Endorsement: In Kansas House District 90, either candidate better than what they’ve had | Opinion

Voters in the Valley Center/Maize-based House District 90 will be getting a new representative in the Statehouse, and not a moment too soon.

From 2001 to 2022, the area was represented by Republican state Rep. Steve Huebert. Two years ago he stepped down for family reasons and the seat was won by Carl Maughan.

Now, Huebert’s back in the game and in a contested race with Democrat Tracy Edingfield.

Maughan’s tenure in office can best be described as disastrous. He was all cued up to run for an easy reelection, but suspended his campaign in March, a week after he was arrested in Topeka and charged with driving under the influence while in possession of a firearm. He pleaded no contest to the DUI and prosecutors dropped the gun charge in a plea bargain — but he pleaded guilty this week to another DUI charge in connection with a car crash west of Wichita in May.

Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court suspended Maughan from practicing law for a year in an unrelated case involving violations of conflict-of-interest rules in his representation of a murder suspect.

Huebert came out of legislative retirement to try to hold the House seat for the Republicans, who are fighting to maintain their veto-proof supermajority in both houses at the Capitol.

Huebert survived a four-way GOP primary that included Maughan, although Maughan didn’t actively campaign.

The Democratic candidate is Tracy Edingfield, a retired attorney who became an author and writes historical romances and children’s books.

Both of these candidates are smart and capable of serving at the Statehouse — either would obviously be a great improvement over Maughan.

We’re endorsing Huebert for two reasons: 1) His long legislative experience will allow him to hit ground running and 2) he’s a better fit in the district, which is heavily conservative.

Huebert is staunchly conservative, but he has a longtime reputation for getting along with his colleagues from across the aisle, which will be critically important in the coming legislative session.

The No. 1 issue facing Kansas is property tax reform — rampant real estate speculation has sent housing prices soaring (at least by Kansas standards) and property taxes are going up to match, a hardship for older and low-income homeowners.

Huebert has already begun talking with former House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, a Wichita Democrat, to try to lay the groundwork for a bipartisan plan that could pass early in the upcoming January session and, it is hoped, be acceptable to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who’s expressed skepticism.

During his last term in the Legislature, Huebert, then chairman of the House Education Committee, drew attention when he proposed and pressed for a bill to require Kansas high school students to pass an American government and civics test that would be on par with the test administered to immigrants applying for citizenship in the United States.

The bill passed both chambers in the Legislature, but was vetoed by Kelly. Huebert didn’t try for an override of the veto because he knew he didn’t have the two-thirds majority to do it.

Edingfield also brings some good ideas to the table.

For example, she has a very intriguing idea to fight inflation by banning “surge pricing,” the increasingly common practice of using artificial intelligence tools to instantly alter prices of food, goods and services in response to immediate demand.

She would be a strong voice for pro-choice Kansans, who as we found in the Value Them Both amendment election two years ago, are the majority. And she opposes the Legislature’s misguided efforts to marginalize and discriminate against LGBTQ Kansans.

But while Edingfield would be a quality addition to the Statehouse, ultimately she would be miscast as a representative for this overwhelmingly Republican, pro-life and socially conservative district.

Our conclusion is that Huebert knows the game and knows the players, and because of that would get more done for the district.

This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 5:06 AM.