Carla Griffith is undaunted by the challenge of running as a write-in candidate against State Sen. Caryn Tyson for the 12th District.
“I’ve overcome challenges before,” she said in what one soon learns is her unflappable manner. Griffith was in Iola Wednesday morning, including a stop at the Register.
Not only will Griffith be facing a Republican incumbent, but also on the Nov. 8 ballot will be Chris Johnston’s name as the Democratic candidate.
“I’m trying to get the word out that a vote for Chris will be a vote for Caryn because it won’t be a vote for me,” Griffith said.
Griffith, who is currently registered as a Democrat, said she would “probably” change that status to “unaffiliated,” because “I need to eke out every possible vote I can get, and I don’t want a label to keep people from voting for me.”
Griffith cast Tyson as a Brownback groupie especially in regards to education and state finance.
Griffith said teachers and school administrators have complained to her of their plight of year-after-year budget cuts.
She said Tyson’s insistence that today’s schools are receiving more funds than ever is “creative bookkeeping.”
“There’s a grain of truth there which can make it believable,” she said. “But when they don’t paint the whole picture then voters are left to think they are right.”
In the case of education, the budgets for public schools are larger because they now include funding for special education and KPERS, the state’s retirement program. Before Brownback took office those funds did not go to a school district’s bottom line and were kept in separate accounts.
Griffith also takes issue with the “LLC loophole,” that gives a tax break to private business owners. The tax break costs the state $260 million a year in lost revenue.
“It was sold as something that would help small business owners and bring more jobs to Kansas, that people would be able to start up new businesses,” she said. “It was sold as a helpful and good thing, but it’s been disastrous.”
Of the people she has talked to who receive the tax break, Griffith said none are receiving enough additional income to make a difference to their operations.
“They can’t hire any new employees or expand their business,” she said. Instead, “they see the damage it is doing to their communities.
“If the cuts to education cause them to lose the school in their little community then how will any young family stay there? How will their children take over the family farm if the town’s school has closed?
“These people are thinking long-term instead of the immediate future,” she said.
Another grievance for Griffith is the situation at Osawatomie State Hospital. Since the first of 2016 the mental hospital has been cut off from receiving federal funds through Medicare because it failed to meet federal safety and health inspection guidelines. The Medicare decertification is costing the state hospital about $1 million a month in lost revenue.
Across-the-board cuts to state programs and services, including those at Osawatomie’s hospital, are to blame for the hospital’s inability to maintain compliance with federal standards, Griffith said.
Tyson has voted in favor of such cuts.
Griffith also takes exception to the state’s tax on food — the second highest in the nation — and how it hits lower-income Kansans the hardest.
Such unsound financial practices give Kansas a black eye, Griffith said, which gives people pause, especially younger generations, about locating here.
“It’s remarkable to see the amount of damage Brownback and his supporters have done without them saying, ‘Oh, well maybe we’re going the wrong way, maybe we need to adjust our thoughts.’ They’re not doing that,” Griffith said.
“I hate to think of this going on another four years with Caryn Tyson in office,” she said.
GRIFFITH grew up as an Air Force brat whose father rose to the rank of Colonel over a 32-year career.
She met her husband Norman in 1976 when they were both students in Salina, she at Marymount College and he at Kansas Wesleyan University. She has a degree in chemistry.
Norman worked for the Department of Defense for 29 years before recently retiring. They moved to Ottawa in April 2015.
“We were ready to set down some roots. Kansas has always seemed like home to us,” she said.
Over the span of her life Griffith averaged a move every 2.3 years.
The couple has four grown children.
At the outset of their marriage, “pre-children,” Griffith used her science background working in wastewater management, but then focused on managing their home life as they moved not only across the country but also the world.
Griffith said the best way for her to meet people in new locations was to volunteer in local efforts.
This is Griffith’s first venture into politics, explaining that until her husband retired from the military she could not get officially involved.
“We never lived any place long enough to run for office, anyway,” she said.
