photo by: Peter Hancock

Left to right: Incumbent Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City; challenger Echo Van Meteren, R-Linwood; Incumbent Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence; challenger Meredith Richey, R-Perry.

In a year when Democrats hope to make big gains in the Kansas Senate, two local incumbents are fending off challenges from the right.

In the 3rd District, two-term incumbent Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, said the Aug. 2 primary showed that this year’s election will be a referendum on Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s policies, and that Brownback’s unpopularity will spill over into his campaign.

“It was a complete repudiation of Brownback’s policies and the Republicans who’ve supported that,” said Holland, who ran unsuccessfully against Brownback as the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor in 2010. “They got thumped.”

photo by: Peter Hancock

Sen. Tom Holland

Holland works as an information technology consultant and recently began developing a vineyard on his property outside of Baldwin City. In the Legislature, he serves as the ranking minority member on the Senate tax and commerce committees.

photo by: Peter Hancock

Echo Van Meteren

His challenger, Echo Van Meteren of Linwood, is the wife of Kris Van Meteren, a principal in the Singularis Group — a GOP consulting firm that claims credit for managing the conservative takeover of the Senate during the 2012 Republican primaries.

“As we go forward in the campaign, I’m going to be reminding people of his devastating policies on the state and what I’ve done to fight back against that,” Holland said.

The 3rd District leans more conservative than most of Douglas County. It covers the eastern portion of the county, including Eudora, and reaches up into Leavenworth County, including parts of Bonner Springs and Lansing.

Still, Democrat Paul Davis carried the district by 16 percentage points over Brownback in the 2012 gubernatorial race, and President Barack Obama carried it by a narrow margin over Sen. John McCain in 2008.

Van Meteren, however, said she believes she is more in tune with the political views of the district.

“Being born and raised in Leavenworth County, I have a very good feel for what the people in northeast Kansas need,” she said during a recent interview. “And because I’ve traveled and worked all over Kansas, I have a good sense of western Kansas as well.”

Van Meteren said she supports Brownback’s tax and economic policies, saying she believes they are starting to produce positive results.

“If they need to be tweaked, it’d be interesting to look at that, but as of right now, I don’t believe a full repeal would be necessary,” she said.

Van Meteren has worked as a community and government liaison for Luminous Neon Inc., in Olathe and Lawrence. She recently opened her own company, Kaliveri LLC.

During the primary election cycle, Holland reported raising $53,800 for his campaign, but that included a $50,000 loan from himself.

Van Meteren reported raising $12,150 during the primary cycle, including a $5,000 loan from herself and a $1,000 last-minute contribution from Koch Industries. She also received a $1,000 in-kind contribution of printing services from the Singularis Group.

In the 2nd District, Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, is defending her seat this year from Republican challenger Meredith Richey of Perry.

photo by: Peter Hancock

Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence

Francisco, who owns and manages rental property in Lawrence, was first elected in 2004 and is now seeking her fourth term in the Senate. She currently serves as the ranking minority member on the Senate Utilities, Natural Resources and Agriculture committees.

photo by: Peter Hancock

Meredith Richey

“When I first ran, the most important issue was funding for education, and we were able to make a significant change for the better,” Francisco said. “The real discussion was giving school districts some confidence about how much money they might get in the future.”

“So a lot changed since then, and here I find myself campaigning on that same issue, to make sure we have enough funding for schools and also make sure they know what they can count on,” she said.

Francisco has also been an outspoken supporter of environmental initiatives and served on the Kansas Electric Transmission Authority, an agency that coordinated development of wind energy projects in Kansas but was disbanded during the 2016 session.

Richey has said she is also a supporter of education, but she comes at the issue from a different perspective.

During a recent Douglas County Republican Party candidate forum, Richey said she supports “school choice” initiatives, such as vouchers that enable parents to use public funds to send their children to private schools. She also said she opposes the Common Core academic standards for reading and math that the Kansas State Board of Education adopted in 2010.

“We must address declining achievement standards in K-12 education,” Richey said in a statement posted on her campaign website. “Simply spending more money and buying the latest gadgets will not help children succeed. I support policies that put parents and children in charge of their education and allow them to choose the best path.”

The 2nd District includes nearly all of the city of Lawrence, most of northern Douglas County, and parts of Jefferson County, including McLouth, Perry, Oskaloosa, Meriden, Ozawkie and Valley Falls.

In the 2014 gubernatorial race, Davis carried the district by an overwhelming margin, 72-26 percent over Brownback. Obama carried the district with 60 percent of the vote in 2012.

During the primary election cycle, Richey raised a little more than $9,000, including a $1,000 contribution from the Kansas Chamber’s political action committee.

Francisco did less fundraising during the primary cycle, bringing in $5,614, including $1,000 from the Kansas National Education Association. But she had more than $43,000 in her campaign account at the start of the year, and goes into the general election cycle with more than $45,000 on hand.

The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Advance voting for the election begins Wednesday, Oct. 19.