Talk about inflation: It seems $90,000 of out-of-state political money just doesn’t buy what it used to in Sedgwick County elections.
Stephanie Wise didn’t just beat former Wichita City Council member Greg Ferris in Tuesday’s Republican primary for County Commission District 3.
She also beat the pants off two shady political action committees that spent more money trying to get Ferris elected than Ferris raised on his own.
There may be hope for local democracy after all.
Ferris raised about $37,000 for his campaign. Wise raised about $60,000.
That might seem like an advantage to Wise, but Ferris was also the beneficiary of an extra $90,000 in spending by two PACs — including about $65,000 from the R.E.D. PAC.
The R.E.D. stands for “Rural Economic Development.”
Perhaps they didn’t know that Wichita, where three-fourths of Sedgwick County residents live, is about as rural as Austin, Texas, the city where the R.E.D. PAC lives.
Why R.E.D. would jump over two states and get involved in an obscure county Republican primary is not exactly clear. But there are clues if you read the tea leaves.