Debates On TV, Radio

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and his challenger Paul Davis will meet for back-to-back debates this week in Wichita amid a close race as the election nears.

The two candidates will face off for a televised debate Monday at the KWCH studios in Wichita, followed on Tuesday by another debate before the Kansas Association of Broadcasters meeting. The debate on Tuesday can be heard live on the radio in Salina on Newsradio 1150 KSAL AM during the noon hour.

Recent independent polling shows the race has tightened in Brownback’s favor.

Davis is wooing moderate Republicans and unaffiliated voters worried about tax cuts enacted at Brownback’s urging. The cuts dropped the state’s top personal income tax rate by 26 percent and exempted the owners of 191,000 businesses from income taxes altogether.

Brownback contends the reductions are boosting the economy, but the Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff predicts a $260 million budget shortfall by July 2016.