GOP hack tries to hijack new No Labels political party from 20,000 Kansans | Opinion
Kristian Van Meteren already has a firm hold on one political party in Kansas. It’s hard to figure out why he needs another.
Van Meteren is the owner of Singularis group, the go-to resource for Republican candidates in Kansas and Missouri who need their image burnished or an opponent slimed. When your mailbox is stuffed with sleazy and misleading boilerplate political mailers every election season, chances are they originated in Van Meteren’s shop in Olathe.
But apparently, dominating Republican Party consulting and mailing isn’t enough to fulfill Van Meteren’s political ambition, because he’s actively trying to hijack one of Kansas’ new minor parties, the No Labels Party.
More than 20,000 Kansans signed petitions for the No Labels Party to get it on the ballot. They’re tired of politics as usual, especially as practiced by Van Meteren with his slash-and-burn attacks on local Democrats as tools of Nancy Pelosi, Antifa and various other imaginary boogeymen of the far right.
No Labels qualified for a line on the Kansas ballot in January, making it Kansas’ fourth political party and second minor party.
The national organization worked to gain ballot access in a number of states with the express purpose of running a national “unity ticket” for president and vice president, but ultimately abandoned that effort.
In Kansas, minor parties don’t get to participate in the August primary election, which is reserved for Republicans and Democrats. But they can nominate candidates for the November general election by holding a party caucus or convention.
Although he had no previous involvement with No Labels or the petition drive to earn its ballot line, Van Meteren filed paperwork to incorporate under three names: No Labels Kansas, Inc., No Labels Kansas Party, Inc. and No Labels Party of Kansas, Inc.
Then came the weird part.
He’s released a bizarre video of what he claimed to be the No Labels Party convention, of which he was the sole attendee. He nominated and voted himself in as chairman of his party of one.
Then, he nominated two candidates: His wife, Echo Van Meteren, for the Leavenworth-based 5th Kansas Senate District, and incumbent 2nd District Sen. Marci Francisco, a Democrat from Lawrence.
The apparent purpose of the nomination of his wife would be to give her a spot on the general election ballot if she loses in the Republican primary to Jeff Klemp. The Van Meterens are furious because the Kansas Chamber of Commerce endorsed Klemp in the race to face incumbent Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat.
The apparent purpose of nominating Francisco is to throw a wrench in her re-election bid. She’s being challenged in the Democratic primary by state Rep. Christina Haswood, also of Lawrence.
Lawrence is the only real Democratic stronghold in Kansas, but the presence of two popular Democrats on the Senate ballot in November could split the vote and create an opening for Republican David Miller, a friend of Van Meteren, to steal the seat for the GOP.
Fortunately, Secretary of State Scott Schwab saw through the scam and rejected Van Meteren’s personal nominees. Schwab also has raised the possibility that Van Meteren violated a Kansas law against impersonating a political party official.
So now Van Meteren is trying to play the victim card, saying: “To hear lefty reporters breathlessly tell it, I’m a half-crazed, ultra-conservative gypsy who showed up in politics yesterday, bent on swindling the good people of Kansas into buying some kind of dangerous electoral snake oil.”
Thanks Kris. Except for the part about you showing up yesterday, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Van Meteren’s been in this column before and not in a good way.
In November 2022, he put out a deceptive mailer urging pro-choice Kansans to vote out members of the Kansas Supreme Court — when the court is the only thing standing in the way of the Legislature banning abortions. He laundered the money for that little exercise in dishonesty through a “charitable foundation” he owns, changing its name twice to try to cover his tracks.
But possibly the worst part of all this is that the real chairperson of the Kansas No Labels Party, Glenda Reynolds of Whitewater, is in no position to defend herself or the fledgling party. She’s in hospice care and reportedly non-communicative.
So not only did Van Meteren try to take advantage of more than 20,000 Kansans who signed petitions to do things in a different way, he did it by climbing over the body of a dying woman.
That’s reprehensible and inexcusable.
No Labels is supposed to be about, well, no labels.
But Kristian Van Meteren has earned this one: Charlatan.
