Election eve rallies. Law clinic report. Time changes, cycles.

By Clay Wirestone | opinion editor

LENEXA — Republican Ty Masterson spoke Sunday night to Johnson County conservatives in defense of President Donald Trump’s policies and the perils of allowing Democrat Cindy Holscher to win Tuesday’s election for Kansas governor.

“I understand President Trump’s personality, right?” Masterson said. “I understand. He’s a flavor. And, some people like him and some people hate him. But, you know, even the haters that I run into, none of them hate what he’s done. None of them say, ‘Oh, no. I wish he hadn’t closed the border.’ Because you know what? You’re safer.”

Masterson, a state senator from Andover near Wichita, asked 150 or so people in the crowd to think back to July 13, 2024, when an assassin bloodied Trump’s right ear in Pennsylvania, but defiantly raised a fist and mouthed the word “fight.” That’s the attitude Kansas Republicans need to carry into final hours of the 2026 election, Masterson said.

Holscher, who once walked from Johnson County to Topeka to bring attention to lack of public school funding, vowed to deliver collaborative state government to Kansans finding it harder to make ends meet as the rising cost of food, fuel and other essentials outpaced stagnant incomes. She touted policies with bipartisan appeal in Kansas, including Medicaid expansion, full funding of K-12 special education, abortion rights and legalization of marijuana.

She reminded the crowd that she was part of the legislative coalition that voted in 2017 to repeal state income tax cuts championed by GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, who recently endorsed Masterson. The resulting steep decline in tax revenue starved state programs for five years. Holscher said voters should keep in mind Masterson has continued to defend Brownback’s tax initiative.

LINDSBORG — Sarah Gonzales-McLinn, serving a life sentence for killing her abuser, cried when she talked about the advocates and legal aides who are trying to convince the governor to grant her clemency.

For years, advocates have argued Gonzales-McLinn didn’t receive a fair trial because the jury didn’t know Hal Sasko had controlled her finances and repeatedly raped her before she killed him in 2014 in Lawrence. Now, a 25-page report from the Washburn University Law Clinic brings new accusations against an appeals attorney who, the report claims, pressured her to accept a plea deal she didn’t understand.

By Clay Wirestone

Overnight, between Saturday and Sunday, the hands of America’s clocks swept backward an hour.

Groggy Halloween partiers slept an extra 60 minutes. Young and old alike dozed into the morning, waking refreshed and ready for a new month. Sure, most of us hate the spring time change, when a vanished hour pinches schedules and circadian rhythms alike. But the fall switch — that calm relaxation into the cool months — holds a special place in our sleep-deprived hearts.

The change this year came two days before the U.S. midterm elections, those down-ballot contests beloved by political journalists and dogged partisans alike. Everyone else, I suspect, grits his or her teeth and goes along for the ride.

TOPEKA — More Kansans cast their ballots in early voting than in the previous midterm election, and Democrats turned out in larger numbers than in the past, an organization that tracks state voter numbers reported Monday.

American democracy faces one of its biggest stress tests of the modern era, as President Donald Trump’s sprawling campaign for power over elections encounters a firewall of judges, state election workers and voting rights leaders heading into Election Day.

WASHINGTON — One day before his party is forecast to lose control of the U.S. House, and possibly the Senate, President Donald Trump gathered guests and press at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to tout the “magnificent” renovation of the monument — a monthslong project plagued by algae, reclosure and false accusations of vandalism.

Kansas Reflector opinion editor Clay Wirestone interviews former Kansas state poet laureate Huascar Medina about his latest book, "Protest as Love Poem," and the challenges of living through this political and cultural age.

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