JUNCTION CITY, Kan. (AP) — Jennifer Winn is running a shoestring Republican primary race against Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback on a platform that includes legalizing marijuana, and both he and his Democratic challenger have ignored her for months.
But Brownback’s foes now see the Aug. 5 election fortunes of Winn, who owns a Wichita-area property management company, as a barometer of the governor’s vulnerability in November. Democratic challenger Paul Davis is aggressively courting GOP moderates who are unhappy with Brownback’s conservative fiscal policies, and Winn represents a chance for early protest votes.
Winn, 44, isn’t interested in being someone’s symbol. She entered the race out of anger over a first-degree murder charge against her son over what authorities say was his involvement in a marijuana deal gone bad last year that left a man dead. She touts herself as a champion of the working class and as someone who built a company from a $100 start.
“It’s very comfortable for me to go out and just talk to people,” she said. “Once they learn their options, usually their first response is, ‘Why didn’t we know about you?’”
At a recent forum in Junction City, Winn drew a few smirks from the audience when she discussed legalizing marijuana and promoting industrial hemp production. But she also combines a populist frustration over corporate tax breaks with core conservative GOP views for gun rights and against Common Core multistate math and reading standards.
Brownback has riled his opponents and gained national attention by engineering massive personal income tax cuts to stimulate the economy. He’s seeking re-election amid an intense debate over whether the reductions are producing the promised growth or wrecking the state’s finances.
Winn said she has raised only about $17,000 to date, and Brownback spokesman John Milburn said his re-election message is consistent whether the opponent is Winn or Davis.
“Governor Brownback remains focused on telling voters about the progress that Kansas has made during the first term of his administration to create jobs, lower taxes, improve the business climate and make this state the best place for raising a family and small businesses,” he said.
Both Democratic and Republican party officials agreed that in any political climate, an opponent in a one-on-one primary race with Brownback was destined to receive between 15 percent and 20 percent of the vote.
But an independent poll in late June suggested that Winn could do significantly better.
Winn’s son’s legal troubles — he could be sentenced to 20 years in prison, if convicted — pushed her to research marijuana laws and criminal justice policy. She said she’d concentrate first on legalizing marijuana for medical use.
Brownback opposes legalizing marijuana, though he’s not been required to articulate it until now because the issue has been a non-starter for Kansas legislators. He said in a statement that he worries about children accidentally ingesting the drug and said that western Kansas counties are having problems with people traveling from Colorado with pot that is legal there or under the influence.
Winn’s advocacy on marijuana and hemp led her to other political issues, such as government transparency and what she calls “corporate welfare.” She also touts her business experience, telling the audience in Junction City that she dug landscaping ditches herself during its first few years.
She’s said she’s working on a low-cost television commercial. That’s not impossible: Some cable spots for the Topeka and Wichita markets can cost less than $40 each.
“I’m not a polished politician, and I’m not going to pretend to be,” she told the Junction City audience. “We, the people, need to start running for these positions.”
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Online:
Winn’s campaign: http://winnforkansas.com/
Brownback re-election campaign: http://www.brownback.com/
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Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna
Kansas governor's foes watching primary race
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