Come Meet Me This Friday (8/30), 4-7PM, at Sweetpops

Join me for a casual “Meet the Candidate” event at Sweetpops (550 N Rock Rd) Friday 8/30 from 4-7pm. You can drop in any time during those hours to ask questions & discuss your concerns. Your voice matters, and this is a great chance to connect and share your thoughts. Whoever asks me the most interesting question will win a free massage at Sveta's!

Hope to see you there!

School Choice, 2nd Amendment, Balanced Budgets, and Other Issues

Now that we are past the primary, let's discuss positions on a few more issues.   Some have advised me not to do this-  “You’re just giving your opponents ammo to use against you!”   My opponent certainly seems to be taking this advice, as his website still doesn’t seem to have been updated since 2020, and what is there in his Issues section is mostly just a few sentences of broad generalities and obvious fluff.    But that’s not the kind of campaign I want to run:  as I have mentioned before,  I promise to always clearly explain my position on issues of concern, even at the risk that you may not agree with everything I say.   I think open discussion is the key to making American government successful.

Although I am new to Kansas politics, I have served in elected office before, spending four years on the board of one of Oregon’s largest school districts, supervising the education of over 20,000 students.  While there, I continually published a blog explaining my votes and reasoning on key issues.   So today I’ll highlight some of my posts there, to help you better understand where I stand on various topics of importance. 

Here are links to some of the blog articles I wrote on issues debated/voted while serving on that school board.   There’s a lot here, so don’t try to read them all— but be sure to check out my articles on the topics that interest you.   If you want to discuss any of these further, or even if you disagree and want to try to convince me to change my mind, feel free to email me at erik@wichitaerik.com!

Supporting school choice

• Education Savings Accounts in Oregon?

• Real Equity through School Choice

• Does Hillsboro Hold Hostages?

• Who We Represent

Supporting the 2nd Amendment

• Make Hillsboro a Real Sanctuary

• Guns in the Schools

Preventing schools from distributing birth control without parent notification

• Should Your District Get a School Based Health Center?

• War of the Sexes?

• Birth Control in the Schools?

Fairly distributing government money and positions, without insider privileges

• Being Mean to Old People

• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Education Service District

Opposing waste of government resources & balancing budgets

• State Laws Preventing Responsible School Spending

• Environmental Fanatics Robbing Oregon’s Children

• School Budgeting for the Future

• Balance the School Budget

Opposing minimum wage increases
        - Insulting The Poor

Exposing & opposing racist and anti-semitic “Equity” programs

• Public Schools Encouraging Anti-Semitism

• Advancing Equity Through Ad Hominem Arguments

• Is Meritocracy a Myth?

• How to be Racist in Hillsboro

Not abusing school/government resources to advocate policy

        --   Children as Political Pawns

• Should Public Schools Advertise?

• Oregon’s Politicized School Board Association

Supporting STEM (Science/Tech/Engineering/Math) Education

• STEAMing our STEM into STEAKS

• Comments on the CPM Math Curriculum

• True Career Readiness

Maintaining educational standards 

• Opting Out of SBAC Tests

• Teaching To the Test

• Moving and Confusing the Goalposts

• The Equity Emergency

Keeping your sense of humor

• National Common Sense Week

• Springtime for Student Safety

• An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Vote Jacqueline Kelly for Judge on August 6th

Usually in this blog, I’m focusing on reasons you should vote for me.    That is the point, after all!   But in next week’s primary, I’m unopposed— the place I really need your vote will be in the November election.   So this week, I thought I would focus this blog on a fellow candidate I endorse, who does face a contested primary:   Jaqueline Kelly.

As you can see at her website, https://www.kellyforjudge.org/, she has a great resume:  legal experience in civil cases, criminal cases, and as a city attorney, positions on the Kansas Real Estate Commission and Wichita Ethics Advisory Board, and numerous other volunteer positions— all while raising three children.   I was very impressed with her on the several occasions when we met.

One other important element of her background, which she told me about recently, may not be so obvious from her campaign flyers:   she is an adopted child of Zimbabwean birth.   Having studied the contrast between the systems of government in Zimbabwe and in the US, she especially appreciates being here!    This contrast has deeply informed her legal philosophy, and her sense of how special our system is.    

