Rep. Virgil Peck, R-Tyro, has filed to run for the Kansas Senate, replacing Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence, who announced last week that he will not run for re-election.
Though both Republicans, it would be unfair to say they are cut from the same cloth.
Peck, 56, is infamous for saying the state should control illegal immigrants the same way it uses helicopters and gunmen to shoot and kill wild pigs. The 2011 feral pig statement went viral, as it should.
Initially, Peck was unapologetic. “I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person,” he said.
When pressured by higher-ups, Peck issued a two-sentence statement, saying his remarks were “regrettable.”
To say the least.
With the exception of his at least public view on immigration, Peck is in lockstep with Gov. Sam Brownback.
He’s in favor of keeping state income tax cuts as they are, driving state programs and services to ruin.
He’s against the expansion of Medicaid, to the detriment of our hospitals and thousands of indigent Kansans.
And he’s on record for voting in 2014 to allow individuals to discriminate against others based on their religious beliefs, as did our own Rep. Kent Thompson. That measure, thankfully, was quashed by the Kansas Senate.
But no matter. In the same vein that Donald Trump’s record, or lack thereof, seems impervious to attack, Peck won re-election in 2012 by a landslide, feral pigs and all.
PECK’S OPPONENT so far — the deadline to file is noon, June 1 — is Chuck Schmidt, D-Independence, a retired superintendent of schools.
The two are polar opposites, giving voters an easy choice.
Schmidt, 65, decries the 2012 income tax cuts. He’s against the tax break for private corporations. And he’s for the expansion of Medicaid.
