What on earth is happening in Jackson County?

In a stunning 48 hour shake up, two frontrunners drop out of the race for executive, forcing the county to reopen candidate filings.

Did we see Laura Kelly's last hurrah as governor this week?

Adam Hamilton makes it official, but with a twist.

He's running to be the next U.S.

senator from Kansas.

As a Democrat, I'm less than 100 days before the primary.

Why is Emanuel Cleaver refusing to campaign in his newly redrawn congressional district?

Is he toast and dialing back expectations on World Cup visitor numbers in Kansas City?

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

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 we're thrilled to have you with us again on our weekly journey through the Metro's most impactful, confusing, and downright head scratching local news stories.

Hopping on board the Weekend Review bus with us this week, KCUR's, news host and chief political analyst Brian Ellison at the helm of our Metro's newest newspaper, Next Page KC Eric Wesson, former star staffer, now Mr.

Kansas City stack on Substack, Dave Helling and from the world of television news, Kshb political reporter Charlie Keegan.

I know many people are fixated on every political twist and turn in Washington, but, you know, there are lots of puzzling things happening right here in our own backyard.

Case in point.

What on earth is happening in Jackson County?

In a stunning 48 hour shake up, two front runners drop out of the race for executive, forcing the county to reopen candidate filings.

Interim executive Phil, a voter, says he now wants to enjoy life away from the unpleasantness of politics.

Former Jackson County Chair Darren McGee says he wants to spend more time with family.

And with less than 100 days before voters head to the polls for the primary election.

Former county legislator Dan Tar Water jumps into the race at the very last moment.

So the current leader says he doesn't like the political unpleasantness.

Darren McGee says he wants to spend more time with family.

Is the stop what they may be saying publicly?

Is there something happening, Charlie, behind the scenes?

We need to be aware of.

Well, we think we need to be aware that this is a tough job and whoever takes it has a lot on their hands.

And yeah, maybe these folks are feeling they're not up to this role as as a county executive.

Can you pull back the curtain for us, Eric, what on earth is happening here?

Is there more to this?

When I talked to him when we had lunch, he was okay.

I was kind of surprised by it, but I think in his letter, he said he was working 60 hours a week.

Got this lawsuit dealing with Gayle McCann, baby.

Then Teresa Garza evidently, they had some counseling.

She was the chief of staff.

She was his chief of staff.

And she was doing some unsavory things as far as he was concerned.

While he, she was trying to go out to public meetings.

And he said, your job is to keep the staff together working here, help me get legislation done.

So perhaps that was part of the political unpleasantness he was talking about.

Yeah.

That might that that probably was it.

You know what I found interesting about this, Brian, was that you've got four other candidates running here or six other candidates there, including Stacy Lake, who came within four points of Frank white when she ran in that 2022.

You've got the upcoming Lee's Summit.

Mayor Bill bad all it.

And yet they reopen the whole race.

Just because these people drop out is not a slap in the face to them.

Well, it's not a slap in the face.

It's actually an automatic, requirement of the law.

And if you're if that's news to you, don't worry.

It was news to me as well.

But when an incumbent, drops out of a race after the filing period, there is a requirement that it be reopened for five days.

I do think that this this notion of unpleasantness does accord with a story we've been telling on this program a long time, which is that Jackson County government has been kind of a mess for years and years and has taken a real toll on the people who, who take on the job of exercising leadership.

The interesting thing is, Dan tar water getting into the race.

He, of course, a veteran of Jackson County politics and the brother of Sean Tar Water, who was the lead person in attracting the chiefs to came over to Kansas.

So, Dan tar water will be asked I'm sure.

What did you know and when did you know it about that story?

That's going to be really super interesting in dealing with Dan to our water, because most people after he, he, signed up, he filed to run.

The first questions I heard was, well, does that mean we get Mike Sanders back and Mike sharp back?

And then we get back to the old guard being in Jackson County?

And that's a question that he's going to have to answer.

I think it does set up a pretty interesting Democratic primary.

