Bill Otto wants another crack at legislating, this time from an independent perspective.
Otto, Le Roy, represented the Ninth District in the Kansas House for eight years before redistricting two years ago left him on the outside looking in.
He, Willie Prescott and Peggy Mast, all incumbents, were thrown into the same district, No. 76. Mast had the advantage, living at Emporia and having been the District 76 representative. That she had been in the House since 1997 helped as well.
In the 2012 primary, Mast came away with 47 percent of the vote and Otto managed 33 percent. Prescott got 20 percent.
Fast forward to last month.
Otto, 65, still has a yearning to serve and was mulling another run against Mast. Then, Jeff Freeman, a former legislator also from Le Roy, announced he would challenge Mast. Rather than give what he thought would be an advantage to Mast with three in the race, Otto decided to change his tactics.
“That’s when I decided to change my registration to independent,” Otto told the Register.
As an independent, Otto will not have to mount a primary race, and can save his resources for the general election in November. Kansas law provides for an independent to secure a spot on the general election ballot by petition.
“I need 577 signatures, and they can be from independent, Republican or Democrat voters,” Otto said. “I’m certain I won’t have any trouble getting that many.”
While he now is unaffiliated, Otto makes no bones about where his heart lies.
“I’m a traditional Republican, a conservative, but not like the ultra-conservatives we have in the Legislature today,” he said.
He has been a member of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense, which includes Iolan Denise Apt, who served in the House, and former Kansas Sen. Tim Emert, Independence.
The 76th District includes Coffey and parts of Osage and Lyons counties, as well as much of Emporia.
WHAT HAS occurred this session in Topeka has stoked Otto’s zeal.
“I think it was terrible what happened Sunday night,” he said, of the Senate’s insistence that elimination of professional tenure be a prerequisite for approving the school finance bill.
Otto, an educator for 30 years, also pointed out that school funding was cut to reach the $129 million threshold the Supreme Court ordered for fairness in local option budget and capital outlay funding. He also pointed out some of the “new” money actually replaced local revenue that already was in school budgets.
