Four years after Kansas City voters picked the former City Auditor to be Mayor, Kansas City voters make a preliminary decision today on the political future of Mark Funkhouser.
Funkhouser faces a field of five rivals. It’s an unusually large field of challengers for a sitting Kansas City Mayor.
The rivals were drawn into the race by a Funkhouser term marked with controversy.
The role of his wife, Gloria Squitiro as an unpaid but very influential advisor, led to a series of lawsuits against the city costing more than a half million dollars. Funkhouser said repeatedly on the campaign trial Squitiro remains his political partner.
His first unsuccessful move to fire City Manager Wayne Cauthen triggered an angry backlash from some African-American leaders. Cauthen is black. He was fired later in the term when Funkhouser collected enough city council votes for his second effort to oust him.
He angered Latinos when he placed a vigorous opponent of illegal immigration on the City’s Parks Board. Frances Semler later stepped down
Funkhouser narrowly survived a recall effort.
These events and others led to the wide field lined up against the incumbent.
Funkhouser campaigned this winter saying he had made tough decisions and put the city’s $1 billion dollar budget back into shape. Critics, including campaign rival Deb Herman, said he didn’t do it alone. Hermann is the Chair of the Council’s Finance and Audit Committee.
Attorney Sly James raised the most money in the race, over half million dollars. He stumped saying the City needs to stop arguing and start pulling together.
Another lawyer, former City Councilman Mike Burke asked voters to look at his long record of civic involvement, including two terms on the City Council. He also complained about Funkhouser’s leadership style. Just yesterday he told a forum he felt sorry for the current council members because they never got as chance to work in a City Hall where the Mayor, City Manager and Council were “in sync”.
Jackson County Sports Authority Director Jim Rowland was probably the most aggressive in his complaints about the mayor. He accused him of creating a “toxic” environment for business.
He also said the Mayor and City Council kicked voters when they were down by raising taxes in the form of water and sewer bill increases.
Monday, Funkhouser shot back at Rowland telling him, if the Council Rowland was on had dealt with the problem, the City’s sewer and storm drains would not be in such poor shape.
Another challenger, Henry Klein said City Hall needed to be run more like a business than typical government.
Kansas City voters today will pick two of the field to advance to the March 22 run-off.
The race feels very close. Funkhouser, however, has some history on his side. Kansas City voters have not rejected an incumbent mayor seeking re-election in more than 80 years.
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