Thursday Wichita council candidate forum may become a town hall instead | Opinion
Update: After this column was published online Tuesday morning, Genevieve Howerton responded to an email from the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, saying she would be unable to attend Thursday’s forum due to another commitment. The collaborative has asked Howerton for dates she is available, but she has not yet responded. Thursday’s event will be held as scheduled and the collaborative is working to hold a second event for District 3 if a date when both candidates are available can be determined .
This is the column I had hoped not to have to write — but there seems to be no other choice.
Unfortunately, it appears I’ll be moderating a candidate forum Thursday evening for the upcoming Nov. 4 Wichita City Council election with only one candidate, in a two-candidate race.
The show must go on. And it will.
The Wichita Journalism Collaborative is hosting the forum at the Alford Branch Library for City Council candidates for District 3, which represents primarily southeast Wichita.
The incumbent council member, Mike Hoheisel, enthusiastically agreed to participate.
We have heard nothing from his opponent, Genevieve Howerton.
That’s not for want of trying.
Several of our collaborative members have exhausted every avenue of communication we can think of to reach Howerton, including multiple phone calls to her personal phone, messages left at her real estate office, emails and Facebook messages.
Not a single message has been returned.
After more than a month of reaching out, we can only conclude she not only wishes not to participate, but to not speak to us at all — it’s her campaign, her privilege.
I volunteered to act as moderator for this event because I think it’s important, particularly in south Wichita, for residents to have a chance to ask questions of and express their views to those who would seek to represent them.
The Wichita Eagle and Kansas.com are founding members of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, a coalition of 10 media and community organizations working to improve reporting and public engagement on local issues of significance.
The group is a wide-ranging one including general interest media organizations such as KSN-TV news, KMUW public radio and the Kansas Leadership Center Journal, along with a diverse set of special-interest publications including Active Age, which focuses on senior citizens; the Community Voice, based in Wichita’s Black community; Planeta Venus, a Spanish-language publication for the area’s Hispanic residents; and The Sunflower, the Wichita State University campus paper.
WSU’s Elliot School of Communication and the Wichita Public Library system are community partners.
Should Howerton decide that she wants to participate in Thursday’s forum, she would be welcome. I have a long track record moderating these kinds of events and always have endeavored to treat candidates with fairness and even-handedness.
But we won’t allow allow a candidate’s nonparticipation to cancel the event. That wouldn’t be fair to the people of south Wichita.
So, we are preparing the room for a formal candidate forum. But I’m not going to hold one of those phony “empty chair” debates. I’ll leave those to advocacy organizations.
We are about informing the public.
If Howerton chooses not to attend, we’ll rearrange the room and conduct the gathering as a town hall meeting — an opportunity for members of the general public to interact with Hoheisel, their sitting council member.
We are committed to this course, because we believe there’s value in having an electorate that’s informed by more than just candidates’ door-hanger cards and mailings.
So come on down to the Alford Branch Library, 3447 S. Meridian, from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Bring your questions, and one way or another, we’ll have the discussion of issues facing Wichita and District 3 that the public deserves.
We have much to talk about. I’ll see you there.
This story was originally published September 30, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
