

Well, the Republicans will need a heavy Election Day turnout.

The early voting, figures suggest that Democrats and unaffiliated voters in Kansas have turned out in pretty good numbers.

So they're trying to goose the, people who go to the polls next Tuesday.

It's interesting to me that, I think Pete's right that he needs the rural vote.

Yet Trump went to Wichita, in essence, and then JD Vance went to Topeka.

You know, if you look at the map of the early voting, all the blue areas are Wichita, Topeka, Johnson County, Wyandotte County, the places they're going.

I think that's because they need media attention to reach some of those voters out in Great Bend and Liberal and Garden City.

And so I think that's the effort when and if the president comes to us.

Salon, notably absent from all of these high profile visits has been Kansas's other Republican senator, Jerry Moran.

Will he be in Salina on Saturday?

We don't know.

He was not in Wichita.

He was on with JD Vance.

You know, I think Jerry Moran is and he we have we've seen any campaigning from Jerry Moran for Roger Marshall, any suggestion or commercial something.

And the answer seems to be no.

I think Jerry Moran's own political career is a bit up in the air.

The change is coming to Kansas politics one way or another.

Now, election day is Tuesday next we pick a path the good, the bad and the ugly of this year's midterm elections in our metro.

Complete this sentence Pete Mundo.

The issue or trend that caught me most off guard this election season was blank.

Well, I would say, the way the governor's race has played out in Kansas, where we thought that was going to be like the rock star race of this cycle.

And now, at least on my show, all everyone's talking about is the Senate race.

Adam Hamilton, Roger Marshall and the governor's race is kind of a forgotten race.

And the thing of a governor's race in Kansas, which is very close.

Being a forgotten race is fascinating.

Isn't that true of every race, though?

It seems like this the US Senate race in Kansas has sucked the oxygen out of the entire room.

It has.

But six months ago, we would have never thought that the Senate race would have been the one that sucked the oxygen out of the room.

We would have had it as probably the governor's race.

Lisa, I think that's right.

And I think the the result of that maybe mixed if this if the attention on the Senate race really drives more people out to the polls in blue areas like Johnson County, like these major metropolitan areas in Kansas, perhaps that could boost, turnout for the Democrats.

Cindy Holter, although I will say my my, my thought with the lack of attention to this race means that it probably still leans toward Ty Masterson, who's always been the front runner, the issue or trend that caught me most off guard this election season.

Blank.

For me, it was on the Missouri side, and it's around prop A, the proposal to approve the newly redistricted congressional map.

I am, after the intensity of the coverage around a month ago around the court rulings, I thought this was going to become a fiery debate.

And instead, mostly the supporters of redistricting have walked away from proposition eight.

There's not really an organized campaign for it.

There's not a lot of money pouring in in support of it.

It it will be on the ballot.

It will have significance.

But I think what we're what we're seeing is likely a focus on next election cycle.

Trying it again instead of trying to win this, this election day.

I thought the emphasis over the last six months on data centers was the most surprising thing to me.

But six months ago, you could hear rumblings of people worried about artificial intelligence and data centers.

But it wasn't a big deal.

Now, it really, may come to dominate our politics.

Not necessarily in this cycle, but in 2027 and beyond.

People seem very, very upset about not only the technology, but the idea that they'll lose their jobs, that that that there's a fundamental change coming in the way that we live our lives, that that was would not have been anticipated for me a year.

And I see today that, massive pack from the leaders of data centers around the country supporting Ty Masterson for governor of Kansas.

They obviously see this as a major issue.

They do.

And it's interesting to see how that will play out amongst voters, because data centers and an I have been very unpopular, especially in local government, we've seen people turn out and oust city council members who voted for AI data centers here.

And so it will be interesting to see whether that support is helpful or not, just quickly.

The new figures on economic growth came out as we tape this show nationally, and there's been rather significant growth in the last quarter.

The GDP is up, I think 3.4, maybe 3.6% somewhere in there.

Virtually all of that attributed to data centers and investments in technology.

So the love hate relationship with what's going on in the digital space will come to be an influence on our politics, I think next year and beyond.

Brian Ellison complete the sentence other than the US Senate race in Kansas, which is getting all the attention, the race I'm watching most closely on election night is blank.

I'm going to go to the Missouri side, to the state Senate race in Jackson County, Lee's Summit, Blue Springs, the eighth Senate district between Democrat Kerry Engel and Republican House Speaker John Patterson.

Why is that significant?

Well, it's a significant state Senate race in that it's one of the only true swing seats in the Missouri General Assembly.

