Morning Edition; Chuck Smith

It's morning edition on KRPS. I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro. The race for District 3 State Representative in Southeast Kansas is sure to be an interesting one. It pits in common Democrat Monica Mornan against the candidate she defeated four years ago, Republican Chuck Smith. Mornan defeated Smith in 2016 by just five percentage points. For our continuing series, Chatting with the Candidates, I spoke with Chuck recently, and first asked him to introduce himself to potential voters. Hi, thanks for having me, Fred. It's good to talk to the public, and I appreciate you guys making contact with me. Well, Fred, I came to Pittsburgh 50 years ago on a football scholarship, and I've kind of been a Pittsburgh person ever since, and I, well, I actually came in 68. I'm a basketball tournament here, and I was impressed with Broadway. Yeah, there are more cars driving up and down Broadway. I had a great college experience, play football, and first of all, out there, and then I've been in four different high school and school teacher, and I have opportunity to come back to St. Mary's Folk and Teach, and I've got there for 38 years.

And, like I say, the reason I'm running is, you know, in Topeka, Fred, there's 84 Republicans, and there's 41 Democrats, so if you're a Democrat, you don't have a voice in Topeka. I mean, they don't really care, because they don't need your vote, where I feel like I can give Pittsburgh a voice, and I'm really full of all people. There's not a group of people, I'm not full of work, and I can give them a strong voice, and I would really like to do that. And if you are elected to the State House, what do you hope to get accomplished? What are some of your priorities? Well, priorities, Fred, right now, to just get the state of Canada open and run it again, get the virus, southern control, and get the schools moving, and Fred, I think we're going to be, as a state, we're going to be financially in trouble. So, I mean, everybody's going to have to

take maybe a little bit of a cut in what they get as far as state aid, and that's going to be hard. It's going to be hard on everybody, so everybody's going to have to help. Everybody's going to have to chip in and do their share. And as far as bills, you know, I'd really like to see a value that both the member given to the people of Kansas, the member that will preserve the portion of the votes that are out there now. And, you know, it's, it's, it's, it gives like, people of Kansas, the whole state of Kansas, the vote on this bill, and, you know, they turned it down and it was voted 80 to 45, and then needed 84 votes. So, you know, that's something I'd like to give Canter the voice in. And, you know, being a Republican, I was thinking about this last night, Fred, being a Republican, there's two things, small government and lower taxes. Now, the lower taxes will be tougher because, like I say, we're going to be

in a financial tough situation, but small government, we don't need to add a whole lot of legislature. We're going to, you know, live with what we have and do what we need to do. That's something that needs to be done. We'll do it, I'd like to say, as far as making laws, believe in small government. I was wondering, what prompted you to run once again? Fred, I've had a great life. I really had. I had a great high school experience. I had great teachers, great coaches, I had a great college experience, same thing. I had great teachers and great coaches. My academic teaching career was good. And I've always served, you know, I feel like a teacher is a servant to the community. And so when I retired, I had a chance to serve in the legislature. And, you know, when I came up again, a couple of key people in the Republican Party asked me if I would run. And I would love to serve the people of Pittsburgh again. And it's, you know,

all the good things that have happened to me, Fred, my two years in pick are probably the most proud two years I've had. And I really felt like it worked hard for the people of Pittsburgh, the people of Kansas. And it's something I'd like to do again. All right, finally, we'll end on this. See that you're out on a Saturday afternoon and you're knocking on doors and somebody asks you, why should I vote for Chuck Smith? How do you answer that? Well, again, my answer is really easy, just to get Pittsburgh a voice. I don't think Pittsburgh has a voice right now. And like I say, that answer maybe is the easiest of all, Fred, because Pittsburgh doesn't have a voice right now. My opponent's a good person, but like you say, when you're in my minority, you can't, you can't even bring a law out unless the Republicans want it. So if it's a good law, I can bring it up and my fellow Republicans can say, well, at least listen to me. I'm not centered on through what I have. It gives Pittsburgh a voice right now. I don't think we have that.

Chuck Smith is running for state representative in district three in Kansas. I want to thank you for your time this morning. Fred, those plays you're talking to you. Thank you very much. Republican Chuck Smith is running for state representative in district three in Southeast Kansas. To learn more about his campaign, visit his Facebook page at facebook.com slash Chuck Smith for Kansas.