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Eudora voters will have a choice in November to vote for both representatives in the Kansas Legislature.
The race for the 38th District Kansas House seat will pit two-term incumbent Republican Anthony Brown of Eudora against Democratic challenger Stephanie Kelton of Lawrence.
Brown and Kelton differ on key issues but both said they were motivated to run because they recognize the need to make tough decisions in hard economic times.
Kelton, an economic professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City with affiliations with two public policy research institutes, said she was running with hope of more directly influencing public policy.
“I am an economist; we have a economy teetering on the brink of recession,” said Kelton. “As important as some of these programs are we can’t say we’re going to have to increase taxes to keep them going. Families are strapped.”
“We are getting into an area where the economy is tight,” Brown said. “State revenues are down $81 million. We’re going to be forced into tough decisions.”
Brown said he was equipped to make those decisions because he understands the people of the 38th District, which snakes along Kansas Highway 10 from western Lenexa, western Shawnee, through northern Olathe, De Soto, Eudora and neighborhoods in southwest and northern Lawrence.
“We do have to have people (in Topeka) who are engaged in the community,” he said. “I’m someone who is willing to answer phone calls and e-mails and meet people.”
As an economist, she has written numerous public policy papers on health care, taxation, energy policy with the hope they would influence policy makers, Kelton said.
“After doing that for the last decade, I’m hoping to do that on the next level,” she said.
Brown and Kelton differ on two prominent issues of the last two legislative sessions. Kelton said she would have voted for the third year of the school finance plan approved in the 2007 session and wouldn’t have voted to grant permits for two coal-fired electrical plants in Holcomb that Brown voted for this year.

eudoranews.com