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Mary Clarkin

Kansas House Minority Leader Jim Ward, D-Wichita, jumped into the pool of candidates running for governor by announcing his candidacySaturday morning in Wichita.

Ward joins a Democratic Party lineup that includes former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer; former Kansas Agriculture Secretary Joshua Svaty, Ellsworth; Olathe physician Arden Andersen; and Wichita high school student Jack Bergeson. The Republican primary has drawn an even larger field.

Speaking prior to the announcement, Ward said the decision by Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, to run for the congressional seat in the 3rd District was one factor in his decision to run for governor. Davis is a previous House minority leader who ran but lost to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback in 2014. Davis had been mentioned as a possible candidate in the 2018 gubernatorial race.

I did my due diligence, Ward said, as he weighed the race. That included surmising the field of candidates and talking to every Democrat in the House. There are 40 Democrats in the 125-seat House.

Ward, 59, will run on a platform advocating fiscal responsibility, tax fairness, strong schools, public safety and investment in roads and infrastructure. He has prior experience as a prosecuting attorney in Sedgwick County, and he opened his private practice in 1990.

He entered the House in 2003 and was elected House minority leader for a two-year term that began in 2017. He will continue in that role next year. He will not be the only member of the Legislature running for state office or Congress next year. Ward thinks that works in his favor.

I think theyre looking for a problem-solver, Ward said of voters. They will gain insight about candidates from their job performance, in his opinion.

Ward wont be able to run for governor and another term in the Kansas Housesimultaneously, so his jump to the governors race creates an opening in the 86th House District in the 2018 election. It also means House Democrats will choose a new leader following the 2018 election.

Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, was chosen in June to fill the seat held by the late Rep. Patsy Terrell, D-Hutchinson, andProbst said Ward has been helpful as he learns about the new job. Probst said he knows Ward better than the other Democrats running for governor, but hehasnt felt pressureto endorse a candidate.

Probst said he also hasnt thought much about the topic of endorsing a gubernatorial candidate.He said hes spent most of his time trying to figure out how to do this and what the district needs from him.

University of Kansas political science professor Burdett Loomis said Ward is not going to get a better year than 2018 to run for governor. He gets to run against the Brownback record and against President Trumps record, Loomis said.

I certainly think if youre Jim Ward, you look around and Carl Brewer is certainly not nothing as a candidate at all, but I dont see that theres a lot of energy there, Loomis said. And youve got Josh Svaty who is pro-life and also is not especially well-known, Loomis said.

Ward also has the example of Davis, who ran a competitive campaign against Brownback in 2014.

More Democratic votes are in the four northeast Kansas counties of Johnson, Wyandotte, Douglas and Shawnee than anywhere in the state, Loomis said. If I was any of these candidates, Loomis said, I would work like an absolute dog in those counties.

Loomis did not regard Wards entry into the race as too late. A big question will be which of the candidates can raise serious money to run against the Republican nominee in fall 2018, he said.

Ward made his announcement at a labor union headquarters, and Loomis said which candidate gets labors support also will be important.

Read more here:
Democrat Ward launches bid for governor - The Hutchinson News