But I think it's going to be representative, of of what could happen across the state in those close races if the Democrats are able to break the super majority in the Senate.

That would mean that they, their filibusters could not be easily stopped.

And it could actually shift the power in a, in a measurable way.

In Missouri, the race that you will be watching on election night is blank.

I mean, just like Brian said, that is also the race I had picked out.

And I will say something that was not on my bingo card at the start of this election season was whether team Republican supermajority in Missouri could potentially be upended this election cycle.

And I say one more thing about that.

John Patterson is an excellent candidate.

He's about as strong a Republican candidate as could possibly run for that seat.

He's the House speaker.

And so if he is struggling to win that seat, I think that is bad news for Republicans across the state.

In Mando Towers.

The the election that you're looking at, the race that you're looking at on election night is, what, amendment six in Missouri?

That right there, the initiative position process has been, very good for more liberal causes in the state.

But if that now passes, a lot of the things that the legislature has done, that's been more conservative in nature can be completely upended in a much more meaningful way, and their ability to overturn it gets much more difficult.

It really changes the entire landscape in the state for years to come.

If amendment six passes, and there really hasn't been a big push from statewide leaders on the no side, which has been very surprising to me because they get totally neutered if this thing passes.

What why don't you think there has been that response?

Well, I same thing with what happened in the income tax deal in the summer.

They just haven't had their ducks in a row and I think that, Republicans in Missouri have started to rest on their laurels.

They've gotten a little fat and happy, and they haven't had to really be challenged at all over the last ten years.

And now that chickens coming home to roost, if it does pass, we can see already one issue already coming up, which would be a $25 minimum wage, where there's an effort already underway to try and make that happen.

Dave, I'm watching amendment three in Missouri, which is the abortion amendment.

Missouri could become the first state to, in essence, guarantee some abortion rights and then take that right back away at the ballot box.

Be fascinating to see how voters decide that issue.

Which race has the greatest potential to make us sit up and say, well, I didn't see that coming after all of the back and forth over the maps and which map we would vote in this election.

The fact that right now it seems that the, opposition to, prop A may be kind of sailing through is is something that I didn't see coming.

I really did expect a greater fight over congressional maps.

Brian.

I will go to amendment three, which Dave mentioned already.

I think, we would have expected that voters would sort of wholeheartedly support abortion rights.

Again, not like the idea of things being taken away that they already voted for.

But but what we've actually seen is that that race is very close and that the effort to, to approve, amendment three, which not only mentions abortion limiting abortion rights, but also limiting gender affirming care for minors, has has run a much more intentional and apparently much more effective campaign.

And I, I, I, I didn't see it coming a while back, but now I would be less surprised.

Pete.

I would say the down ballot House races in Kansas and let's just see what exactly happens with Adam Hamilton at the top of the ticket.

The big turnout in Johnson County.

Are there a lot of split ticket voters in Johnson County like there traditionally may have been, or more in a place where it's straight D, and some of these House seats in Johnson County that have been lean are flipped the other way.

And then the Kansas house loses its super majority as well.

Dave, I think the answer to this question is obvious.

It's the Adam Hamilton Roger Marshall race in terms of what we expected might happen and what will happen.

A year ago, no one even thought that Adam Hamilton would be a candidate.

They'd never.

I mean, if you'd heard of him, you heard of him in connection with his church and maybe some involvement in Johnson County politics, but certainly not at this level.

And now as we sit here, it's a 5050 race that, I don't think we would have expected some time ago.

And that's the one will sit up and say, gosh, I didn't see that coming.

Pete, fill in the blank.

For me, the most unexpectedly effective campaign strategy or tactic we saw this election was blank.

Well, I hate to go back to topic A, but it's the Democrats finding and getting Adam Hamilton to run for office because it can change the entire landscape of this state for the next couple of years at least.

It's the topic of not just the region, but really it's one of the top four topics and races being watched in the entire country right now.

And it's his candidacy that changed this.

There are very few people who could have made this competitive now.

Yes, there are things Adam Hamilton can control has not controlled the price of gasoline.

The war that have been obviously a drag on the GOP right now.

But you combine that with Adam Hamilton.

He has not really wanted a lot of the, you know, traditional Obama big party help.

He's kind of run this thing on his own.

And while a lot of people are wondering, hey, how legitimacy about being a moderate, it appears to be working so far and he's got himself in a coin flip race right now, the most unexpectedly effective campaign tactic or strategy this election.

I think the ballot candy that was added to a so-called ballot candy that was added to amended amendment three on transgender rights, was very effective in sort of turning that argument away from what it's really about, which is abortion rights in Missouri.

