The Kansas City Star’s endorsement in Wyandotte County District 8 race | Opinion
Wyandotte County voters will have a difficult choice to make at the polls on Nov. 4.
The race between current Unified Government District 8 Commissioner Andrew Davis and challenger Jacob Handy is a tough call as each candidate has attributes that we feel could serve the public well.
District 8 covers the north central part of Kansas City, Kansas. Much like other areas in Wyandotte County, the district faces a number of critical issues affecting residents, including affordable housing, public safety and skyrocketing property taxes, among other hot-button topics.
Davis first ran for office in Wyandotte County while still in grad school and was elected as District 8 commissioner in 2021. He is a senior program manager at Community Capital Fund. Davis is originally from the south side of Chicago but moved to KCK after he met his wife, a Wyandotte County native.
His opponent, Handy, is a documentary filmmaker, educator and former football coach running for office for the first time. He was born and raised in Wyandotte County, and is a former football coach at Langston University, a historically Black university in central Oklahoma. After coaching, he said he returned to KCK to teach at Washington High School.
Handy is an attractive candidate but Davis, the incumbent, is an experienced commissioner — a fact that can’t be discounted. Davis offers the consistent leadership needed to guide WyCo and Kansas City, Kansas, into the future. Because of this factor and others, we recommend him in this race.
Davis: property taxes, budget
In August’s primary election, Davis received 40% of the vote (616) while Handy received 25% (393).
As with any incumbent, we ask: Has this candidate done anything nefarious enough to be removed from office? In this case, we’d say no.
But some of Davis’ revenue and property tax ideas aren’t all that popular. He received blowback for his vote to exceed the so-called “revenue neutral” budget, claiming cuts at the federal level have impacted local services.
Further, Davis often clashed publicly with outgoing Mayor and CEO Tyrone Garner. While disappointing in some ways, these verbal tit for tats between the two elected leaders aren’t disqualifying for Davis, to say the least.
Davis’ platform includes ideas to grow the economy and population of WyCo and District 8 instead of just cutting taxes. He said he wants to attract more jobs and investments, and expand Wyandotte County’s land bank to help take the tax burden off residents.
The county’s new land bank policy, approved last year, has made it easier for residents to obtain land, according to Davis.
“We have a lot of areas that have a lot of land bank properties that need to be occupied,” he said. “That has been essential to my campaign.”
He added KCK needs to grow its economy through any revenue that is not just property taxes.
“We have to grow the amount of jobs that folks are accessing, the quality of those jobs, the amount of businesses that we have in our community, right?” Davis said.
Handy, a political newcomer, said he has worked at KVC Missouri, which provides child mental health services.
He cited his “track record of being in children’s mental health and then also in the education field working directly into the KCK public school district.”
Handy: infrastructure, investing
Handy envisions a county where basic infrastructure needs are met and investing in more programs for young people is a priority.
“We’re talking about streets and potholes that end up costing taxpayers more money just to get their cars fixed,” he said. “We’re talking about different types of parks and recreational centers for our youth.”
While we agree with Handy that providing better opportunities for the next generation of District 8 residents is critical to its future, at this time we feel Davis is best suited for the job.
In this particular race, board experience matters. We recommend Davis for District 8 commissioner.