TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2004
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5A
Local candidates focus on more local issues
Today is the last day to vote. All newly registered voters will be asked for a form of identification that should match their registered address. KUID cards will be accepted. Yesterday, the Kansan presented the other local races.
BY ANDY HYLAND
ahyland@kansan.com
ahyland'S STAFF WRITER
DOUGLAS COUNTY CLERK
Marni Penrod
Marni Penrod, deputy clerk for elections in Douglas County, is the Republican candidate for Douglas County Clerk. She said she would want to continue to work to implement the Help America Vote Act, which had already begun implementation this year. "There's really no way to be ready for this job except on the job experience," she said. She said she wanted to help transition to a central election database next year for the entire state, which she said would make it faster and simpler to keep track of votes.
Jamie Shew
Jamie Shew is the Democratic candidate for Douglas County Clerk. He said he could bring more efficiency to the office. He wants to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the election process. "We'll see what works, and what doesn't,' and fix the things that don't," he said. He said he supported a paper trail on electronic voting devices and wanted to make government more accessible. "It's important that we educate voters and that information gets out," he said.
DOUGLAS COUNTY TREASURER
Cindy Monshizadeh
The Republican candidate for county treasurer is Cindy Monshizadeh. She said she thought she was qualified for the position because of her experience in the office as interim deputy treasurer, "I understand the regulations we all have to follow," she said. The county treasurer is responsible for collecting motor vehicle, real estate and other property taxes. She wants to increase the staff of the office and expand the online options for payment. "While I don't think that these will eliminate the lines, I do think they will help people pay their taxes," she said.
Paula Gilchrist
Paula Gilchrist is the Democratic candidate for Douglas County treasurer. She said she wanted to cut down on the long lines at the end of the month. She said she wanted to have other options for paying taxes, including online options and a person-to-person telephone service. She said that she had heard some citizens were sent home after not presenting a valid insurance card at the window, and she would offer options so that those people would not have to wait in line again. "I definitely wouldn't send them home," she said.
DOUGLAS COUNTY COMMISSION'S THIRD DISTRICT
Jere McEthaney
Marguerite Ermeling
Jere McEthanley is the Republican incumbent of the Douglas County Commission's Third District. His plan for another term is to keep improving. "We want to keep the momentum going," he said. He wants to continue to improve roadways in the county. "We want to make it more effective and safer for students and their families to travel to and from Lawrence," he said. He said that he and the commission had been "leaders" in helping to make the county's roads better.
Marguerite Ermeling is an Independent running for the Third District seat of the Douglas County Commission. She said she wasn't willing to "sit and wait" for the South Lawrence Trafficway to be built, and thought the commission needed a "coordinated and comprehensive" transportation plan. She said the South Lawrence Trafficway was going to be held up in court for a long time, and that it may not be adequately funded if it survived the court battle. She said she wanted coordination among state, private and local funding to provide better roads. "It's a new way to approach our traffic issue," she said.
Board of education race could alter teaching of science
BY ANDY HYLAND
ahyland@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
The two candidates for the state board of education in the Fourth District will likely face another vote on the fate of science standards in Kansas.
Bill Wagnon, the Democratic incumbent, said that he supported keeping evolution in the classroom.
He said that evolution was key to understanding science, and that other arguments such as intelligent design belonged in religion classes.
The argument for intelligent design is that life was designed by some higher being, and did not simply appear by a series of chance occurrences.
He anticipated the subject of science standards would be brought up again this term.
"I'm disappointed. It sends very mixed signals." he said.
His challenger is Republican Bob Meissner.
He said he supported the teaching of evolution.
"Evolution is a scientifically credible theory that needs to be taught," he said.
Meissner said he was open to considering the teaching of other scientifically credible theories, possibly including intelligent design, as well.
He said he didn't want to "dig into this point" quite yet, and would study the available material at length and then make a decision.
Hume Feldman, associate professor of physics and astronomy, helped bring a forum to the University of Kansas earlier this semester to ensure that evolution continue to be taught in high school science courses.
"Intelligent design is completely not credible," he said. "It needs a supernatural being — intelligence. Once you bring the supernatural into science, it's not science."
Others are pushing for intelligent design's inclusion.
He said intelligent design was a perfectly legitimate belief-based argument, but belonged in churches.
"The main problem with intelligent design is that they know the answer before they do the research," he said.
John Calvert is a geologist and lawyer, and is a managing director of IDNet, a group devoted to promoting intelligent design with offices in Kansas, New Mexico and Minnesota.
He thought the state board of education should not take up the issue again.
He said intelligent design and evolution were competing hypotheses, and intelligent design should not be ignored in science classes.
He suggested a curriculum that included a debate between intelligent design and evolution and let students make up their own minds.
He said suppressing the disagreement would convert evolution into a kind of dogmatic ideology.
He said there were numerous arguments that suggested intelligent design was a credible theory, including that the statistical probability for the origins of the universe happening completely by chance are so small to make them statistically impossible.
- Edited by Johanna M.
Maska
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR KANSAS' FOURTH DISTRICT
Bill Wagnon
Bill Wagon is the Democratic incumbent on the State Board of Education for Kansas' Fourth District. He supports evolution being taught in science classes. "It's key to understanding science," he said. "The place for intelligent design is in a classroom on religion." He said he thought the subject of science standards would come up again during this term of the board. He wants to close the gap of performance for students and wanted to push for adequate school funding.
Bob Meissner
Bob Meissner is the Republican challenger for the Fourth District of the State Board of Education. He supported teaching evolution in schools. "Evolution is a scientifically credible theory that needs to be taught," he said. He said he would be open to "considering the possibility of other scientifically credible theories," such as intelligent design, if they were recommended by the science standards committee. "I have made it a point to maintain my unbiasedness," he said. He said he wanted to build on his 12 years of experience on school boards to push for more state funding. Also, he wants to close the gap of performance. "It's important to do that from the bottom up," he said.
kansan.com
If you want to fund our schools, lower health care costs, create good jobs and keep our streets safe. Vote the Democratic Slate!
STATE SENATOR, 2nd Dist.
Marci Francisco
STATE SENATOR, 19th Dist. Anthony Hensley
STATE SENATOR, 3rd Dist.
Jan Justice
STATE REPRESENTATIVE, 10th Dist.
Tom Holland
STATE REPRESENTATIVE, 44th Dist.
Barbara W. Ballard
STATE REPRESENTATIVE, 46th Dist. Paul Davis
STATE REPRESENTATIVE, 53rd Dist.
Ann Mah
COUNTY CLERK
Jameson "Jamie" Shew
STATE BOARD of EDUCATION, 4th Dist. Bill Wagnon
COUNTY TREASURER
Paula Gilchrist
COUNTY REGISTER OF DEEDS Kay Pesnell
Join us to watch election results on Tuesday night at Abe & Jake's Landing, 8pm - ?
QUESTIONS?
Douglas County Democratic Party
749-2121
www.douglascountydems.org
Paid Political Advertisement, Paid for by the Douglas County Democratic Party, Jack Davidson, Treasurer
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