Republican Senate candidate Meredith Richey, right, challenged Democratic Sen. Marci Francisco, center, over her record of voting pass on several bills during a candidate forum Tuesday night while Democratic Sen. Tom Holland, left, looked on.

Democratic State Sen. Marci Francisco of Lawrence was taken to task during a candidate forum Sunday over the number of times she votes “pass” in the Legislature, while her Republican challenger Meredith Richey was challenged on her knowledge of education funding.

Meanwhile, 5 of the 6 candidates running in contested races for local Kansas House seats generally agreed on a wide range of issues, although they clashed on a few issues such as abortion rights and transgender bathrooms.

Those were some of the highlights of two legislative forums held at Lawrence City Hall that were sponsored by the Voter Education Coalition and the WOW cable system.

The issue of attendance and voting came near the end of the Senate portion of the forum when a question submitted by an audience member asked, “How important is it for you to be present and voting for or against issues that are important to your Senate district?”

Republican Senate candidate Meredith Richey, right, challenged Democratic Sen. Marci Francisco, center, over her record of voting pass on several bills during a candidate forum Tuesday night while Democratic Sen. Tom Holland, left, looked on.

“I think it’s very important to be present and involved with the Legislature,” said Francisco, a Lawrence Democrat. “I think I can say I’m probably the only Senator that has a record of 100 percent attendance and 100 percent voting for the past 12 years.”

But Richey, who is from Perry, said that only told part of the story.

“I feel like my opponent is talking about being in elementary school with 100 percent attendance,” she said. “It’s just a shame that in the last four years alone, she voted ‘pass’ on bills 97 times.”

Richey had raised the issue of Francisco’s “pass” votes a couple of times earlier in the hour-long forum, including once when she challenged Francisco’s “pass” vote on a controversial school funding bill that was intended to address an earlier Kansas Supreme Court order about funding equity.

“Her own party voted against that bill and was so upset with her that (Senate Democratic Leader Anthony) Hensley said, ‘I’m done with you,'” Richey said.

Francisco, however, defended that vote, saying she didn’t want to oppose providing additional money for schools, but she believed the bill in question was unconstitutional, noting that the Supreme Court did, in fact, strike it down later.

“If enough other legislators passed, then we would continue working on that issue rather than sending it on,” she said. “I think it could have saved us the special session if we had just sat and worked on it.”

Their clash over education policy came amid a question specifically about the Lawrence school district. The question, which had been drafted in advance by the Voter Education Coalition, began with a premise that the district is receiving more than $1 million in state funding this year as a result of the Supreme Court’s order, but that the school board had voted to spend more than $5 million to buy iPads while eliminating 15 teaching positions.

“If elected, what would you do to ensure that funding for schools is at a proper level, but that it is also spent wisely at the local level?” moderator Stefanie Bryant asked.

The question was arguably misleading from the beginning because the additional state money did not result in a net increase in the district’s budget. The money was in the form of “equalization aid” for the district’s local option budget and could only be used to lower the amount of local property taxes the district levies to fund that budget.

Francisco pointed that out in her answer when she said, “the ruling on equity gave money, not to the schools, but as a reduction of property taxes.”

Richey, however, stated incorrectly that the money, “was not given as a property tax reduction. It was given directly to the school district.”

“Your local school board spends your money under the guidance of the superintendent,” Richey said. “And so they did make a decision to take that and make it a property tax reduction.”

Sen. Tom Holland, a Democrat from Baldwin City who is running for re-election in the 3rd Senate District, said he did not think it should be the Legislature’s job to supervise how school districts manage their budgets.

“I have my hands full at the state level trying to adequately fund education,” he said. “I would just ask that if you have local concerns about how those budgets are being managed, you need to engage at the local level. You need to contact the school board members. You need to ask them what’s going on.”

Holland’s Republican challenger, Echo Van Meteren of Linwood, did not attend the forum Sunday.

House candidates forum

There was considerably less disagreement during the segment that featured candidates for the Kansas House.

There, candidates in the three contested local races all said they think Kansas schools need additional funding, that the state needs to find additional revenue to pay for education and other services, and that Kansas should at least consider expanding its Medicaid program as allowed under the federal Affordable Care Act.

And they all said they oppose a current law, which is scheduled to take effect July 1, requiring public colleges and universities in Kansas to allow the carrying of concealed weapons on campus.

But there were a few flashes of disagreement on other policy issues, including whether the state should impose more restrictions on abortion and whether the state should allow Planned Parenthood to receive public health funds.

Local candidates for Kansas House seats who took part in a forum in Lawrence Sunday night included, from left, Democrats Terry Manies and Kara Reed, Republican Rep. Tom Holland, Democratic Rep. Barbara Ballard, and Republican candidate Jim Karleskint. Michael Lindsey, who is on the ballot challenging Ballard in the 44th House District, did not attend the forum.

Republican Jim Karleskint of Tonganoxie, who defeated incumbent Rep. Connie O’Brien in the 42nd District primary in August, was the only candidate to say directly that he opposes abortion.

“I’m opposed to abortion,” he said. “My concern about Planned Parenthood is that we’re supporting abortions.”

In fact, Kansas lawmakers permanently cut off funding for Planned Parenthood this year by enacting a law that effectively restricts eligibility for family planning funds to city and county health departments. For a number of years before that, lawmakers put similar language into each year’s budget bill.

Kansas also became the first state in the nation last year to ban a certain procedure commonly used in first trimester abortions known as “dilation and evacuation,” or D and E, but which abortion opponents have dubbed “dismemberment” abortions.

A Shawnee County judge struck down that law last summer, and the Kansas Court of Appeals split evenly, 7-7, on the issue, which effectively meant that the lower court ruling stands. But another appeal is now pending to the Kansas Supreme Court.

All of the other candidates who attended the forum said they support funding Planned Parenthood, primarily because most of the services it provides are unrelated to abortion. But there were subtle differences in their answers to the question about more abortion restrictions.

Kara Reed, Karleskint’s Democratic opponent, and Rep. Barbara Ballard, the Democratic incumbent in the 44th House District, both said they support the state’s current legislation.

“Abortion is the law of the land. It is legal,” Reed said. “I do reluctantly agree with the current restrictions that we have in the state of Kansas. I do not think any more should be put on abortion.

Ballard’s Republican challenger, Michael Lindsey, did not attend the forum.

Rep. Tom Sloan, the Republican incumbent in the 45th District, outlined the circumstances in which he thinks abortion should be permissible.

“I do think that when a woman’s life is at risk, when the fetus will be born with so many abnormalities that it’s not viable, in situations of rape and incest, that abortion is a reasonable measure to take,” Sloan said.

But his Democratic challenger, Terry Manies of Lecompton, was more emphatic.

“I support a person’s right to make their own medical decisions in any and all cases, period, end of story,” she said.

Two other Lawrence-area House members, Reps. Boog Highberger and John Wilson, both Democrats, do not face challengers this year and so were not part of Sunday’s forum.

The Voter Education Coalition will hold another forum Monday night for Douglas County Commission and Kansas State Board of Education candidates.

The deadline to register in time for the Nov. 8 election is Tuesday, Oct. 18. Advance voting begins the following day, Wednesday, Oct. 19.