Clay Wirestone, Kansas Reflector

When he talks about Kansas Reflector, Senate President Ty Masterson acts like that raccoon who drank a bunch of liquor and passed out on a bathroom floor.

Just like the fuzzy critter guzzled peanut butter whiskey, Masterson imbibed misinformation and conspiracy theories about Kansas Reflector. He embarrassed himself in much the same way, making a public spectacle of his ignorance about journalism and a news source that holds him to account.

The Ashland, Virginia, mammal and Wichita-based gubernatorial candidate do have important differences. One has easily understood motivations. The other wants to run Kansas — and smear us....

The Kansas Republican Party has pickled itself in a brackish brine of racism, homophobia and intolerance.

Officials can dissemble all they want, but the party can’t hope to represent everyday Kansans while tasting so sour. Poorly canned pickles can give you botulism, remember.

This distasteful metaphor suggested itself as the party staggered from embarrassment to embarrassment in recent months. You’ll recall the racist and white supremacist texts shared by young Republicans. GOP officials condemned the rhetoric. But on Nov. 28, the state party’s social media accounts posted a screed against Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly from Ellis County GOP chairman Adam Peters....

Coldwater residents have learned a valuable lesson: Actions have consequences.

Their town’s twice-elected mayor, Joe Ceballos, has been charged with felony voter fraud by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach. Ceballos appears to have registered and cast ballots in multiple elections, despite not being a citizen. While you might expect townsfolk to respond with anger, that’s not the situation at all.

Indeed, a remarkable profile of Ceballos by veteran Kansas journalist Roy Wenzl shows a town shocked that such a good guy — “He’s more American than I am,” a friend said — would be charged. He’s a die-hard Republican in a place full of them. More than 83% of Comanche County voters picked Donald Trump for president last year. More than 78% appear to have chosen Kobach in 2022....

One member of Kansas’ U.S. House delegation has stepped up to demand government accountability in the Jeffrey Epstein case. The other three representatives?

They’re missing in action.

Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, has signed onto a discharge petition that would force a vote on releasing files about Epstein, his powerful friends and crimes against teenage girls. ...

While I was off last week writing about Kansas journalists of the past, Kansas journalists of the present had a hell of a story drop in their laps.

Kansas Young Republican leaders were caught exchanging racist, homophobic and white supremacist messages through a group chat with others of their ilk throughout the nation. First reported by Politico, the messages included vice chairman William Hendrix using the words “n–ga” and “n–guh” and saying he admired an adjoining state’s GOP because “Missouri doesn’t like f–s.” Chairman Alex Dwyer used the racist code number “1488,” reacted with a happy face to another Young Republican saying he loved Hitler, and — somewhat perplexingly — wrote that “sex is gay.”

High-profile Kansas Republicans promptly denounced the two men, going out of their way to claim their words didn’t represent the party. Hendrix, who worked in Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office, was fired....