Oh. Chris man is a former police officer, an early career move that had profound consequences. You could say he's an attorney and a candidate for Kansas Attorney General because of his law enforcement experience. With us today to discuss that campaign is Chris man, the Democratic Party's nominee in a race pitting him against Kris Kobach, a Republican and former Kansas Secretary of State and Mr. Man, welcome to the Kansas reflector.
Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
Thank you for taking the time. Let's just jump right into it. How's the campaign going?
It's going really great. We've gotten some amazing responses from people across the state. People are excited about this race, they want someone in there with the experience to help the people of Kansas.
So you are our Lawrence resident. So have you made your way out west?
And I have we've covered every inch of this state so far, and we're gonna keep doing it until November.
Yeah, I've know a bunch of candidates that make this quest to go to all 105 counties, and it is quite a slog. But you could learn a lot about the state and the people. And so it's it's an it's a, it's an adventure, so to speak.
It is I picked a bad year to buy a pickup truck. But other than that it's been fun driving across the state.
But that's just gasoline. So why are you running to serve as the Kansas ag for the next four years.
So I'm running for attorney general to focus on public safety and not politics. I've been a police officer, a prosecutor, the victim of crime and an advocate for crime victims. And I want to bring that experience to the office and to the people of Kansas to help protect people keep them safe and protect the rights
should mention there's no incumbent this year, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican is the GOP nominee for governor. So he's vacating that office after about a decade and taking a crack at being a Kansas governor. So I can read a bunch of stuff from your bio, but if you were speaking directly to Kansas voters, what would you offer as the most significant in terms of of the campaign and what you would want people to know about you? Yeah, so
I started out my public service career as a police officer in Lawrence, Kansas. I was actually the youngest police officer on the force at the time. I was 21 years old. And it was a great job. It was a job I really enjoyed doing, I felt like it was a calling. Unfortunately, that ended for me. In January of 2002, I was hit by a drunk driver and had to leave the police force. I wanted to stick with public services. So I went back to law school at Washburn and became a prosecutor and Wyandotte County, then moved to the state where I prosecuted white collar crime. And in the past few years, I've been working with victims of drunk drivers and helping them with their cases. And it's that experience and that experience in the law that I want to bring to the state of Kansas to the people of Kansas to make sure that that office is run the way it should be.
We'll get into more details about your background, your opponent, your Republican opponent in the selection as Kris Kobach. He was elected twice to statewide office secretary of state, and he also lost a GOP primary for US Senate and the general election for governor. What do you make of his candidacy?
Yeah, so you're right. Kris Kobach is run for office a lot of times over the past 20 years, I think it's five different times. And the one time he got in office, he cost our state several million dollars for his policy decisions. Over that same 20 years, I've been a public servant. Like I said, a police officer, Prosecutor advocate for victims. I think that's the real difference in this race, is this is my first time in politics. This is the only office I've run for, and I'm running for it because I want to do the work. I think that that's going to be clear to the voters in Kansas that I'm running for this office to help the people of Kansas, my opponent is running for the office, just to run for another office because he's politician.
I think you mentioned that Kris Kobach is a threat to democracy. You want to explain that? Sure.
So you know, people deserve to be free. And an example is that is people deserve to be free from violence, which has increased dramatically over the past 10 years. But if the focus of the office is what Kris Kobach has said, which is his own political agenda, then he's going to be distracted from the important work that needs to be done to protect the people of Kansas to protect our communities, and to do to help make Kansas a safer place to live.
Kris Kobach has been an early adherent to the idea that former President Donald Trump got ripped off In the 2020 election, he's talked about election fraud. He's also suggested that as Attorney General, he would set up a special unit to do nothing but file lawsuits against President Joe Biden. What do we think of that?
So he's specifically said that he'll wake up every morning to find a new way to file lawsuits against the federal government. I just don't think this office should be focused on one man's political agenda. The office is far too important for that. This is the top law enforcement office in the state. And I think that it should have someone with a background and experience in those areas to best help the people of Kansas.
You've been endorsed by Steven McAllister. He was the US Attorney for Kansas from 2018 to 2021. I think he is a Trump appointee. That's an interesting endorsement, seeing how you're the Democrat and all.
You know, I think my story resonates with Democrats, with independents with Republicans, with common folks across this state who I share a background with as a police officer and a prosecutor I've worked with, with folks across the state to to help keep them safe. And I want to continue that work. And I think that that is going to resonate with, with folks across the state.
We're going to talk about your background. Now. We'll try to do it a little bit chronologically so that we can keep it straight. As you said, you were Lawrence police officer, I think you became a cop before you graduated from the University of Kansas. Why did you become a police officer?
