Top honors in the under 35,000 circulation category of the Columns category of the Carmage Walls Commentary Prize competition were awarded to Dion Lefler, opinion editor of The Wichita (Kansas) Eagle.
First-place includes a curved glass plaque and a cash prize of $2,250.
Michael Roehrman, executive editor of The Wichita Eagle, nominated Lefler for the award, saying Lefler is “equally comfortable battling injustice and corruption from the halls of the Statehouse to the smallest Kansas town.”
He said the three columns that he submitted for the contest illustrate “his willingness, and ability, to stand up for ordinary Kansans, no matter who he has to go up against.”
First column:
Kelly should consider nuclear option to expand Medicaid
Roehrman said: “Tapping his deep knowledge base of state and federal government, Dion discovered and proposed an original and innovative path for Gov. Laura Kelly to bring expanded Medicaid to Kansas, and with it, medical coverage for tens of thousands of Kansans.
“In a column developed over months of research and interviews stretching all the way to Alaska, Dion carefully built a case for how and why Kelly could proceed, despite a Legislature that has blocked expansion for more than 10 years.
“In exposing the political shenanigans that have plagued Medicaid expansion, he took on not only the state Legislature, but also Wichita-based Koch Industries, the richest and most politically influential company in Kansas.
“The column ran recently and whether Kelly will act on the roadmap Dion laid out remains to be seen. As far as we can tell, he’s the first to suggest it.”
Second column:
St. John criminally charges couple sleeping in church they own
Roehrman said: “Dion’s extensive source network in rural Kansas brought him a tip about a low-income couple being criminally prosecuted for sleeping in a church they bought to homestead after getting pushed out of Denver by skyrocketing rents.
“Beyond exposing the injustice, self-interest, corruption and conflict of interest driving the decision to deny the couple permission to live in the abandoned church building, Dion also discovered and reported that a state program to encourage repopulation of dying rural Kansas towns has been an expensive and embarrassing failure.
“Since the original column, Dion has written four follow-ups. The criminal charges were quietly dropped without explanation. As it stands now, the City Council still refuses to let the couple live in the church, and the case is headed to district court.
“But Dion’s determined coverage has coalesced much of the community around the couple’s cause and thousands have been raised for their legal fees.
“When this column ran, three of the five council members were running unopposed for re-election. Dion’s column ended with ‘situations like this are what write-in campaigns were invented for.’ Those almost never succeed, but this time it did. The council member with the most blatant conflicts of interest lost his seat to a write-in candidate supporting the couple.”
Third column:
Prejudice at Sedgwick County Fair demands action, not words
This past year has seen a troubling acceleration of discrimination and persecution against Kansas’ LGBTQ community, Roehrman said of this entry.
“Against that backdrop, Dion noticed that the Sedgwick County Fair had canceled its opening act after online complaints that the lead singer of the local band identifies as nonbinary.”
“Finding the Fair Board to be made up of conservative farmers with a penchant for secret meetings, Dion essentially went over their heads and demanded that county government and Kansas State University — which provide financial and material support to the fair — live up to their nondiscrimination policies and cut ties to it.”
“It had an effect. Under pressure from the county and K-State, the show was reinstated and went on without a hitch. The county has begun ensuring that non-discrimination language is now included in all its vendor and grant contracts.”
Among the judges' comments:
