Three State Candidates Participate in Forum

Three Republican candidates who are running for state office were in Liberal Saturday night for a candidate forum at the Mid-America Air Museum.

Kris Kobach who running for Secretary of State and who is the co-author of the Arizona Immigration Law was there and brought an old election voting barrel that he said former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft lent him for the campaign. Kobach use to work as special counsel to Ashcroft when he was Attorney General and has also been counsel to past presidential candidates Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney. Currently, Kobach is helping Arizona fight the federal government ??s lawsuit against Arizona.

J.R. Claeys is also a candidate for Secretary of State and graduated from Kansas State University. Claeyes began working at the Manhattan Mercury newspaper after college and was selected as the President and CEO of the National Association of Government Contractors (NAGC), a trade association for small and midsize businesses involved in government contracting with over 400,000 member companies.

Kobach and Claeys have focused on debunking voter fraud during their campaigns, which was the main topic at Saturday’s forum. They also are both in favor of requiring photo ID when voting. Both candidates also received an ovation from the audience after Earl Watt, who is the Publisher of the High Plains Daily Leader thanked them both for running good clean campaigns that hasn’t included personal attacks.

David Powell, who is a candidate for Insurance Commissioner was also at the forum and focused on his 33 years experience as a licensed insurance agent. Powell also stressed being fully against President Obama’s new health care law, and added that his opponent incumbent Sandy Praeger has been in favor of it and is even helping implement it.

There were over 40 people in attendance at the forum. After the candidates were done, there was patriotic trivia asked with door prizes going to the winners.

“We the People” from Liberal, and the “November Patriots” from Kansas City sponsored the event.

The primary election is tomorrow.