Yeah, so my father was actually a police officer before me. He was an officer in Lenexa, Kansas. And I remember very distinctly as a young kid watching him get dressed in his uniform, knowing that he was going off to serve our community, hearing the stories of the things that he was able to do to help people. And well, as an eight year old boy was probably the time that he let me turn on the lights and sirens in his car. But boy, yeah, that that may have sold me but either way I knew at an early age, I wanted to serve my community. And when I had this opportunity, and Lawrence, I took it and never looked back.
When you're you're a junior in college, most people are trying to figure out where their next date is coming from, and you are going through law enforcement training. My goodness,
I was I actually took a semester off school to do the training before I went back, and it took me seven years to complete my degree. So a little longer than the average college students.
That seven year crowd. They're great Americans. So your life changed in 2002. As you said, tragic accident. Can you explain what happened that night? Yeah. So
it was really cold night in January of 2002. I was training, new recruit that night, we were on the east side of Lawrence. And we stopped a car out there, there was an SUV, and I was walking the driver of that car to the side of the road. And as we got in between the SUV and our patrol car, I heard a shout. And when I turned, the last thing I saw were headlights, I was hit by a drunk driver going 50 miles an hour. You can see in the crash photos that there's actually an impression of my body on the back of the SUV and a line and the frost going over the top of the SUV. I landed 30 feet to the side of the road, two feet from a fire hydrant. And I'm fortunate to even be here today.
So substantial injuries.
I was fortunate that nothing was broken. But the bruising, both internal and external was significant. I wasn't able to walk for quite some time, and ultimately wasn't able to come back to the street. I tried two different times to get back to patrol and my body just didn't hold up.
Interesting. Well, both a miracle and also a disappointment so to speak. Well, this changed your life. I think there's rehabilitation, there must be emotional and physical elements to that. But I think it also led you to law school.
It did. So I took the next couple of years to try and figure out what I was going to do next. And you're right. I had to recover both physically and emotionally and figure out how to move past what I thought was my calling to find a new purpose and I was fortunate. I call it turning my pain into purpose to find a new way to help victims. of crime in the courtroom instead, it was a chance meeting with a prosecutor that led me to the realization that I can still do this work for victims. Just need to go back to law school and work on the other side.
Trying to Washburn law school. Yes. Okay. That's here in Topeka. So after you graduated from law school, what was your next step?
So right out of law school went to Wyandotte. County, where I prosecuted everything from traffic tickets to murders. I want you to do that. That was three and a half years, I believe, at some
juncture, you worked for the Kansas Security Commission. And and I think is, as part of that those people are they work essentially as assistants out of the Attorney General's Office, correct?
That's correct. I was actually a Special Assistant Attorney General, and prosecuted white collar securities crimes across the state of Kansas,
stepping back to why not County, what was the caseload like that you work?
It was massive. It's not typical that someone would have a murder case in their first year of prosecution. But that happens in Wyandotte. County, because the caseload is just so substantial. So it
went from misdemeanors all the way to homicide, correct, okay. And white collar crime at the Securities Commission, that is a commission that regulates investment advisors and the like,
it is so we work with investment advisors, but also investment fraud. And that can take the form of corporations, investment advisors, and those are regulatory environments, but also fraudsters who take advantage of the elderly throughout the state, and people who make up scams and and fraudulent investments. That's where
I can in fact, the Attorney General's Office has elements of both of those they do criminal law and civil law. That's correct. Some, at some point in all of this, you became active in Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Can you explain your what went on there?
Yeah. So it was actually back in Wyandotte. County, I remember the day and in the location where we were in the courthouse, I was working on a case where a family had lost a loved one to a drunk driver, I was sitting with a family talking with him about the case, I was holding the hands of one of the family members and I could, I could truly feel their pain for their loss. And recognize my own pain from my own loss from a drunk driver, and realize that I didn't want any family to ever have to experience that again. So I looked for a way to help out to make sure that other families wouldn't have that same experience. And that's when I joined with Mothers Against Drunk Driving here in Kansas. And specifically, the year that I joined, we were working to pass legislation for an all offender ignition interlock law, that would require anyone convicted of a DUI to have an ignition interlock on their car, that would keep them from driving drunk in the future.
That's essentially a device that you would blow into a tube to register whether or not you've been consuming alcohol. And the car won't start, right. If if you have,
right if you're over the limit, the car doesn't start and there's retests along the way so you can't try and trick the system.
Okay? There's a scammer everywhere. Okay. And then you you actually took on a national role with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
I was fortunate to become the chair of the National Board of Directors and I got to travel the country doing this work, talking to industry leaders, folks from the NFL law enforcement throughout the country and other victims. And what I really focused on was sharing my story, asking those folks to also turn their pain into purpose and to help their communities to keep their roads safe. You're obviously
not a mother, but you are a father. Tell us about your family.
Yeah, so I've married 14 years to my wife Ashley. She is a cardiothoracic surgeon in Topeka. We have two kids. Skylar is seven and she just started second grade. And William is three he just started preschool.
