If we could go back in time and endorse the Derek Schmidt of the early 2000s for governor, we would.
As a state senator and Senate majority leader, Schmidt was a thoughtful conservative with an earned reputation for holding back some of the more extreme elements of the Republican Caucus in the Legislature.
Unfortunately, Schmidt has evolved over time into just another mediocre politician who thinks the key to the castle lies in inflaming hot-button social issues instead of doing his job.
His performance as attorney general hasn’t earned this newspaper’s endorsement, or your vote.
Laura Kelly hasn’t been the perfect governor.
She’s disappointed on occasion, such as the shroud of secrecy over the negotiations bringing a Panasonic plant to the Kansas City area to make batteries for Teslas.
And her eagerness to “work across the aisle” sometimes leads her to appease extremists in the Legislature when she should stand up to them.
But let’s give credit where credit is due: She managed to shame the Legislature into finally taking action to phase out the second-highest-in-the-nation food sales tax, that for far too long has drained our wallets through our grocery bills. Schmidt has one heck of a nerve trying to blame Kelly for global inflation. When he had the chance to fight for economic justice for Kansas consumers, he didn’t. And now he never will.
Kelly was also instrumental in bringing Kansas into the 21st Century on sports wagering, which was being widely done online without any state regulation or benefit.
Most of all, Kelly navigated us through the pandemic by following the science. And while anyone can play Monday-morning quarterback like Schmidt does, the decisions Kelly made were about the best that could be made with the information available, when facing a previously unknown disease that was killing Americans in the hundreds of thousands.
She was dealt a bad hand but played it well.
Regardless of what you may have heard elsewhere, Kelly wasn’t the first governor to close schools statewide. That was Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio — and nearly all governors eventually did. But Kelly was the first to recognize that it would take more than a couple of weeks for COVID to throttle down, giving Kansas schools an invaluable head start on ramping up remote learning.
Test scores are down across Kansas and the country, but Kansas children, their parents and their teachers are mostly alive to catch up to grade levels. Schmidt’s vow to never close schools again is short-sighted at best and pandering to anti-vax COVID deniers at worst.
Meanwhile, Schmidt failed Kansas on two fronts that disqualify him for governor — one thing he did, and one he didn’t do.