Zimbabwe is one of the many nations around the world that promised improved “fairness” and a "just society", if only the government could reduce the inconvenient barriers of personal freedom and give itself complete power— and ended up creating misery for the vast majority.   (You can see many more examples of those failures in my Stories of Communism podcast.)   It is very important that we have judges in place who understand our country’s fundamental and unique principles of individual freedom and limited government power.

Thus, on August 6th, I’ll be voting for Jacqueline Kelly for judge, and hope you will join me.

Protect Children From Misguided "Gender-Affirming" Care

As I knock on doors, I’ve received a lot of questions related to my concerns about “gender-affirming” care taking place on underage children.    After all, how can anyone oppose being “affirming”?   But what is actually taking place is an extreme course of medical treatment:   drugs, hormones, and surgeries to alter the physical anatomy of a child’s breasts and genitals, and drastically interfere with their normal reproductive development.   These treatments often begin at very young ages, and have permanent effects on a child’s life:   sterilization, sexual dysfunction, non-reproductive side effects like bone weakness, and permanent wounds that require (sometimes painful) daily care.  Children are being asked, and encouraged, to commit to this treatment at an age when they aren’t even allowed to decide on a tattoo.   There are a few key points to keep in mind about these treatments:

• There is no credible evidence that these treatments prevent suicide or have any other net benefits for children, which is why some European countries have backed off the “gender-affirming” care model.   The comprehensive Cass Review, commissioned by the UK’s National Health Service, argues persuasively that we simply don't have enough evidence for these drastic medical interventions.    For treatments with these kinds of permanent, irreversible effects, we need to demand a high standard of statistically significant, persuasive, positive evidence— a standard the medical community is nowhere near achieving.     And because widespread childhood gender transition is so new, it’s literally impossible to have reliable data on its long-term effects.

• Parents receive extreme pressure from activist medical professionals to transition their children to “prevent suicide”.   If a pro-trans psychiatrist or doctor is treating a child and thinks they might be transgender, they commonly tell the parents that supporting the transition is critical to preventing suicide.   The Cass Review showed clearly that there is no credible evidence to support this claim.   Yet therapists regularly use the line, famously documented in Chloe Cole’s detransition lawsuit,  “would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son?”    How many parents, previously uninformed on this issue, would dare to question the therapist’s advice after that?     This is why I’m not swayed by the common argument that legislation on this matter is somehow interfering in a decision that should just be left to families and their doctors:  the families are often given extremely biased advice to terrorize them into unconditionally supporting their child’s transition.

• Medical interventions for a child who is diagnosed as transgender can begin as early as age 8, and have many long-term health consequences .    How can a child understand their “gender” before experiencing puberty, which is when critical reproductive processes and instincts are developed?    Puberty blockers can be prescribed as early as age 8, according to a New York Times report, and are often prescribed around age 10-11.  According to the same report, these have been linked to severe long-term harm, most notably by suppressing a growth period when a child’s bones mature.   In addition, one of the nation’s leading transgender advocates, Dr. Marci Bowers, has been caught on video admitting that these treatments often cause permanent sexual dysfunction.    And the puberty blockers are just the beginning:  children under 18 are often subjected to surgical treatments as well, and Dr Bowers has also bragged of performing “vaginoplasties”, creation of a permanent wound where the genitals used to be, in boys as young as 16.  

• Once a child is started on a gender transition, it is very difficult to stop the process, even if they start to have doubts.   The “gender-affirming” care model demands that once a child states they are transgender, the physical and psychological caregivers must consistently “affirm” their new identity, without ever questioning it or seeking other underlying psychological issues.    (How many other situations are there where a therapist is required to unconditionally affirm a patient’s initial self-diagnosis???).  Typically a child will build their entire social life around the new transgender identity, as well as receiving constant pressure from their new trans-activist friend group and the pro-trans medical professionals who are currently treating them.   For a child who is already uncomfortable and socially awkward, this can make it psychologically impossible to turn back if they later have second thoughts.    As one doctor wrote in a NY Post article, “I saw children being fast-tracked onto medical solutions for psychological problems, and when kids get on the medical conveyor belt, they don’t get off.   But the politicization of the issue was shutting down proper clinical rigor. That meant quite vulnerable kids were in danger of being put on a medical path for treatment that they may well regret.”

