Jeff Longwell, Sam Williams advance in race for Wichita mayor

City Council member Jeff Longwell and retired advertising executive Sam Williams will face off for Wichita mayor in a campaign that will focus on growing jobs in Wichita.

Longwell collected 28 percent of the vote and Williams had 25 percent in Tuesday’s primary. They advance to the April 7 general election out of a field of 10 candidates.

City Council member Lavonta Williams was in third place with 18 percent of the vote. Jennifer Winn, who ran against Gov. Sam Brownback in the Republican primary last fall, and lawyer Sean Hatfield each had 10 percent. Current Mayor Carl Brewer faces term limits and cannot run again.

Both Longwell and Sam Williams said economic development – and revamping how the city uses incentives – would be a focal point of the campaign.

“We need to change the way we do economic development,” Longwell said. “I have shared that with the chamber (Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce). Some of them have not appreciated that.

“I think that we have to get away from the traditional cash incentives that we’ve been using and look for better ways to grow jobs in this community.”

Williams, a former chamber president, said his campaign for the general election will focus on “a vision for where Wichita’s going,” specifically job creation and infrastructure issues, such as the city’s crumbling streets and the need for a long-term water supply.

“We’re just going to continue with that message and put it in the framework of the future,” he said. “I’m really not interested in what’s gone on in the past but what we’re going to do for the future.”

Focus on jobs

Longwell, 55, spent the early part of the evening at a watch party for council candidate Bryan Frye but went home to await final returns.

He owns Ad Astra Printing and has served as the District 5 City Council member for eight years. Term limits mean he won’t be the District 5 council member again, opening up a seat for one of four candidates from west Wichita. He previously had served on the Maize School Board.

He said he wants to bring together the innovation campus being developed at Wichita State University and the Blueprint for Economic Growth, also known as BREG.

The blueprint is an ongoing study of natural job clusters in the Wichita area – such as aviation, advanced metal fabrication and agriculture – and ways the city can help facilitate those industries.

“Instead of trying to win people over to come to the middle of America, if you want to be a supplier and participate in one of these clusters that we prop up, then you’re going to want to move here,” he said. “It just allows you to naturally grow jobs.”

Longwell is also advocating for what he calls more “proactive” policing in the community.

Economic development

Sam Williams, 63, a first-time candidate, said early in the evening that he was thrilled to be one of the leaders.

“This whole experience is new,” he said. “It’s obvious the message we’re giving, people are understanding it. They hear it, and I’m up against a candidate who’s been in office for eight years and served on a school board for 12 years, and to be where I am speaks to the quality of the people who are helping me and the quality of the message we’re giving out.”

Williams is a retired executive from Sullivan, Higdon & Sink, the state’s largest marketing firm.

Williams told about 50 friends and family members who gathered at the Hotel at Old Town for a campaign watch party that “tonight is all about possibilities.” Hoots and hollers from the crowd erupted as returns came in and Williams’ place was further solidified as a final contender for mayor.

During the campaign, Williams also talked about the need to revamp the way the city does economic development, saying that private business needs to drive it.

He also said he would work with existing companies to understand what they need to stay here and grow.

The Eagle reported last week that Williams may have misrepresented his status as a certified public accountant, a possible violation of state law.

Williams has consistently used the title “CPA” in his campaign mailers and other materials. But he hasn’t held a CPA license since 1990 in Utah and was never licensed as a CPA in Kansas, according to public records. When Williams moved to Wichita about 25 years ago to join Sullivan, Higdon & Sink, he allowed his CPA certification to expire.

“I did not keep the license current, but the volume of knowledge and everything I have done in my life has been limited to the ethics of being a CPA,” he said at a forum last week. “In an effort to show my qualifications, I showed that I had the CPA qualifications.”

Williams and Longwell raised and spent far more money than other candidates.

Williams raised $85,656, and Longwell raised $47,254, according to campaign finance reports filed last week.

Williams loaned his own campaign $10,000 in August, and reports show he has spent more than $26,900 on the campaign since Jan. 1.

Longwell’s campaign has spent $40,087 since Jan. 1.

Voter turnout

About 9.68 percent of registered voters participated in the primary, with 19,392 votes cast. In 2011, when the mayoral primary featured an incumbent, only 7.7 percent of registered voters cast ballots. Turnout was 12 percent in 2007, the last primary for an open mayor’s seat.

Virginia Runyan, who cast her ballot at Edgemoor Recreation Center on Tuesday, said she voted for Longwell because his views seemed to match her opinions, particularly on the sales tax, which he voted against putting on last fall’s ballot. The sales tax was later sharply defeated by voters.

At the same polling place, voter Daniel Schlatter said he voted for Sam Williams, the “most publicized” candidate.

“It was really a toss-up between him and Lavonta (Williams),” Schlatter said. But ultimately, Sam Williams got his vote because he “wanted someone new, some new blood in City Hall and not stagnated like state and federal politics.”

At Grace Presbyterian, voter Melissa Petzschler said she voted for Winn. She follows Winn on Facebook and likes her “progressive views.”

“We could use a change in this town,” she said.

The other mayoral candidates were Robert Culver, 43, a sheet metal worker at Tennison Bros.; Hatfield, 32, an attorney for Maughan Law Group; Dan Heflin, 51, a product engineer and owner of Nu-Ans Design and NoMar Self Storage; Frances Jackson, 75, a semi-retired executive director of Youth Development Services Inc.; Tony Rosales, 39, a co-owner and operator of Twin Peaks restaurant in east Wichita; Tracy Stewart, 38, a banker at Bankers’ Bank of Kansas; Lavonta Williams, 65, a retired educator and District 1 City Council member for the past six years; and Winn, 44, owner of Landscapes Inc.

Wichita’s mayor is paid about $82,000 a year, according to the city.

This story was originally published March 3, 2015 at 7:30 PM with the headline "Jeff Longwell, Sam Williams advance in race for Wichita mayor."