TOPEKA – Tony Hunter, of Wichita, filed last week with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office for the Senate’s 27th District, which includes the northwest portion of Sedgwick County.

“The current Legislature has failed to understand and fulfill the most basic responsibilities of government,” said Hunter. “Those responsibilities include having an independent judiciary and adequately and equitably funding public schools. The latest Kansas Supreme Court ruling makes it clear once again that, unlike the Legislature, they care more about doing their jobs correctly, not holding their seats indefinitely.”

Hunter says he decided to run to help restore common sense in Kansas and to get back the fundamentals of government.

“It’s time to get good at the fundamentals again. To do that, we have to have leaders in Topeka who will listen to the people of Kansas instead of politicians who simply rubber stamp a radical agenda,” said Hunter.

Hunter grew up in Kansas and has spent his career in the oil and gas industry, with the past ten years devoted to oil and gas law. He and his wife, Rebecca, have two children who attend Maize Public Schools.

“Our legislators should not be playing chicken with Kansas children’s futures,” said Hunter. “Equitable school funding is the responsibility of the Kansas Legislature, not the Kansas Board of Education, not individual school districts, and not the Supreme Court. The courts are looking out for the interests of our children and ensuring the Legislature does its job. This should be the wake-up call that it is time to pull Brownback’s experimental needle out of the heart of our state’s economy. It didn’t inject adrenaline, it drained our lifeblood.”

TOPEKA – Carl Shay, Jr., of Fredonia, filed Tuesday with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office for the Senate’s 14^th District, which includes Chautauqua, Coffey, Elk, Greenwood, Wilson, and Woodson counties along with portions of Butler, Cowley, Labette, and Montgomery counties.

“I decided to change parties when I came to the conclusion that the Kansas Republican Party had turned to a hard core ideology rather than pragmatic solutions in how it handled many, if not all of its issues,” said Shay. “The Legislature spends more time trying to concern folks with wedge issues while hiding behind statistics that only hold half the story.”

Shay is a lifelong resident of the district. He says he was compelled to run against Knox because he believes rural Kansans deserve better than the destructive policies of Gov. Brownback that Knox has a track record of supporting.

“I was led to run against Knox when it became more than apparent that he would not use his position to rein in Gov. Brownback, but rather he had become an enabler in a political direction that has devastated the state financially as well as infrastructurally,” said Shay. “All of the governor’s plans have been potentially devastating to rural Kansas and the rural way of life.”

Shay is currently serving his second term on the USD 484 School Board. Prior to that he served four years as a Wilson County Reserve Deputy.

“I have a track record of serving our community,” said Shay. “I will dedicate my service to defending the needs of rural Kansans. Education, highways, hospitals, and an independent judiciary are necessary to sustain a vibrant rural way of life.”

Shay is a small business owner as an Independent Distributor for Hiland Dairy Foods. He is a graduate of Altoona Midway High School and Allen County Community College. He and his wife, Sara, have five kids.