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Michael Capps
Michael Capps (Republican Party) was a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, representing District 85. He assumed office on July 28, 2018. He left office on January 11, 2021.
Capps (Republican Party) ran for re-election to the Kansas House of Representatives to represent District 85. He lost in the Republican primary on August 4, 2020.
Capps was appointed to the seat in July 2018 to replace Chuck Weber.[1]
Capps was an unsuccessful 2016 Republican candidate for District 95 of the Kansas House of Representatives.
Capps was a candidate for District 4 representative on the Wichita Public Schools Board of Education in Kansas. He was defeated in the general election on April 7, 2015. He participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates.
Biography
Capps' professional experience includes serving as the president and CEO of Integrated Technologies of Kansas (itKansas). He was previously the CTO of Frontier Technologies Inc., the senior systems engineer at Results Technology Inc. and an informational technology and communications supervisor for KBR.[2]
Before holding those positions, Capps was an airborne communications specialist in the United States Air Force from 2000 to 2002. At the same time, he attended the Community College of the Air Force. He earned his B.S. in business administration from Western Governors University in 2007.[2] Capps has a son who attends district schools.[3]
Committee assignments
2019-2020
Capps was assigned to the following committees:
Elections
2020
See also: Kansas House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Kansas House of Representatives District 85
Patrick Penn defeated Marcey Gregory in the general election for Kansas House of Representatives District 85 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Patrick Penn (R) | 59.9 | 8,411 |
| Marcey Gregory (D) | 40.1 | 5,624 | ||
| Total votes: 14,035 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85
Marcey Gregory advanced from the Democratic primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Marcey Gregory | 100.0 | 1,607 | |
| Total votes: 1,607 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85
Patrick Penn defeated incumbent Michael Capps in the Republican primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85 on August 4, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Patrick Penn | 74.4 | 3,349 |
 | Michael Capps | 25.6 | 1,153 | |
| Total votes: 4,502 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2018
General election
Incumbent Michael Capps defeated Monica Marks in the general election for Kansas House of Representatives District 85 on November 6, 2018.
General election
General election for Kansas House of Representatives District 85
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michael Capps (R) | 54.0 | 5,659 |
| Monica Marks (D) | 46.0 | 4,824 | ||
| Total votes: 10,483 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Monica Marks advanced from the Democratic primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85 on August 7, 2018.
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Monica Marks | 100.0 | 1,245 | |
| Total votes: 1,245 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Incumbent Michael Capps advanced from the Republican primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85 on August 7, 2018.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Kansas House of Representatives District 85
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michael Capps | 100.0 | 2,759 |
| Total votes: 2,759 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
Elections for the Kansas House of Representatives were held in 2016. The primary election was held on August 2, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was June 1, 2016.
Incumbent Tom Sawyer defeated Michael Capps in the Kansas House of Representatives District 95 general election.[4][5]
| Kansas House of Representatives, District 95 General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Tom Sawyer Incumbent |
54.42% | 3,108 | |
| Republican | Michael Capps | 45.58% | 2,603 | |
| Total Votes | 5,711 | |||
| Source: Kansas Secretary of State | ||||
Incumbent Tom Sawyer ran unopposed in the Kansas House of Representatives District 95 Democratic primary.[6][7]
| Kansas House of Representatives, District 95 Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Democratic | Tom Sawyer Incumbent (unopposed) | |
Michael Capps ran unopposed in the Kansas House of Representatives District 95 Republican primary.[6][7]
| Kansas House of Representatives, District 95 Republican Primary, 2016 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | |
| Republican | Michael Capps (unopposed) | |
2015
- See also: Wichita Public Schools elections (2015)
Three seats on the board of education were up for election on April 7, 2015. District 3 incumbent Barbara Fuller was the only incumbent running unopposed. At-large incumbent Sheril Logan faced challenger Michael Capps. District 4 incumbent Jeffery Davis faced challenger Joshua Blick. Davis unofficially withdrew from the District 4 race after the deadline to remove his name from the ballot. Despite this, Davis still won the election, as did fellow incumbents Logan and Fuller.[8]
Results
| Wichita Public Schools, At-Large General Election, 4-year term, 2015 |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Nonpartisan | Sheril Logan Incumbent |
63.2% | 15,876 | |
| Nonpartisan | Michael Capps | 36.2% | 9,096 | |
| Nonpartisan | Write-in votes | 0.6% | 143 | |
| Total Votes | 25,115 | |||
| Source: Sedgwick County, "April 7th, 2015 General Election: Official Results," April 13, 2015 | ||||
Funding
Capps reported $4,488.05 in contributions and $3,480.99 in expenditures to the Sedgwick County Election Office, which left his campaign with $1,007.06 in cash on hand in this election. He also made a $500 loan to his campaign.[9]
Endorsements
Capps had not received any official endorsements in this election as of January 28, 2015.
