L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Last week, the Seward County Republican Party had its reorganization meeting after the recent precinct election, and with many new faces attending the meeting, a move was made to divide the party along two very distinct lines — one committed to low taxes and accountability and the other supporting higher taxes and secrecy.

And the high-tax caucus won. CJ Wettstein, who lost his attempt to remain on the Seward County Commission, made the motion for all four leadership positions that succeeded, and three of the four newly elected officers were either responsible or related to someone responsible for pushing a 17-mill tax increase on you.

Brad Carr was chosen as the chairman of the Seward County Republican Party, and Summer Stafford was elected secretary, both related to Scott Carr who supported a failed eight mill increase in 2024 and then a 25-mill proposal in 2026 followed by voting for a 17-mill increase.

The most bizarre selection was installing Tammy Sutherland-Abbott as vice chair of the Seward County Republican Party, Sutherland-Abbott made a commitment to voters during her campaign not to raise taxes and then voted for the highest tax increase in Seward County history.

Both Carr and Sutherland-Abbott violated the Kansas Republican Party Constitution by supporting a massive tax increase without a public vote, something required by Kansas Republicans.

Whether they acted on bad advice from adminstration or not, they cast the deciding votes and abandoned Republican values to do it.

With only 22 of the 42 precinct members in attendance, those three were able to seize party control.

And for that moment in time, they had a majority in the room even though many were attending their first Republican meeting or only attended an occasional meeting and supported positions contrary to the Republican Party platform.

That’s not the Republican Party I’ve known since 1980 when I was 9-years-old and became a Republican. I’ve spent my life advocating for Republican values of low taxes, a government accountable to the people and to unlock the economic enterprise of the individual. With 46 years of party loyalty under my belt, I believe I am qualified to recognize someone who is not. Advocating for record tax increases is an obvious disqualifier.

As an attempt to bring reason to the outlandish proposal, I invited Caryn Tyson, a Republican champion of low taxes and the chair of the Kansas Senate Tax Committee to Liberal to discuss the challenges of holding the line on property taxes. How was she welcomed? By ridicule from the tax-and-pend crowd who continued to ignore any input other than county administration. Her appeals fell on deaf ears as did the appeals of local taxpayers who came to the tax hearing and implored the commission not to implement the record tax increase. But the public and state Republican leadership was ignored, ridiculed and belittled.

Rewind 18 months earlier when Bill Hatcher was named chairman of the Seward County Republican Party before Sutherland-Abbott and Carr betrayed their conservative values. The Republican Party was united and established some goals, including improving turnout, becoming more visible in the community and filling the vacant precinct positions.

When Hatcher was elected, I publicly thanked Sutherland-Abbott for her service.

It wasn’t until several months later when the betrayal against Republican values took place.

That was the moment Republicans had to make a choice — support the massive tax increase that history has now proven was not needed, or find a way to hold those responsible accountable.

When it was discovered Sutherland-Abbott and Carr committed public money by inappropriately signing documents without a vote of the commission, petitions of recall were approved, and the two opted to resign rather than face a public vote.

The accusation was made that the Seward County Republican Party was working to recall Sutherland-Abbott and Carr. That was false, but perhaps it should have been true. The local party should have held its own members accountable for violating the Republican Party Constitution.

Instead, a coalition of those who support higher taxes and backdoor politics installed leadership that supports your taxes being increased and public input being ignored. Did they thank Hatcher for his service like Sutherland-Abbott was thanked more than a year before? No.

I have attempted to meet with those who are still bitter about a relative or friend who decided to ignore the public and support massive tax increases, but blood is thicker than water, and while all are entitled to their own opinion, they are not entitled to their own facts.

There is no denying the proposal of a 25-mill increase with the claim 21 mills were for the Conestoga settlement. That is a documented fact.

It is also not in dispute that rather than a 25-mill increase, the Taxing Trio of Sutherland-Abbott,  Carr and Presephoni Fuller voted for a 17-mill increase and only about four of those mills were dedicated to the Conestoga settlement, making the first proposal of 21 mills for Conestoga false.

That is what splintered the Republican Party between those committed to principle and those committed to personalities.

As publisher and a Republican, I don’t have the luxury of supporting people over principle, and so I filed a complaint with the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals on behalf of the people, and we won our case when the Taxing Trio resigned and the replacement commissioners opted to voluntarily rescind the tax increase.

Now an election is coming up, and for Republicans to succeed the tax-and-spend leaders will have to convince the voters that their taxes will remain low with them in charge, even though the vice chair of the party voted for the massive hike as a commissioner and the chair has stated the county needed the massive hike. They will have to convince voters that they can continue to operate the county without fiscal oversight from a CFO.

A united Seward County Republican Party has the numbers together to win. A splintered party does not.

Who will Republican candidates Fred Bloom, Clay Louderback and Jairo Vazquez represent — the tax-and-spend leaders who  are out for vengeance against Commissioner Todd Stanton for his position of low taxes and accountability, or with those seeking to include the public in major decisions like wind and wanting to hire a CFO to restore public confidence in public funding?

GOP Chairman Brad Carr has a huge challenge in uniting the Republicans with a vice chair that betrayed the caucus they now lead, because he currently doesn’t have the votes to hold the seats currently occupied by Republicans if a split party is not excited to vote.

They will use social media and other outlets in an attempt to discredit me or to claim the division is caused by my pointing out the truth about the massive tax hike that was supported by three tax-and-spend liberal Republicans perhaps better suited to represent the Democratic Socialists of America rather than the Republican Party. After all, if Republicans support massive tax increases and unchecked government administration, what’s the difference?

But that is just more of their effort in deflecting from the tax and taking shots at anyone or anything else — the newspaper, the city, the majority of the Republican Party voters or members of the public at large. They ask for unity when what they really want is conformity, and I for one will not support the destruction of the Republican values like lower taxes and an administration held accountable by elected officials, not the other way around.

And belittling those like Carolyn Huddleston who have done extensive volunteer research for the commission will also not expand the voter base of the party.

They are welcome to attack, but it is the support of those very people they will need to win elections, and if they believe they can convince independents and Democrats to make up votes from a splintered Republican base, then the evidence is clear they are not willing to create coalitions unless they can control it. Governance requires compromise and the ability to bring other voices to the table, not the slash-and-burn destructive politics we have seen employed since the Taxing Trio resigned and Wettstein was defeated outright by Stanton.

This group of Republicans chose vengeance rather than principle.

Without a pledge to honor the Republican Party platform and to hold those accountable who have violated it, this could be a tough election cycle locally. With a vice chair like Sutherland-Abbott who voted for a record tax increase, the party is in its worst condition heading in to an election than at any point in my lifetime in Seward County.

Seward County faces multiple lawsuits including Seward County Treasurer Mary Rose who had to challenge the commission after bringing state money into her department to help with salary equalization only to have the commission approve and then rescind the funding they cannot control.

But Rose, who was elected by the people, didn’t conform to their attempts to get information on tax payers without first verifying the rules, something Vazquez and Louderback voted for and then against which appears to be retaliatory in nature. The retaliation against anyone not drinking the big government Kool-Aid is obvious.

The credibility of county leadership and now local Republican Party leadership is in doubt and out of touch with the Kansas Republican Party Constitution which requires any office holder to demand a public vote for a tax increase above the rate of growth. As a lifelong Republican, it is my hope we can return to the values that define conservatism, not big government and favoritism.