NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Republican primary winners in Reno County are holding their own event later this month, after they did not attend the Chamber and NAACP event on Tuesday.
"I, your State Senator, will be hosting a forum for the real Republican candidates, on Tuesday, October 25 at 7 p.m. at PrairieStar Health Center," said Sen. Mark Steffen. "It should be a great event. We're going to have desserts from Kathie Girst and her bakery. We're going to let folks mingle with the candidates and then we're going to hold a question and answer session. I think it will be a real opportunity for education instead of confrontation. That's kind of how I'm billing it."
Steffen didn't see the chamber's potential questions to the candidates as fair.
"It's framed in a very liberal format and puts the Republican responder on their heels from the very start," Steffen said. "We don't need that. It's just confusing. It's confusing to the voters. It's confusing to the candidates and it doesn't move governance forward."
Steffen also sees the write in campaigns of losers in the Republican primary as a way for the opposing party to try to sneak candidates in that are not ideologically consistent with what he sees and what voters have said through their actions in the primary is the position of the party.