Stacy Lake would have been considered the frontrunner, having come so close to taking out Frank white last time around.

But, but but they represent different constituencies and the differences aren't entirely, political in terms of their policy priorities.

But Bill Baird, out of Lee's summit, a whole different set of supporters, potentially.

Dan Tar water is, sort of presenting as a more moderate Democrat.

I think it's going to be very interesting where the alliances fall and all of this happening again in less than 100 days in Jackson County, when you go to the polls there.

We didn't get any major updates this week on the new roads ballpark now plan to be built on the hallmark cards headquarters building at Crown Center, but that hasn't stopped our viewers from continuing to pepper us with lots of questions.

My favorite is from Darrel, who asks, Will hallmark take on a more starring role once the stadium opens?

Will the company's name end up in front of Hallmark Ballpark, anyone?

How does that sound, Charlie?

Well, has got a ring to it, right?

The Hall Park Hallmark Ballpark.

We could go a lot of ways with that.

We asked John Sherman that when he made the big announcement, he said there's a process for naming the stadium and we're going through it.

He would say right then and there that it's all hallmarks.

But yeah, I mean, I think it's safe to assume that they'll be a part of that conversation.

Dave, who who gets to decide that, though, if it's going to be a city owned ballpark, doesn't the city get to decide?

Well, typically municipalities and Jackson County have, awarded the naming rights to the sports franchises.

The Chiefs, for example, have the right and the Royals do to to name the stadium and to sell it to a bidder to make money, which they're going to want to do.

So that remains very much up in the air, I will tell you.

And I've told other people I'll be happy to endorse the stadium if they rename it Municipal Stadium.

I grew up in Kansas City, went to games at 22nd and Brooklyn.

Maybe we ought to just name it Municipal Stadium and be done with it.

I would actually vote for Dave Helling Stadium that's not on the table, but the to be retired very quickly.

You know, I did look it up.

I, I was surprised naming rights, especially in smaller markets, don't bring in as much money as you might think.

They the average is about $7 million a year.

And although certain ones like Citi Field for the Mets, that brings in about $20 million a year, but that's still not that much money when we're talking about a $1.9 billion project.

So, that may not be as big a question as we think.

Now, remember when one of the big objections to the royals moving into the former sprint campus in Overland Park was its close proximity to major hospitals, which could create life threatening situations.

We were told in the event of a patient emergency, I'll give you a Mary asks, isn't the same true at this new site, which is literally around the corner?

Eric from Children's Mercy Hospital just announcing a mammoth expansion this week, and Truman Med, right?

Right around the corner.

So I don't know how they get by, especially with the construction.

I don't think it'll be so much of a problem when they're having games, but with the construction going on around there, how are they going to make an emergency route through there?

That's a great question and a great oversight that the lady had mentioned.

We actually had a chance to speak with Charlie Shields, the CEO of University Health Truman Medical Center, and asked them about that, about parking, too, for some employees and for people visiting patients.

And he really downplayed it and said, you know, we've got five years to figure that out, five ish years to figure that out.

And he's confident that they'll be able to come up with a plan.

All righty.

Well, our viewers are still skeptical.

We did hear also from another watcher, Sharon, who writes, can you talk about anything other than sports stories, please?

Oh, I'm sure she speaks for many people who are totally over all this talk about stadiums in the World Cup.

But now that the stadium saga seems to be finally over and the World Cup will be done in Kansas City on July 11th, what's the next big project on Kansas City's To-Do list?

Bryant.

Well, I think we should talk about getting a WNBA team.

Okay, more sports.

No, I mean, I think the thing about that question from Sharon, and I think there are a lot of people who feel that way.

But but remember, these are not really just sports stories.

They are business stories and they are community development stories.

They're about the kind of city that we understand ourselves to be in, the things that we're willing to spend money on.

And I think a lot of people are concerned about them, whether they are concerned about the sports or not.

Eric, what's the next big project after the World Cup in the stadiums, then?

I think the next one is going to be the streetcar going, oh yes, east and west through 18th Street, 18th and Vine District.

