‘It’s an honesty’: Dozens of columns voice the politics of one candidate for Kansas governor

Caricatures by Tim McCabe appear with Charlotte O'Hara's columns on her campaign website.

“Oh, I love writing my columns.”

With those words, Republican candidate for governor Charlotte O’Hara launched into her answer to my question: Why write and publish dozens of personal political columns on her campaign website?

“I think that many candidates speak in platitudes and they don’t speak in specifics,” O’Hara said this week. “That’s a real tradition. Candidates don’t want to dive into how they would approach a problem.”

The earliest versions of her political commentary likely started around 2008, when O’Hara (who was then the 3rd District Republican chairwoman) remembers sending out commentary pieces in a newsletter to state delegates. O’Hara now co-owns an Olathe business that manufactures plastics, including casino poker chips.

Her public life also includes past work as a state representative and Johnson County commissioner.

“When I was a county commissioner, I also did columns,” O’Hara said. “So I mean, this is not just because of the campaign. I think it’s just a great way to communicate with people. Most politicians don’t want to be that open with all of their opinions, but I think that the more that the community knows about you, that’s what you really want. It’s important for people to understand where you’re really coming from.”

O’Hara’s writing is certainly specific. Dozens of columns showcase her conservatism, both fiscal and social.

One headline asks, “Men in Women’s YMCA Locker Rooms?” She kicks off with these lines: “We have been so blessed with beautiful spring days. The season of the world awakening from winter’s rest. Now, if only we would awaken to God’s creation of Adam and Eve.”

In “Why is Kansas the High Tax Point on the Prairie?”, a sentence shows her mix of personal writing and focus on specifics: “As a commissioner, I voted no on giving a Chinese company, Cnano, property tax incentives at New Century AirCenter of 30 cents a sq ft. or approximately 12% of what they should be paying.”

O’Hara told me: “People know who I am. There’s not going to be any doubt about that. I pretty well lay everything out there. I’m not hedging anything when I write about an issue. I put it out there, what I think.”

Poetry and music are also avenues for O’Hara to express herself. She has written and performed seven albums of songs on Spotify, including her favorite song, “Last Lullaby.”

She has collected her poetry into a self-published book, “I Wonder.” Part of a poem she wrote this week includes these lines: “Or doomed are we / To be buried in this deluge / Of illusion’s complexity / And lost from our grasp, / Simplicity.”

O’Hara says that Doug Johnson, a political friend, edits her columns. She calls him “a political buddy. We have been in the trenches of politics for the last 30 years.”

Political cartoons accompany each column. O’Hara’s friend Tim McCabe provides caricatures (see Gov. Laura Kelly with blue hair and rainbow pride earrings) and symbolism (see Panasonic as Jabba the Hut gobbling cash) at the top of each page.

The bombastic combination of commentary and cartoons leaves readers — and voters — with a clear impression. As O’Hara says: “Boy, she’s conservative.”

O’Hara’s commentary appears in a few places: on four pages of her website, through an email list and on her campaign’s Facebook page.

“I think it’s just important that I communicate with the people on Facebook,” she said.

Three hundred and forty days before election day for Kansas governor, most candidates competing with O’Hara have campaign websites. The basic formula is a red, white and blue logo. Plus a bunch of family photos. Plus a few basic planks of your platform.

Some websites are spartan — just a single page. (I’m looking at you, Jeff Colyer.) Learning about the candidate’s political thinking can require watching a campaign video.

O’Hara’s writing puts her more clearly on the record. While I don’t agree with most of her writing, I admire her willingness to explain specific misgivings with how Kansas is being governed.

Sometimes, those positions situate her in an unorthodox political niche. She bemoans tax breaks for companies, which she calls corporate welfare. She blames both Democrats and Republicans for approving these tax incentives.

On the topic of President Donald Trump, O’Hara says the legislative branch needs to reassert itself to maintain power, pushing back on executive actions like the recent tariff increases.

“President Trump loves to consolidate power,” O’Hara said. “That’s just how he operates. And it’s not just him. This has been going on forever, but the Congress needs to be big boys. Put their big boy pants on — or however you want to put it. They need to recognize that they have a responsibility for doing their jobs.”

After writing more than 170 columns for Kansas Reflector, I can struggle to find a weekly topic. In fact, this week I asked two editors at the Reflector for inspiration.

For O’Hara, finding a topic is simple, she says.

“It just seems like that they just show up on my front porch,” O’Hara said. “I am a woman of deep faith, and so I pray a lot. They show up on the front porch, and I start writing about them.”

In fact, O’Hara had advice for me at the end of our interview.

“I would just encourage you to be more on autopilot,” she said. “See where your imagination and your creativity takes you. Instead of just (saying), ‘OK, this is who I’m writing for.’ No, it’s an honesty. This is what I’m thinking. This is an important issue that people need to think about. Here’s a different perspective.”

Eric Thomas teaches visual journalism and photojournalism at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.