Six Republicans debate as decision day for GOP nomination nears

Six Republican candidates debated who should replace Mike Pompeo in Congress on Friday, with their party’s decision day for a nominee now less than a week away.

Kansas Treasurer Ron Estes; Alan Cobb, an adviser to President Donald Trump; former Congressman Todd Tiahrt; former radio host Joseph Ashby; Wichita City Council member Pete Meitzner; and lawyer George Bruce spoke in front of a packed Pachyderm Club luncheon.

The candidates are running out of time to woo 126 delegates across the 4th Congressional District, which includes Wichita and south-central Kansas. Those delegates will select a nominee Thursday at Friends University.

They were short on time Friday as well: Questions posed by Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kelly Arnold had to be answered in 60 to 90 seconds.

Here’s a run-down of what the six candidates talked about. The winner will face the Democratic and Libertarian nominees in an April 11 special election.

Ron Estes

The state treasurer and former Sedgwick County treasurer said his top priority would be a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“We’ve got a unique opportunity now with a Republican president and Republican majorities in the House and the Senate,” he said. “We need to push that through now.”

“We need to have a balanced budget so that works for all Americans for all time,” he said.

Alan Cobb

The conservative activist said his time as an adviser to the Trump campaign and transition team would serve the 4th District well.

“It puts me in a very unique position to have the ear of the president,” Cobb said.

Cobb said he’d push for a federal agency sunset law that would require Congress to approve federal agencies’ continued existence.

“You’d be astonished how much overlap, how many agencies there are that do the same things,” Cobb said. “We’ve got to get that under control.”

Todd Tiahrt

The former congressman said he would focus on removing barriers created by the federal government. Tiahrt repeatedly compared the federal government to a broken engine and said he has the tools to help repair it.

“I’m the most experienced, I have a proven track record and I can get the job done,” Tiahrt said.

Tiahrt played up the seniority he’d have from his previous terms in Congress, from 1995 to 2011. He said he could land on the appropriations committee while his opponents “would get what’s left over from the freshman class.”

“We need somebody ready from day one,” Tiahrt said.

Joseph Ashby

The former host of a conservative radio show has not held office before. But he said his convictions would guide his leadership on the Hill.

“I think we make way too many decisions based on seniority and power and influence and connections and so forth,” Ashby said. “It’s time to stop doing that and send somebody who knows the right thing and will do it.”

Ashby said he wanted to “unwind” the regulatory state and create a larger free market in health care.

“We have good folks in powerful places in the Trump Cabinet,” he said. “It’s important to remember who we are and very important that we vote the way that we promised that we would.”

Pete Meitzner

Wichita’s City Council member for District 2 said he has a grasp on the value of the 4th District for the state and the country.

Meitzner cited the Department of Education and the U.S. Postal Service as federal entities that had outlived their usefulness.

“The biggest department I’d like to get rid of is the department of red tape and replace it with a department of red carpet,” he said. “We took a business approach at the City Council and it has really made a difference.”

George Bruce

The Wichita lawyer said he thought Congress had surrendered too much of its power to the executive branch.

“We need to … have the ability to have Congress have a second look at regulatory agencies and laws that are crippling our economy,” he said.

This story was originally published February 3, 2017 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Six Republicans debate as decision day for GOP nomination nears."