And if I recall, Dave Helling, not so many weeks ago on this program, you were talking about a potential link up to the new chief Stadium tonight, or some discussion of it, of some rail transit.

That thing is a long way away.

I think that the next focus may be over by the Performing Arts center.

The cap on the highway, the new, proposed development in the area with housing and some other things.

And there are a lot of, loose ends that need to be tied up for example, just one.

What are we going to do with the old Jackson County Jail, which sits now, on cherry and presumably will be empty, although you hear talk that they're going to keep putting prisoners in there indefinitely because the new one isn't big enough.

So that's a loosen that needs to be tied up.

And I think that a lot of loose ends will now get some want a terrific location for a new data center?

Yeah.

Okay, Charlie, I think we'll see the plaza take the spotlight again.

That's kind of been under the radar here with all the redevelopment there.

So I think some of the things they wanted to have that opened before the World Cup and then they backtracked on that, didn't they?

There's been so much back foot back and forth with that project.

We thought we'd be seeing some substantial changes by now.

Absolutely.

Well, Adam Hamilton makes it official this week, but with a twist.

One of Kansas City's best known religious leaders is running to be the next U.S.

senator from Kansas.

As a Democrat, didn't he say he was going to run as an independent?

What changed?

Brian?

Well, I think there was a crude political calculus exercise, not crude, a probably a very strategic one, recognition that an independent has an even more uphill battle than a Democrat in Kansas.

Even though I would say it is still a very significantly uphill battle.

I think you can imagine he had already conveyed that he was going to caucus with the Democrats if he were elected.

I imagine this listening tour he's been on, maybe he got some assurances that he'll have some support as long as he goes with a D behind his name.

Will, you were that that announcement, Charlie, did he reference that?

He told me that when he was on those listening sessions that everybody he talked to, the first thing they said to him was, don't run as an independent.

We need you as a Democrat.

Independent.

They didn't feel like an independent could win in Kansas, and they needed to have to play within that binary system.

We know Adam Hamilton, but how well he's known in Great Bend or Garden City or what do you say?

There's the Topeka political scientist Bob Beatty from Washburn University, good friend, well known in the state way.

He said before, just as he was announcing he was interested in running for the Senate, he said he'd never heard of him until then.

Correct.

And I think that's typical for all the candidates on the Democratic side.

So the battle over the next three months will be introducing himself to the electorate, Democratic electorate.

It appears there's going to be probably half a dozen, maybe more candidates in the Democratic primary that suggests that some people think Roger Marshall is vulnerable, that the that the nomination has value.

There's a Kansas state senator in the race, a former federal prosecutor, a former Biden administration USDA appointee and immigration attorney, a former corporate executive.

How disrespectful he's getting in the race at this last moment when they've been running this whole time, Brian.

And yet not a single one of them, Nick, has raised more than $200,000 in all the time that some of them have been running.

Roger Marshall, for comparison, has more than $5 million in his bank account.

I think Adam Hamilton is going to outrace all of those other candidates you name in the next couple of months.

He is a great fundraiser.

He got out ten years ago, $90 million from his congregants to build a brand new church there.

But let's just let's just set the record straight.

Last week, Brian said he was going to be running as a Democrat.

He was watching the show, probably said, hey, that was a great idea.

And he changed.

But I think he's an excellent communicator.

Yeah.

And I think he'll probably jump in the race with a ton of money whenever he gets in there quick as well.

What he does do if he's to the nominee is take social issues to some degree off the table.

And it's clear that Roger Marshall will run a campaign based largely on, you know, who goes to the bathroom where and and some of these other sort of very aggressive abortion, perhaps aggressive emotional social issues.

Hamilton.

If he's the nominee, can, fight back against some of that because of his religious background, aren't they just going to be taking quotes from his online sermons?

Somebody has said things that they seem to be very liberal for somebody in that position.

Correct?

Correct.

And that he'll he'll have to own those he said them and and those will become an issue.

But during his listening session, he came across as a people person and, and understanding and realizing the problems that everyday people have.

