Joe Newland, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor on gubernatorial candidate Vicki Schmidt’s ticket, visited the Council Grove Republican office Tuesday as part of an early campaign swing through Kansas communities.
Newland was accompanied by Rita Noll, treasurer of the Morris County Republicans and vice president of the Kansas Federation of Republican Women, and Holli Kroeker, who is assisting with his campaign schedule.
During the visit, Newland said property tax relief and more efficient state government would be among the issues he and Schmidt would focus on if elected.
“If property tax is truly the main driver, then let’s go fix it,” Newland said. “Let’s just don’t dance around it.”
Newland said legislators talked about property tax relief during the most recent session but failed to complete action before adjournment. He said the issue was ready for a vote at one point, but politics derailed the effort near the end of the session. “They hung their hat on property tax relief, and they failed at the last minute because of politics,” Newland said.
Newland said the state also must look at its spending. He said Kansas is operating in a deficit and is drawing from the rainy-day fund, which he said contains about $2.5 billion.
“That’s no way to operate the state,” Newland said. “We’re supposed to have a balanced budget, and to rob Peter to pay Paul is not the way to balance a budget.”
Newland said he does not believe the state can “tax its way out of the problem” and said expenses must be reduced wherever possible. He said the goal should be to find efficiencies without cutting needed services.
He pointed to Schmidt’s work at the Kansas Department of Insurance as an example. Newland said Schmidt has found $100 million in efficiencies within that agency and said similar reviews should be conducted in other parts of state government. “If we can do half of that in all the other agencies, we will not have a deficit in spending,” he said.
As one example, Newland said the Department of Insurance had more than 130 fax machines being paid for and reduced that number to two, saving thousands of dollars. He said changes like replacing outdated systems with email and other modern tools can reduce costs without reducing services to Kansans.
Newland also said state offices need to be more responsive to the people they serve. He said Kansans should be able to reach someone when they call a state agency, rather than being routed through layers of automated phone systems.
Schmidt, a Republican candidate for governor, selected Newland, then president of Kansas Farm Bureau, as her running mate. Newland said he officially stepped down from the Farm Bureau position Monday, one day before visiting Council Grove.
He said the decision was difficult because he considered serving as Kansas Farm Bureau president one of the greatest honors of his life. However, he said the chance to serve Kansas in a broader role made the opportunity worth considering.
Newland said the possibility of also serving as Kansas secretary of agriculture was a major factor in his decision to join Schmidt’s ticket. He said Schmidt has publicly said that, if elected, she plans to appoint him to that role.
Newland said his connection with Schmidt began through Kansas Farm Bureau’s work on a health plan for farmers and ranchers. He said Schmidt was instrumental in helping the plan gain legislative approval. Newland said Kansas Farm Bureau partnered with Tennessee Farm Bureau, which had operated a similar plan for more than 70 years. He said the Kansas plan now covers more than 20,000 lives.
Newland said he also worked with Schmidt on pharmaceutical issues while he was in the Kansas Legislature. He said Schmidt’s background as a pharmacist gave her insight into issues involving pharmacy benefit managers and local, family-owned pharmacies.
Newland said Schmidt’s experience is strongest in health care, insurance and pharmaceutical issues, while his background is rooted in agriculture and rural communities. He said the combination gives the ticket a broader range of experience than either candidate would have alone.
Newland and his family farm and ranch near Neodesha. He said their operation includes about 4,000 acres of cultivated land and a 400-head cow-calf operation, now largely handled by his oldest son. He described himself as a first-generation full-time farmer who returned home after one year of college to help his father, whose health was declining.
Newland said his background also includes service beyond agriculture. He served 16 years on his local school board and has served nearly 30 years on a local bank board. He also served on Farm Bureau insurance company boards that worked across multiple states.
He said those roles gave him experience with issues facing schools, rural banks, insurance companies, farmers, ranchers and ratepayers.
Asked about the campaign’s biggest challenge, Newland said the first task is introducing the Schmidt-Newland ticket to voters.
“Getting our voice out there, getting people to know who you are,” he said. “I think once they see who we are, I think there’s a distinct difference between us and the other candidates.”
Newland said he and Schmidt do not agree on every issue, but he believes their differences can strengthen the ticket. He described himself as more conservative than Schmidt on some social issues, while saying the two are largely aligned on other matters.
Newland said he and Schmidt both intend to follow Kansas law, regardless of the issue.
With the August primary approaching, Newland said the campaign plans to cover as much of Kansas as possible in the coming weeks. He said local contacts are helping arrange community visits across the state.
Kroeker said the campaign’s schedule will be shaped by farmers, ranchers and other Kansans who have served their communities and want to help introduce the ticket to voters.
Newland said he wants readers to understand why he and Schmidt are running. “I think it’s just a common-sense approach,” he said. For more information about Vicki Schmidt or Joe Newland, visit vickiforgovernor. com.
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