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Jeff Longwell
101st Mayor of Wichita
In office
April 13, 2015 – January 13, 2020
Preceded byCarl Brewer
Succeeded byBrandon Whipple
Personal details
Born (1960-06-15) June 15, 1960 (age 63)
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
Susie
​
(m. 1980)​
[1]
Children3
EducationWichita State University
WebsiteGovernment website

Jeff Longwell (born June 15, 1960) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 101st mayor of Wichita, Kansas from 2015 to 2020.

Prior to his election as mayor, Longwell served eight years on the Wichita city council and twelve years on the Maize school board.[2]

Controversy

Longwell was accused of steering an over $500 million new drinking water facility project to his golfing friends in the Wichita Eagle on September 29, 2019, casting the deciding vote of the City Council.[3] The headline had an email from the mayor to the contractors of PEC (Professional Engineering Consultants) saying, "I'm going to be super nice to you for a long time." Mayor Longwell was accused of changing the rules of the bidding process when his friends did not win.[3]

Running for reelection in 2019, Longwell gathered 32.1% of ballots cast in a low-turnout election. Kansas state Representative Brandon Whipple received 26.3% in a nine-person field, advancing the two to a runoff to be held on November 5.[4][5] In October 2019, an anonymous, salacious video attacking Whipple appeared online.[6] The anonymously produced and circulated video made a claim of sexual harassment against Whipple that had in fact been copied, word-for-word, from an actual claim made against an anonymous Republican state senator in a Kansas City Star article two years earlier. Although elaborate covers had been implemented in Wyoming and New Mexico to conceal the identities of the perpetrators of the smear, an investigation by the Wichita Eagle revealed that the producer of the defamation was the campaign manager for a Longwell ally, Republican state Representative Michael Capps. It had been filmed at a downtown Wichita office building that Capps shared with another alleged Longwell ally, Wichita City Councilman James Clendenin.[7][8] After Sedgwick County, Kansas Republican party chair Dalton Glasscock publicly called for Capps to resign, Capps then claimed, less than two days before the election, that Glasscock had actually approved the production of the ad, an allegation which Glasscock denied.[9]

On election day, November 5, 2019, Longwell conceded the election to Whipple, who won 46% of the ballots versus 36% for Longwell, with the remainder cast for write-in candidates which remained to be counted. The results were to be certified on November 15, 2019.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Jeff Longwell, Candidate for Wichita Mayor". KSNW. February 17, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  2. ^ Ryan, Kelsey (April 7, 2015). "Jeff Longwell elected Wichita's next mayor (VIDEOS)". Wichita Eagle. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Wichita’s mayor steered multi-million-dollar water plant contract to friends, Wichita Eagle, Chance Swaim, September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
  4. ^ August 6, 2019 Primary Election (official), Sedgwick County Elections, August 15, 2019. Retrieved November 3, 2019.
  5. ^ Results from the 2019 Wichita primary election (final, unofficial), Wichita Eagle, August 6, 2019. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
  6. ^ [1] Swaim, Chance and Dion Lefler, Mystery company targets Whipple with allegation originally made against Republicans, Wichita Eagle, October 17, 2019.
  7. ^ Shepherd, Katie (2019-10-30). "An ad smeared a Kansas Democrat for sexual harassment. The main charge actually described a Republican". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  8. ^ Rep. Capps can’t explain why his firm's listed as creator of anti-Whipple fake-ad site, Wichita Eagle, Dion Lefler and Chance Swaim, November 1, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  9. ^ GOP lawmaker accuses county Republican chair of approving ad against mayoral candidate, Wichita Eagle, Dion Lefler and Chance Swaim, November 3, 2019. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  10. ^ Update 9:52 p.m.: In victory speech, Whipple vows to return government to the people, Wichita Eagle, Dion Lefler and Chance Swaim, November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
Political offices Preceded byCarl Brewer Mayor of Wichita 2015–2020 Succeeded byBrandon Whipple
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