Thus, for these reasons and many others, I think it’s imperative that the Kansas legislature take action to protect children in our state from this dangerous and unwarranted medical experiment.   If elected, I will make it a priority to re-introduce legislation, like the bill that the incumbent recently voted against, to ban these treatments in anyone under 18.   

How You Can Help

Many thanks to those of you who have offered to help out my campaign, or may be thinking about doing so!    There are a number of ways you can promote my candidacy:

• Tell your neighbors.   If you live in my district, this is the easiest thing to do— next time you are talking to your neighbors, mention me and this website (wichitaerik.com) .   If you think you’ll be talking to a lot of neighbors, email me and I can drop off some of my cards.

• Host a lawn sign.    I have plenty of lawn signs ready to go!   Just email me with your address, and I’ll come by to place a sign on your lawn.

• Arrange a meet & greet.   If you know a few people who would like to meet me or discuss my platform in more detail, I’d be happy to get together with them during an evening or weekend.   We could set up a time to meet at a local cafe, or I could drop by your house, whichever is most convenient.   

• Invite me to an event.   If there is a local neighborhood, community, or political event that would be appropriate for me to show up at & discuss politics, please let me know.   I try to watch for such things, but it’s easy for me to miss one.

• Donate.   If you have a few bucks to spare, I am going to raise funds to do some kind of promotion as the election approaches.   Just email me and I’ll stop by to pick up a check, or you can Zelle me at erik@wichitaerik.com .   (If you choose the latter option, also email me your address and occupation, so I can comply with campaign finance rules.)

If you want to do any of the above, or help in other ways I didn’t mention, please email me at erik@wichitaerik.com with a way to contact you, and I’ll be sure to get back to you.    Thanks for your support!

Is the Incumbent "Good On Taxes"?

In these times of outrageous inflation, every one of us is worried about our personal expenses, and tax cuts are more critical than ever for average Kansans.   Some neighbors have told me that I shouldn’t challenge my opponent on the tax issue, since he’s known to be relatively conservative in this area.   It is true that he eventually came around and supported some of the watered-down compromise tax reduction proposals this year.  I also appreciate and agree with his criticism of omnibus spending bills that are too big to properly understand or debate.   But overall, there are still a lot of problems with Kansas taxes.   A few key points to keep in mind:

• The incumbent voted to sustain the governor’s veto of the tax reform plan passed in January.   According to media reports, his argument was that equivalent budget cuts needed to pass before tax cuts.   Of course I agree that spending cuts would be great— the legislature should work on these too.   But in any case, typically these arguments that we “can’t afford” tax cuts derive from the static analysis fallacy:  the idea that every reduction in tax rates will reduce revenues by an equivalent amount.   This ignores the fact that lower tax rates spur increased economic activity, often increasing revenues— as seen at the national level by presidents including Kennedy and Reagan.

• Kansas is a severely overtaxed state, and this is causing us to miss huge opportunities created by the West Coast exodus. According to some calculations such as those at wallethub, Kansas’s overall tax burden ranks as high as 12th in the nation— extremely high for a “red state”, and making it much less attractive to potential new residents and businesses.   Many of my old friends have left Oregon in the past decade in search of more reasonable government, but I haven’t seen any others choose Kansas, and this issue has been an important factor.   We need a major tax reduction plan in order to become a truly competitive destination for the many people currently relocating within the country.   

• The incumbent has been in Kansas politics since the 1980s, and is a ranking member of the appropriations committee— so must bear direct responsibility for our current highly-taxed state.   These discussions tend to drown in minutiae related to specific rates on property, social security, etc— but you need to keep the big picture in mind.   Overall Kansas citizens suffer an unusually high tax burden, and my opponent has consistently been part of the government that helped to create this situation over the past four decades.

Thus, if you are concerned about your family’s budget and our state’s overall tax burden, it’s time to vote for a change:    Erik Seligman in district 83.

Lawn Signs Are Here!

Hi everyone-- my campaign lawn signs are now available.   If you live in district 83, or in a visible location nearby, you can email me to request a sign for your lawn!   I also have campaign buttons and business cards now, if you would like either of those.

I know it's a bit early, but given that I'm new to Kansas politics, it's important to get my name out there and let people know there's a challenger for our district's election this year.

Thanks for your support!