President’s Perspective
March 2025
We’re all familiar with the saying that all politics is local. This is certainly true as the 2025 election cycle will be for city offices and school board positions.
The cities of Topeka, Auburn, Rossville, Silver Lake and Willard each have city council and/or mayor positions that will be on the ballot. Likewise, Shawnee County school districts — Seaman, Silver Lake, Auburn-Washburn, Shawnee Heights, Topeka/501 and Kaw Valley — each have school board positions on the ballot.
Information on which city district positions and school board district positions is available at the Shawnee County Commissioner of Elections website. Candidate filing deadline for these positions is noon, Monday, June 2. Please consider serving your community – whether it be seeking office yourself or become involved in actively supporting a candidate whom you believe would be an asset to our community. Primary election day is Tuesday, August 5 – early voting begins Monday, July 21. The general election is on Tuesday, November 4 – early voting begins Monday, October 20. As in the past, the
only Shawnee County early voting location is at the Shawnee County Election Office.
The LWVTSC continues efforts meeting with elected county and state officials stressing the need for more advance voting locations in our county. For the 2024 general election, Johnson and Sedgwick counties each had 18 advance voting locations. Wyandotte county had five while Douglas county had seven advance voting locations. Shawnee County is the third largest county by population behind Johnson and Sedgwick counties. Wyandotte and Douglas counties are the fourth and fifth largest by population. Several of these counties also had Saturday voting. Shawnee County must do better!
View the complete 2025 primary and general election calendar from the Shawnee County Election Office.
Stay informed and engaged with the League of Women Voters, Topeka Shawnee County! Should you wish to become a member or as a member want to be involved in any community events, high school civic education presentations, candidate Meet and Greet events or policy studies, please contact the League through our website.
Legislative Session Resources
As you know, the 2025 legislative session has begun. I encourage you to contact members of the Shawnee County legislative delegation, by phone or email, regarding proposed legislation. Included below is their Statehouse contact information.
• Sen. Brenda Dietrich Room #223-E 785.296.7648 Brenda.Dietrich@senate.ks.gov
• Sen. Rick Kloos Room # 418-E 785.296.7645 Rick.Kloos@senate.ks.gov
• Sen. Patrick Schmidt Room #135-E 785.296-7372 Patrick.Schmidt@senate.ks.gov
• Sen. Kenny Titus Room #124-E 785.296.7656 Kenny.Titus@senate.ks.gov
• Rep. John Alcala Room #173-W 785.296-7371 John.Alcala@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Jesse Borjon Room #512-N 785.296.7374 Jesse.borjon@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Ken Corbett Room #187-N 785.296-7679 ken.corbet@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Kirk Haskins Room #43-S 785.296.7673 Kirk.Haskins@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Kyle McNorton Room #561-W 785.296.7460 Kyle.McNorton@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen 785.296.7669 Room #174-W Tobias.Schlingensiepen@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Alexis Simmons Room #43-S 785.296.7632 Alexis.Simmons@house.ks.gov
• Rep. Virgil Weigel Room #451-S 785.296.7104 virgil.weigel@house.ks.gov
Furthermore, you may access the Kansas Legislative website at http://kslegislature.gov to review bill status and content, house and senate calendars and committee schedules. Through this website you may listen to or via video streaming follow committee hearings and General Session proceedings.
An additional resource is the State Library. You may access their services in the following ways:
• Phone:800-432-3919 or 785-296-2149
• Legislative Hotline: 800-432-3924
• Email: infodesk@ks.gov
• Download the Ask a Librarian app to your mobile device.