If abortion rights are rescinded, it's going to be because of that campaign tactic.

Well, given so many big issues on the ballot, there's some things that have just completely skipped our radar screen on this program, even though they're also incredibly important.

We will be voting, for instance, on a new Jackson County executive.

Yep.

We're picking someone to be the permanent replacement to ousted county leader Frank white that hasn't been mentioned, who has a call from office in 2019, my property taxes were unlawfully increased by over 1,000%.

I couldn't afford that.

Most Jackson County residents couldn't afford that either.

Well, that's Kansas City lawyer Stacey Lake, the Democratic candidate to be the next Jackson County executive.

Alan Real Thing, a military veteran, an HR professional is the Republican candidate.

My ultimate goal is to restore public trust and confidence.

So I want to really focus on doing the government that we do better.

Okay, Brian, what would be the biggest difference we'd see if in Jackson County, if Stacy Lake becomes the next leader of Jackson County?

I think it's that she's a Democrat and he's a Republican, but but I'm not sure you would know that otherwise.

The issues in this campaign are focused on, most of the same issues, the property tax debacle, the the, audit, that they both are calling for, of county government, needs to improve county infrastructure, trying to change the culture in the county courthouse.

They they clearly have different backgrounds, different kinds of experiences, and different support bases.

But at the end of the day, the campaign is not really elevating their differences.

So much as their commonalities.

I one of the questions today is, you know, could either of them, they both politically outsiders, could either of them be successful in trying to reform and change and fix a system that so many leaders before them have failed to do?

Well, it depends on who they've got on that legislature, too.

It hasn't been the cream of the crop in the Jackson County Legislature in quite some time.

And the reality is you need that legislature to kind of get some things done.

So, I think right now, Stacy Lake, they have similar issues.

They're running on the Brian's point.

She will lean in as time goes on.

As more of a progressive leader.

I think that will happen over time.

And, you know, Allen, obviously maybe a small seat conservative on some things, financially, but, she's the heavy favorite.

She's going to win.

And I don't think it's going to be close.

What else do we need to know before election Day in that race?

Lisa, we voted to elect now a county assessor.

Now, one of the greatest influences the county executive has, has had up until this point is to appoint a county assessor.

And both candidates have made reforming, property tax assessments a major issue.

It will be interesting moving forward if that becomes a Partizan race, if it is not under control of the county executive.

How that reform actually happens.

Now, on the other side of state line, Johnson County is also picking a new leader.

Taxpayers let their frustrations fly tonight.

It's just time for you to pay attention.

How many of you seniors can afford more property taxes, given all that anger?

How come?

Dave Helling we don't hear much about the race for Johnson County chair when Mike Kelly is trying to win reelection against challenger and business leader Karen.

Sick of itch?

Well, in the first place, it's nonpartisan, which changes a little bit of the calculation for most voters.

And Johnson County is changing.

Johnson County is not the traditional Republican bastion that it used to be.

And so Mike Kelly is the favorite.

He and his opponent, as is is the case in Jackson County, have talked a lot about property taxes, which is we've discussed on this show for a year and a half, is a huge issue in both states, but it isn't clear that it can be solved by Mike Kelly or Stacy Lake by themselves.

So voters may end up being disappointed.

No, but we saw so many scenes over the last year of packed county commission meetings.

Angry people with signs.

Are you surprised this hasn't gotten more attention?

Well, I think it's I've given it plenty of attention.

Maybe some others haven't, but I think it's a compelling race because it is nonpartisan, Karen, which has to get basically Adam Hamilton voters to also say, my property taxes are too high.

And this Johnson County budget, which has doubled over the last ten years, is out of control.

But she needs those crossover votes.

After we taped our program last week, did you see that?

We've now cleared away what could be the biggest remaining hurdle standing in the way of the Chiefs building its new stadium, the unified government of Warner County, dropping its lawsuit against the state of Kansas for cutting its local decision making authority on the $3 billion stadium project.

Why not?

County traditionally has always been looked over, bypassed, taken advantage of.

And, this was a really good stance in standing up for the county.

If they would have kept that lawsuit, they had leverage once they get rid of it, they have no leverage at all.

All right.

Two different views on the whole legal fuss this week, but I'm struggling to find the big win that Wyandotte County got from this.

What did they gain as a result?

Well, I think they got the, my understanding of the settlement would be to limit the size of the, local, Starbound district to just the area around the stadium.

Saturday is the deadline for the definitive declaration of how this is going to work, and I'm not sure they're going to meet that deadline.

