The Platte County 2026 election season is high on crack.
As we suggested in a front page story several weeks ago, and columnist Guy Speckman warned before that, the crazy hyped up estimated crowd numbers the ‘experts’ said would swarm to Kansas City for the World Cup are not really stacking up in the queue.
That’s a way of saying the airline reservations and hotel bookings in the KC area are not anywhere close to what some folks were anticipating. Check out Speck’s column on page 3 for a bit more info.
FIFA, the World Cup organization, in fact has canceled a high percentage of the hotel rooms it had previously reserved for its entourage. Which frees up more rooms for private folks, who aren’t exactly sucking them up at breakneck speed. This thing could turn out to be an embarrassing dud for the Kansas City tourism folks who were telling us to expect about 650,000 World Cup visitors, and a big letdown for the travel and tourism-based businesses who have been planning on a financial boost.
We’ll check back for an update from the local tourism agencies for a follow-up piece on what can be expected in Platte County, but in the meantime just know that at this point it looks a lot like the summer of 2026 will just be a typical summer as far as visitors coming to KC. Compared to expectations, the word “bust” is coming to mind.
Now seems like a good time to recall that Kansas City approved and is building a $22 million, 100-bed temporary modular jail in the East Bottoms area ahead of the 2026 World Cup. The idea was for this temporary jail to help manage anticipated public safety needs for the influx of visitors, an anticipated influx that by most accounts is suffering from failure to launch.
With the astronomical gas and grocery prices, instead of a temporary jail maybe KC should have built another soup kitchen.
Four of the seven county election candidates who were late in getting their financial disclosure paperwork filed with the county clerk and as such were at risk of being removed from the ballot withdrew from their respective races about an hour before the county commission met to decide their ballot fate.
The reason so many “panicked” and withdrew before the county commission made its decision? Because all seven had heard the discussion that took place at the county commission work session last Thursday. At that work session, both Scott Fricker and Joe Vanover seemed hellbent on following a poorly written county ordinance, with no allowance for misleading paperwork given to candidates by the board of elections, no allowance for confusing wording in the county’s own ordinance which in one section lumps the words “each candidate” and “each elected official” in its lists of filing deadlines for financial disclosures. On Thursday, Vanover even insisted the county’s ordinance was “not confusing.” Many reasonable minds would beg to differ. His colleague, first district commissioner Allyson Berberich, said it was confusing and misleading on Monday in her reasoning for voting to keep all candidates on the ballot.
Anyway, Vanover’s hard core ‘boot them off the ballot’ stance last Thursday turned squeezably soft on Monday. It was quite a sudden about-face from Joe that obviously surprised most of the seven affected candidates. On Monday, Vanover and Berberich overruled Fricker’s continued insistence that the seven be tossed off the ballot.
Maybe the change was due to Vanover doing some case law research over the weekend, where he noted a Missouri appeals court in a similar case had ruled in favor of allowing candidates to stay on the ballot in that situation. Or maybe Vanover, who will be on the ballot for reelection in 2028 and who has already made many political enemies by not following the will of the voters over the mental health tax issue, started doing some reelection math in his head. Ticking off all the supporters of seven candidates–in addition to already having the mental health supporters mad at him–would make Vanover’s 2028 reelection bid even more challenging than it already looks to be.
Anyway, by the time of Monday’s commission vote and before they knew of Vanover’s change of heart, four of the seven had already removed themselves from the Republican primary ballot. The withdrawal, in their minds, cleared a path for them to seek status as an independent candidate at the November general election. They’ll have to go through a petition-gathering process, but their path is legally clear for ballot presence in November once they get the needed voter signatures Some candidates were worried that getting booted from the Republican ballot would open a legal question as to whether they could then run as an independent.
Wild times. We’ll have an updated roster of candidates for you next week when some of the smoke clears.
As you know, 2026 marks America’s 250th birthday. We’re getting in the spirit early, not only at The Landmark office but also at the Foley household. Many of our July 4th decorations have come/are coming out for display early this year. Is that weird? Nah. If you’re ever going to get in the July 4th spirit a little earlier than normal this seems like the year to do it. We’ve long been the patriotic types at this newspaper, and as such we’ve always done some July 4 displays–such as patriotic bunting out front–and more. And look at it this way: getting your patriotic decorations out early will give all those World Cup visitors who are not coming to KC a chance to not see them.
Just to confirm that it’s not weird to put your July 4 decorations out early, I asked AI for some input. Here is what Microsoft Copilot said: “Displaying your Fourth of July decorations early isn’t just okay, it’s a growing tradition that reflects pride, positivity and community spirit. Whether you’re hanging a flag, arranging a patriotic jewelry display or decking out your home in stars and stripes, you’re contributing to a season of celebration that brings people together.”
So there you have it. America will only turn 250 one time. We encourage you to get your July 4th stuff on display early this year. AI approves. And The Landmark endorses the idea.
(Find Foley bracing for the rush of World Cup visitors not coming to KC. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
