From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for March 18, 1990:

On another leg of what he said would be a 2,000-mile bicycle campaign to meet Kansas voters, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred W. Phelps Sr. pedaled through Lawrence on a recent afternoon. Phelps, 60, had launched his campaign on March 8 and had been biking across Kansas ever since, saying his background as a triathlete helped him maintain the grueling schedule. An ordained Baptist minster who had been pastor at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka since 1955, Phelps was attacking other candidates who said they needed generous funding to run for office, especially Gov. Mike Hayden. “Hayden says he needs $2 million to make the race; that’s obscene,” Phelps said. “Only a witch doctor needs to package himself in slick television ads to cast an image.”