That's the document we need to pay attention to.

Did they lose some of their leverage, though, by settling so early, as that gentleman said in that clip?

Well, that certainly is the concern.

But according to, to the mayor, they got a seat at the table.

That was the language that she used.

And, BPU clearly does retain, responsibility for a large area that will be affected by the new stadium.

It's the state ownership of the land, though, that the stadium itself will be on.

That seems to have been the the key issue.

And that means it will be completely free of zoning regulations by by the local government.

Just quickly, we talked about surprising tactics.

I'm stunned that the chief's deal was not a bigger issue in the governor's race.

There was a clear potential difference between Cindy Hauser and Ty Masterson on that issue and and the value of the giveaway and all of the the, you know, breaks that are were embedded in this program, but it never really caught fire at all in terms of their exchanges.

I find that fascinating.

Now we know.

Related to stadium development, the NCAA announced this week that the new Chief Stadium is one of seven venues now in the running to host a final full game as early as 2032.

The last time Kansas City hosted the NCAA men's Final Four was in 1988 at Kemper Arena, when the Kansas Jayhawks won the national championship.

How big a deal is this announcement?

And given how much is being spent on the stadium, shouldn't we have expected more of a commitment than they're just one of seven possible sites and some vague year in the future?

Well, five of the seven are going to get a Final Four between 2032 and 2036.

So I think they'll get one.

And really, it doesn't mean it's a good deal.

I mean, when this was all rolled out, it was and I said, they'll get a Super Bowl as a thank you to Clark Hunt and they'll get a Final Four.

But are you going to be in the regular rotation against Houston?

New Orleans, Miami, Phoenix?

Almost impossible just based on weather and climate alone.

So it doesn't mean that the giveaway from the state of Kansas makes this suddenly a good deal, because you get one final four in a 5 or 7 year span, but they still could get WrestleMania.

That would make it all the $3 billion all worthwhile.

WrestleMania is going to Arrowhead because they're going to keep that open right now.

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

What was the big local story we missed?

Anybody want to buy the Jackson County Jail?

Now that the new detention center is open, the county is selling its old facility downtown.

How about a prison themed hotel or a 937th data center?

Kansas City still struggling to keep its grocery stores open.

Customers given no notice as the Blue Parkway Sun Fresh closes permanently, is people that literally don't have a car can't go nowhere else.

So yeah, I'm sad about it.

Saturday marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Houdini, and apparently his connections here run deep, and he was stoic.

Marker has been unveiled a 10th in Maine, where the world's most famous magician performed his very first suspended, upside down straitjacket escape.

And after 40 years of grossing people out of the Kansas City haunted houses, the Rat Man officially retires this week.

I don't know how I would keep that great complexion without eating right.

Few people know that under all of that make up boys.

Brian Allison, you're finally retiring from that role.

Brian, it's not that hard for people to believe, actually.

Yeah.

Nick I'm going to go with the inaugural Kansas high school football championship for girls.

High school flag football went to Saint James Academy of Lenexa.

This was late last week.

This is a new trend.

It's sweeping the nation.

The NFL has invested a lot of money in girls flag football, and Kansas got on board.

Saint James was the winner, 26 to 7.

I'm going to go with the way we've seen Alaska families coordinate around this petition to try to get the state school board to potentially have Olathe school board reconsider its closure of six schools.

They only have about 45 days to get the signatures there, about 80% of the way there.

L8 the families united.org has done a really good job informing parents, and maybe that plays a role as we look ahead to the next election next year and the way some of these school boards play out, parents are engaged, we'll see what it means.

You know, as families who have used marketplace insurance to send their children to Children's Mercy and now are scrambling to find other options.

I think we've seen that become an issue in the Kansas governor's race this week.

But certainly families are still struggling to figure out what to do after the hospital announced it won't take those plans.

Under the radar, there is a huge dispute underway in Saint Louis over the police department and state control of the police department.

Saint Louis, as you know, with state control for police, then local control, then back to state control.

The way that we govern the police departments in the state's two biggest cities remains a mess.

And Saint Louis is an example.

And on that, we will say all week has been reviewed courtesy of Casey.

Was Brian Ellison a news icon and Mr.

Kansas City Star on Substack?

Dave Helling at 89.3 FM.

Casey, while Lisa Rodriguez and further up the dial on 95.7 of M Pete Mundo weekdays from 2 to 6 on all KCMO.

I should say it's, weekdays from 6 to 10 on KCMO Talk Radio, and I'm Nick Haines from all of us here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.