He was very good at that.

And I think that that of sell and resonate real well for him versus him.

Tom McMenemy is in a freefall between tariffs and the Iran war.

And Roger Marshall has to own that.

You know, he has to own fertilizer prices going up 50% and gas prices going up a buck a gallon.

It's insane.

You say that because in his announcement, he said, you know, one of the reasons why Washington isn't working is they couldn't pass a farm bill.

Now, all the things he could have talked about as a would pastor, that's what he chose already.

Well, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly delivered what could be one of her final big acts as governor.

This week.

She wrapped up her final vetoes from the recent Kansas legislative wrap up session, including rejecting a bill that would have given citizens the power to block property tax hikes through petition drive.

Kelly only has a few more months left in office.

Was that her last hurrah, Charlie?

You know what?

I'm not sure what to expect from her.

I think maybe her next last hurrah would be to endorse someone like Adam Hamilton in the in the Senate race, but I can't imagine we'll see much of her in the next couple of months here leading up to the end of the session, or a term probably take a victory lap or two around the state and visit with folks.

That's what, governors typically do in their lame duck year.

And I think, you know, there will be the Republicans, of course, were picking at her for her vetoes over property taxes and other, related, decisions made last week.

So I think there'll be some back and forth in that regard.

How much impact she has, though in the Senate primary will be interesting to see.

I think she'll have more of an influence in the governor's primary, which is going to be much more bitter for Democrats.

Well, let's talk a little bit about that, because in less than 100 days, Kansas voters will be picking a replacement for Kelly in party primary elections.

The campaign ads are already taking over our TV screens.

Vicky.

So are you running for governor?

Vicky, are you running for governor?

So, yes, I am running for governor of the great state of Kansas.

I'm Scott Schwab, I believe Donald Trump is right.

Hi.

My name is Ty Masterson.

I'm a results oriented conservative laborer and businessman.

I'm Jeff Colyer as your governor, we're Kansans who are working than ever before.

Had enough losing.

So Evi, I'm Phillip Saanich, a Kansas businessman who's ready to win.

Career politicians have failed us dog lovers.

That's a snapshot of the Republican candidates running to replace Kelly.

While you may not be seeing that commercials, there are also two Democrats in the race Johnson County Senators Ethan Corson and Cindy Holsinger.

Is there a candidate that has the engine claiming the keys to the governor's mansion?

Brian, I'm trying to imagine either Ethan Corson or Cindy Holzer breaking through the screen and announcing that that's what you need today to break time for losing.

No, I mean, I don't know that there is one candidate who has the edge, and I think that's kind of a problem for the Republicans, who might be seen as being able to walk into the governor's office.

You have varying names of levels of name recognition.

I think now that the legislative session is over, it will be interesting to see how Tim Masterson, not in the headlines every week because of what's happening in the Senate, is able to define himself and his candidacy, but one of them is going to have to emerge, and I suspect that they're going to end up getting the nomination, maybe with, you know, 20 some 30% of the vote.

It's kind of amazing because we are, as David pointed out on this program, many times with less than 100 days now before the primary election, in all of these things we've been discussing, there wasn't much clarity.

No, I bet you if you've stopped the cans and on the streets, they wouldn't be able to name, you know, more than one person running for governor.

Yeah.

And there's so many.

I think that's part of the confusion there.

Let's just focus a little bit on the Democrats.

As you know, Laura Kelly has endorsed Ethan Corson, right, in that primary, which has caused some pretty hard feelings from supporters of Cindy Holsinger, who is a woman and would expect or at least at one point, did expect some help from Laura Kelly and that sort of machine around her in the Democratic Party.

So that may end up being a more aggressive, difficult primary race than we anticipate.

And then the Republicans will just be a free for all with names that we know.

Scott Schwab, who's won state law, a statewide lawyer, has won statewide.

Jeff Collier, Vicky Schmidt has won statewide.

Masterson is well known.

That's just going to is it really about who gets Donald Trump's endorsement that will so well, that'll be an issue in that race.

