Challengers pressure incumbents in Wichita City Council primary; here’s what comes next
The ballots are counted from Tuesday’s primary and the races are now set for November.
In the unofficial final tallies, Mike Hoheisel was the No. 1 vote getter in Wichita’s District 3, with 29% of the vote. He’ll face Jared Cerullo, the council-appointed incumbent who placed second with 27% of the vote.
Another challenger, Maggie Ballard, edged right up to incumbent Cindy Claycomb 44% to 41% respectively in District 6, so they’ll face off again in the general election.
Both challengers have closely aligned themselves with and are backed by Mayor Brandon Whipple. Both also have the backing of former congressional candidate James Thompson and his “Thompson Army” of supporters, who have played significant roles in several local elections.
And in Tuesday’s only non-Wichita primary, Park City City Council Ward 1, Wichita Police Officer Charley Davidson ran far ahead of the competition in the primary balloting with 70% of the votes. Coming in second at 20%, Angie Carter finished the night with enough support to gain the second spot on the ballot.
There are still some votes to be counted, mostly provisional and late-arriving mail ballots. But the margins in all of Tuesday’s primaries were so decisive that it’s highly unlikely anyone will overtake the candidates who are currently on the path to the November ballot.
Here’s a look at how the races shape up going forward:
Wichita District 3
In election-night interviews, Hoheisel and Cerullo both said they plan to keep plugging away at the issues that got them this far.
Both acknowledge that District 3 has some deep problems compared to other parts of the city. The main difference between the candidates is a matter of emphasis.
In Hoheisel’s view, the key to improving District 3 life is dealing with the mental health and addiction problems that afflict many of its residents.
“These are issues that are eating our district alive from the inside,” Hoheisel said. “There’s hardly a family in south Wichita who hasn’t been touched by these issues. That’s the main issue I’m going to keep running on and keep pounding the table until we get something done on it.”
While he acknowledges that the city plays a limited direct role when it comes to treatment of mental illness and addiction, he said there are things the city can do about it.
For starters, he wants more funding for the city’s ICT-1 program, which teams city police officers with Sedgwick County paramedics and mental health professionals in responding to calls involving mental health and substance abuse issues.
The idea behind the program is to bring three skill sets to emergency calls to help connect the troubled person with appropriate treatment resources, rather than arresting and putting them in jail.
Hoheisel also said the city can work more closely with the county and state to advocate for adequate mental health funding in the legislative process.
Cerullo said he thinks the key to improving District 3 is neighborhood and commercial improvement.
“District 3 has a lot of problems right now,” he said. “The south Broadway corridor is not in good shape at all. We have crime problems, prostitution issues, human trafficking.”
He said that on the campaign trail, “I have been talking nonstop about trying to figure out how to fix the problems that we have with blight, housing inequality and crime . . . We’ve got to figure out a way to improve District 3.”
Both Cerullo and Hoheisel enjoy name recognition in the district, which helped propel them to the general election.
Cerullo, a former local TV reporter, got a boost when the council selected him to fill the seat vacated when disgraced council member James Clendenin resigned rather than face ouster proceedings, amid a scandal over a false campaign ad targeting Whipple and a resulting cover-up attempt.
Hoheisel’s been on local ballots before. He’s a Democratic precinct committeeman. His brother Nick Hoheisel is an area state representative.
There were seven candidates in the race, but no one came close to the top two.
Planning Commissioner Cindy Miles placed a distant third with 18% of the vote and the others, Jason Carmichael, Jerome Crawford, Ian Demory and Tevin Smith, all had less than 10%.
Wichita District 6
Ballard, a Riverside neighborhood resident and founder of Paxton’s Blessing Box, said her top priorities are curbing domestic violence, bolstering mental health support throughout the city and providing resources for the homeless population.
District 6 of the City Council covers most of north Wichita and parts of the west side and includes parts of Old Town, Delano, Riverside, the North End and McAdams. Its boundaries are generally similar to Douglas on the south, I-135 on the east and I-235 on the west and includes some parts of the city north of K-96.
Claycomb, an Old Town resident backed by downtown Wichita boosters and local developers, said she is running on her record, which includes a focus on economic development projects and neighborhood improvements. Since taking office in 2018, Claycomb has voted to build a new baseball stadium, a new water treatment plant and to revamp a city community center at 25th and Arkansas.
“I think people will recognize the good job I’ve done in November,” Claycomb said.
But many of Claycomb’s votes have been met with controversy, including a 2020 decision to award tax incremental financing for a housing project in Riverside. The developers on the project, Jerry Jones and Dave Burk, are some of her largest campaign donors.
Ballard said she’s confident she can build a coalition of voters who feel like they’ve been left out for the past four or more years.
“A lot of the neighborhoods in the district feel like they don’t have a voice,” Ballard said.
Ballard said if she’s elected she plans to push back against City Manager Robert Layton.
“The city manager works for the council, not the other way around,” Ballard said. “There are times I feel like he (Layton) acts like her (Claycomb’s) boss.”
Claycomb has pledged to run a clean campaign and has so far avoided publicly criticizing Ballard. But Claycomb has the money to run a competitive race.
Claycomb raised far more money than any other candidate, getting $54,980.75 in contributions since March, adding to $32,761 cash on hand she had at the beginning of the reporting period. Ballard raised $19,444.78, but had more individual contributors than Claycomb.
“At the end of the day, dollars don’t vote. The people do,” Ballard said.
Claycomb faced a crowded field of political challengers: Ballard, Martin G. Garcia, Loren John Hermreck Jr., Dereck C. Reynolds and Andy Speck. Ballard was the only one to get more than 7% of the vote.
Claycomb said she’s not particularly surprised or worried that Ballard got more votes in the primary.
“It’s really low turnout,” Claycomb said. “So it’s hard to tell. I think it is less than 3,000 voters. I think people in District 6 haven’t gotten used to coming out for a city election on August yet, so we’ll see what happens in November.”
This was the first District 6 primary held in the summer after the state Legislature voted to move city general elections from April to November.
Park City Ward 1
Davidson, 41, is a public information officer for the Wichita Police Department and helps fill in as a preacher at area churches.
He’s running on a pro-growth platform in a city undergoing rapid change, including the development of a mammoth Amazon warehouse and order-fulfillment center. His campaign signs say “Help Park City step into the future.”
“There’s a lot of things going on in Park City right now and I think I can do a good job with my experience working with communities, working with volunteers, and I can do a good job working with other council members,” he said.
Davidson vaulted into Park City government affairs in 2020 when he spoke up as president of the Saddlebrook Homeowners Association in opposition to plans for a truck stop nearby.
He said the truck stop shouldn’t be built near a residential neighborhood since it would bring unwanted noise and decrease property values.
“Please know this is not an opposition to a truck stop being built,” he told the Ark Valley News at the time. “The homeowners support economic development and everyone knows the area around us could not continue forever to be farmland, but at some point we’d have some type of development. However, no one thought it would ever be an industrial site like a truck stop.”
Carter did not respond to calls from The Eagle after the votes were tallied.
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 11:09 PM.
