Kultala files for second term

The incumbent state senator that now represents Leavenworth has officially announced her intention to run for a second term.

Kelly Kultala, a Kansas City Democrat who was born in Leavenworth, was elected to represent the 5th Kansas Senate District, which includes the cities of Leavenworth and Lansing as well as a portion of western Wyandotte County, in 2008. Before her tenure in Topeka, Kultala spent four years as a commissioner on the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City Kansas and served on the Piper School Board from 1999 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2007.

She announced officially her intention to run for re-election to the Senate Tuesday, having filed the necessary papers in Topeka.

“It’s been a privilege to serve as your voice in the Kansas Senate these past four years,” she said in a release. “If re-elected, I’ll continue to focus on creating jobs, growing the economy and protecting public schools.”

Currently, Kultala serves as a ranking member of the Senate Transportation Committee and helped craft the state’s 10-year comprehensive transportation plan — a plan that in a release she estimated would create 175,000 new jobs and bring $6.4 billion into the state’s economy. She added that the plan is also very important to her because one of the state’s major highways — Kansas Highway 7 — cuts through the middle of her district.

She also serves on the Senate committees for ways and means, local government and ethics and elections, among other assignments.   

Kultala also introduced and pushed for legislation that provided state funding to transport students from Fort Leavenworth to Leavenworth High School after the federal government cut its contributions to that end.

In 2009, Kultala worked on efforts to bring Livestrong Soccer Stadium and a new Cerner office complex to Wyandotte County. Locally, she said she worked with state and local leaders to bring the Veterans Affairs’ Consolidated Patient Account Center to Leavenworth, pushing to restore the Historic Preservation Tax Credits that were utilized in that project. She said she is also proud of a change she pushed for in the E-911 program that allows Leavenworth County to capture a greater percentage of the 911 fees it generates.

Moving forward, Kultala said if elected, she would like to continue the work toward economic development and job creation that she has been able to be a part of since 2008 and remain accessible to her constituents. In addition, Kultala said she plans to continue working to protect public education funding for the students in the state.

“No matter where they live, what ZIP code they live in, they deserve it,” she said.

Kultala enters the race at a time when the boundaries of her own district could be in flux. She said she has heard some of the proposals, including one that would make Leavenworth County a single state senate district. But Kultala said while she will gladly represent whatever district she does end up in, she doesn’t anticipate dramatic changes to her current boundaries.

“I don’t really see it changing so much that I would be redistricted out,” Kultala said.