But so many candidates.

Right.

And Donald Trump, of course, has a habit of waiting till the last minute and then endorsing everyone who's still left in the race.

So whether that moves the needle enough for one candidate, another will see.

Already.

Local Congressman Emanuel Cleaver is facing the toughest challenge of his political life as he faces down a redrawn district stretching way beyond Kansas City, taking in thousands of rural voters all the way to the edges of Columbia and Jefferson City.

But if you thought the veteran Kansas City Democrat would be retooling his campaign to deal with this new reality, think again, Cleaver tells the Columbia, Missouri, a newspaper.

We haven't thought one second about it because it's illegal.

Is he putting his head in the sand, Eric?

Or is it still possible for this newly drawn map to be declared illegal, even though it seems multiple lawsuits and court rulings have upheld it?

I think what they're probably leaning toward is the signatures to put it on the ballot.

I think that's still the open question, but one of the things I learned talking to his campaign yesterday was some of those, counties that they put in his district used to be in his district before, and he won overwhelmingly.

So I don't know if this is going to turn out to be the way that they hope it is.

I think he squeaks by.

Okay, but we've heard, even from what political scientists this week, that it's even conceivable, Brian, that we could in the primary, be voting for this new map and in the general election, voting for the old map.

Is that conceivable?

It is conceivable.

I mean, we don't know what's going to happen.

But if that were to happen and we got to November and we're back with the prior, borders, that's super bad news for the Republican winner of the primary, because that is a safe, safe Democratic seat.

If they don't go with the new boundaries and the US Supreme Court making a big ruling this week, that race could not be used as a criteria for deciding districts.

That has to be also a gut punch to Emanuel Cleaver when he's thinking about making this new map illegal.

Right.

He's got a lot of support from African-Americans here in the Kansas City area.

So you think that.

Yeah, that he'd want to lean onto that.

Well, now, just over 40 days away from the start of the World Cup, and there seems to be a softening of the language when it comes to how many visitors we can expect in Kansas City.

Hotel bookings are lighter than expected, and local organizers have been confronted with new airport data that shows only a 4% jump in passengers expected at KCI during the month of June.

While we know there's been some delays in bookings, I think that we know that this is also a drive market and we'll we'll see those people here.

Now, as for the 650,000 visitors expected, KC 2026 now says that's unique visits, which means if someone comes to Kansas City from Argentina for a nine day stay that's counted nine times and the family driving from Omaha for a three day weekend.

Well, that will be three unique visits.

But in fairness, though, have we done that for other events?

I noticed even when we had the NFL draft here and I was looking at the numbers, if you went three days to the NFL draft, went through those gates, you were counted three times for that.

Well, you were there three different days, right?

Those three visited three times.

So yeah, there's a all sorts of ways to bend the numbers in your favor.

And just kind of makes you scratch your head by, viewers to visit my Substack, where I wrote about this very subject in Pittsburgh last week.

They had 850,000 people, according to the visitors.

The folks there, and the restaurants and all the shops said they were empty.

It was crickets.

It was horrible.

No one showed up, which in Kansas City was also a complaint after the NFL draft.

Again, I think we have to be a little cautious about what the World Cup is going to do.

I don't disagree with Dave, and I do have a bad feeling about the low airline numbers, but what I will say is that the World Cup is different than the NFL draft.

The draft sort of funnels everyone into this one space, kind of.

They eat their food there, they stay there all day.

This is over multiple weeks in multiple locations.

The different base camps.

I do think we'll see a different kind of impact.

Let me say.

The other difference, though, is that we we only seem to be fixating on these first round matches.

And so who's coming in for that?

But we have a second round match and we have a quarterfinal.

Only four cities have one of those.

Yeah.

So there is the potential.

Are we going to have an Argentina versus Portugal which would be a Ronaldo.

And Messi the last time they will meet in a World Cup match?

That would be absolutely huge.

Nobody's booking those yet because we don't know who's coming here.