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michael Capps did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
2015
Ballotpedia survey responses
Capps participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display his responses to the survey questions. When asked what his top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:
| “ | Succeed with what we have. Kansas legislature continues to debate the funding of our public schools. For years, our district has continued to argue how it cannot function without more money. However, year after year, the district does continue to function and continues to create successful students. It is time to stop complaining about funding, and get to the business of growing our district, with the resources we have been given. It is time to think outside the box and look to our community, to our educators for ideas, suggestions and methods to creating new pockets of success. The time has arrived to begin taking care of our staff, in training and pay, without using the budget as a scscape-goat to doing nothing. The time has arrived to succeed with what we have.[10] | ” |
| —Michael Capps (2015)[11] | ||
Ranking the issues
The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:
| Education policy |
|---|
 |
Click here to learn more about education policy in Kansas. |
| Education on the ballot |
| Issue importance ranking | |
|---|---|
| Candidate's ranking | Issue |
| Balancing or maintaining the district's budget | |
| Expanding career-technical education | |
| Improving college readiness | |
| Closing the achievement gap | |
| Expanding school choice options | |
| Improving education for special needs students | |
| Expanding arts education | |
Positions on the issues
The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:
| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| "Common core, as a best practice, should be left to individual districts to be evaluated and implemented. Districts should be evaluated based on a common set of outcomes, not on the methods for the outcomes." | |
| "Charter schools should be considered and evaluated on a case by case basis, based on both near-term and long-term needs of the community." | |
| "The decision by the state whether to provide vouchers or not, is a legislative issue. However, proper consideration should be given to citizens and taxpayers who are benefiting and non-benefiting, both directly and indirectly from the district." | |
| "Standardized tests are a component of evaluating student achievement, combined with numerous others metrics to determine any overall assessment of achievement." | |
| "By utilizing Response to Intervention and Multi-tiered Support Services, the district leadership, specifically classroom educators, can tactically assess student achievement in a given area and insure additional resources, or interventions, can be attributed on a student by student basis, insuring adequate resource allocation to provide every student, regardless of high, low or on-standard achievement and instruction. The MTSS insures enrichment, intervention and overall student achievement goals with a systematic review process." | |
| "Expulsion cases must be viewed on a case-by-case basis rather than the district having an overarching policy." | |
| "First step, tactically, to minimize negative impact on students in failing schools is to acknowledge and communicate with the community and more importantly the parents of the situation and provide alternative educational facilities, should a parent wish to make a change.
More importantly is to have standards in place, with well established and defined measurements of success/failure to identify underperforming schools in advance of exposing the student population to subpar educational experience. Active engagement with administrators to insure proper student and faculty evaluations and assessments are performed and reported is critical to insuring overall school success." | |
| "Merit pay, by definition, differs from one interpretation to another. I believe our most highly effective teachers, and those progressing towards such a status, should be properly rewarded and retained in an effort to recognize their performance, but also insure our students are receiving the absolute best education possible. In order for a merit pay system to be effective, the criteria for such merit must be clearly defined, achievable and measurable. Test scores should only be one component of the overall evaluation process, which should encompass the entire teacher, not just the student outcomes through testing." | |
| "A combination of all recommendations must be part of the overall evaluation process, which should be used to identify highly effective, underperforming as well as those teachers meeting the standards. Through a combination of mentorships, additional training and structured improvement plans, underperforming teachers can be developed into effective and highly effective educators. In the rare instances where a teacher is not suitable for the classroom duties, consideration should be made to terminate the contract, but only after due process, in exception of extreme situations (gross negligence, student endangerment, etc)" | |
| "USD 259 is perceived as being out of touch with the community. This is often due to the ever increasing budget requests, taxes, poorly executed bond initiatives and direct community engagement. Repairing the community perception of the school board starts by listening and engaging, without an agenda. This can be done with regular town-hall style engagements with parents, business leaders and community members. Currently such engagement occurs once a year and is found to be ineffective in its current design. Through regular, consistent town-hall meetings, the public can begin to find a channel to communicate concerns, experiences and needs allowing the school board to be responsive to the needs of the community it is serving vs making decisions without adequate input from stakeholders. Similarly, internal town-hall style meetings need to be generated on a regular basis with various internet stakeholders to the overall education process, but classified, certified and administrators, at all levels." |
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Kansas scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2020
In 2020, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 13 to May 21. A special session convened from June 3 to June 4.
- Kansas AFL-CIO: House
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to labor issues.
- Legislators are scored on their support for bills that the organization lists as promoting "individual liberty, limited government, free markets and student-focused education."
- Legislators are scored by the MainStream Coalition on whether they voted with the moderate position on selected bills.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on conservative issues.
- Legislators are scored on their votes on bills related to business issues.
2019
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2019, click [show]. |
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In 2019, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 14 through May 29.
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2018
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2018, click [show]. |
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In 2018, the Kansas State Legislature was in session from January 8 through April 7.
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See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Wichita Eagle, "GOP appoints Michael Capps to empty Kansas House seat; Democrats push for grand jury probe," July 21, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 LinkedIn, "Michael Capps," accessed February 13, 2015
- ↑ The Wichita Eagle, "Wichita school board incumbents file for re-election," January 14, 2015
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "Candidate list," accessed August 23, 2016
- ↑ Kansas Secretary of State, "2016 General Election official results," accessed December 19, 2016
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kansas Secretary of State, "Candidate list," accessed June 3, 2016
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kansas Secretary of State, "2016 Official Kansas Primary Election Results," accessed September 12, 2016
- ↑ Sedgwick County Election Office, "Elected Officials/Candidate Listings," accessed January 28, 2015
- ↑ Sedgwick County Election Office, "Election Documents and Reports," accessed August 5, 2015
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ballotpedia School Board Candidate Survey, 2015, "Michael Capps's responses," February 16, 2015
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Chuck Weber (R) |
Kansas House of Representatives District 85 2018-2021 |
Succeeded by Patrick Penn (R) |