So we could have a huge influx of people for some of the biggest, soccer events in history coming here to Kansas City, I yield to no, man.

I just I'm just offering his knowledge of the World Cup.

But let me just say quickly that some of this will depend not on the visitors.

I think we'll have a lot of visitors.

Yes.

It's whether local people stay home and decide, I'm not going to restaurants.

I'm not going to bars, I'm not going out to shop until this is all over, which is what happened in Pittsburgh and may happen again.

By the way, if you've got something to say about the World Cup, well, we've got an event for you.

Oh yes they do.

That's it's being called the biggest event in Kansas City history.

But all we really World Cup ready.

Hello, I'm Nick Heinz.

People I talk to either off the charts excited or deeply skeptical.

If you've got questions and concerns this is your chance.

We're bringing all the key decision makers in one room for World Cup.

Ready?

Join me at the Kansas City Plaza Library.

Tuesday, May 12 at 6 p.m.. All right.

I hope to look forward to seeing you there.

In other World Cup news, by the way, the new uniforms that will be worn by Kansas City, 6000 volunteers were released by FIFA, and they're kind of swanky Adidas branded covering you from tip to toe.

Sneakers and fanny packs included an all for free Eric, it's not too late for you to sign up.

Sign me up.

I like the tennis shoes.

You do?

Absolutely.

The shoes.

It's never going to work for Eric.

There's no place for a pocket square.

So I don't see how his ensemble will be back on the visitors.

I did speak to several of the volunteers who told me, you know, you think these are all Kansas City folks?

They're not that people coming from Chicago and Minneapolis.

They also were going to be here coming in.

And the 6000 of those were going to be here for the World Cup.

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?

Storms barrel through the metro, bringing with it record rainfall and flooding.

It's been a rocky start to the year, with 244 combined severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings.

It is the highest number in 40 years.

Voters recall Jackson County Executive Frank white.

Now voters are targeting an independent city council member who cast a deciding vote on a contentious data center.

Many in the metro have been enjoying watching video of goose eggs hatching outside the Independent Center mall, at least until someone takes a hammer to the eggs just before they were to hatch.

It makes you wonder what kind of evil is in the heart of a person that would do something like that.

An investigation is underway, and for the first time in more than 20 years, Kansas City hosts a WNBA game, the International Exhibition between Minnesota and the Nigerian national team comes as Kansas City continues to campaign for a permanent team at T-Mobile center.

Okay, Brian, can I assume that the WNBA returning after a 21 year hiatus had to be your big story?

Oh, well, that certainly would potentially be a big story, but that wasn't it.

Okay, I am going to expand on something you just mentioned in passing earlier about the expansion that was announced this week at Children's Mercy Hospital.

They announced that they'll be doing a $1 billion project, expanding their patient capacity by as much as 25 to 30%.

That's a huge increase for a really important institution in the community.

And I think worthy of note.

And hopefully they'll be parking with the new stadium there.

Eric, longtime political guru in Kansas City, Archie Welch, Freedom Incorporated days back in the days he was instrumental on Allen Week getting elected Emanuel Cleaver.

He passed this past week, 18th and vine 18th Street is going to open up.

The walkway is opening up this weekend.

They're supposed to be opening up the Boone Theater.

It's going to be interesting to see how that what that does to bring people to take them.

Dave Helling mentioned the farm bill earlier.

14 Democrats voted for the bill.

200 voted against it.

Of those 14, one was, Sharice Davids of the third district of Kansas.

That's an interesting decision she made.

Charlie, I'm going to go with back down on sort of build on that storm damage in Miami County that had some big tornadoes.

And then we heard from leaders down there that there wasn't big enough, though, to qualify for federal help.

So they're kind of just going to have to pick up on their own.

And on that, we will say all week has been reviewed courtesy of channel 41's Charlie Keegan and Eric Wesson from next page KC KCUR”s News Brian Ellison and News icon and Mister Kansas City stack on Substack.

Dave Helling and I'm Nick Haines from all of here at Kansas City PBS.

Be well, keep calm and carry on.