Okay, good. Your bio mentions makes reference to the Catholic Year of Mercy and how that led you to make some certain decisions. I'm just not sure what the Catholic Your mercy is. You can explain that and tell us what you were compelled to do.
Absolutely. So in the Catholic here, mercy, we were asked to do something to help those less fortunate to do something that was difficult for us that would in fact impact people who, who were less fortunate than us. So what I chose to do was leave prosecution during that time, opened my own law firm, and I worked on indigent defense cases back in Wyandotte. County, helping folks who couldn't afford an attorney have their own
court appointed counsel to people with cases and why not County? That's right. Okay. Does your private law practice has it had a special emphasis on drunk driving? Or is it just remained a general practice?
Well, since that time, I've actually transitioned and have been working mainly with victims of drunk drivers, and helping them navigate both the civil and the criminal justice system, because as I found, even if you're helping someone with their injury case, as drunk driving victim, there's also a criminal case, they're a victim of a crime. And they don't often understand how that process works. And it can be difficult to, to navigate that without an advocate on your side.
Interesting. All right, let's get back to the AGs. Office and how you would how you would handle yourself there. I think one of the general ideas that you've expressed on the campaign trail was to work on behalf of public safety. Do you want to elaborate more on that? Sure, it's
one of the most important roles that the Attorney General's Office has. And that is in several areas. So consumer fraud, that is a big area where folks are being taken advantage of more and more by scam artists throughout the state, the pandemic just really kind of brought that to a head. So we need to refocus the office to make sure that we're finding those fraudsters holding them accountable. Medicaid fraud is another big issue. It's costing the state and millions of dollars a year still. And we can do more to recoup that money. And make sure people are held accountable, and make sure that we can use that money to help the people in the state. And the third thing, as I mentioned before, is violent crime. Violent Crime has risen dramatically over the past 10 years in Kansas, or generally, in this country, generally in the country. But in Kansas specifically. It's been up 40% Over the past 10 years.
So the violent crimes would everything from rape to murder, right. So that's been going up quite a bit
over the past decade. Do
you have any idea why?
If I did, I'd be able to fix it tomorrow. Unfortunately, this is a difficult issue, that's going to require a lot of attention. And it's going to require a lot of effort on our next attorney general, because that office is the right place to coordinate with law enforcement, and prosecutors across the state to help and fix that problem and lower our crime rate. And as a former police officer and prosecutor vibe, I've experienced that I've experienced crime on the streets. I've experienced it in the courtroom. And I know what what folks across the state are going to need to help them what resources they're going to need to combat the crime that's occurring out
there. You mentioned crime on the street and, you know, being a police officers become more perhaps more complex as, as others who don't have that work experience. take issue with some of the conduct of police officers. Really, it's about law enforcement, violence and shooting people and beating people up and etc. So what is the status of life as a police officer these days and you think they're being treated fairly by the public?
Yeah. So I can tell you that law enforcement has a difficult job has always had a difficult job. But when the community is not supporting law enforcement, it makes that job even harder. I think, though, and what I've heard from law enforcement across the state, is that most of us here in the state do support law enforcement. We do want our officers to be supported by not just the citizens in the state, but by the government, prosecutors and officials. What is going to be necessary is making sure that as we talk to law enforcement across the state that we're able to provide them with the training and resources they need to be able to properly do their jobs. The thing that I've heard from, from multiple law enforcement agencies and people across the state is that there is a need and a desire for more training for I'm helping to provide more resources to combat mental health issues that are occurring in our society. And we need to find a way to provide those resources so that we can help our law enforcement do their job.
Nothing wrong with more training. Another element of your campaign has been, I believe, if I'm interpreting this correctly, that you feel like the agency's office has been political sighs to a degree is a political office. But I think maybe you're talking about administratively. So So can you dive into that piece of it?
Sure. So I have said from day one, that I think this office should be about public safety and not politics, understand what you have to run for the office. So now I fall in that vein, but the office itself needs to be there to help the people of Kansas. And that means that you can't be distracted by a political agenda or personal political beliefs, you have to be there to do the work every day to make people's lives better in the state to protect their rights to protect the Constitution, and to make sure that folks feel comfortable in their communities.
So we're speaking here about Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the Republican who's not running for re election this year, do you have a sense that he engaged in political activism through the vehicle of his office,
you know, anytime that there's a lawsuit that's filed for political reasons or to chase the spotlight, that's a problem. And filing the lawsuit against the election is an example of that type of law, you're saying
is the AG, Mr. Schmidt, jumped on to a lawsuit, I believe he jumped onto one that was filed, that involved a review of some of the swing states in the 2020 election that were won by Biden. And so I think Texas may have initiated but But Derek Schmidt joined that, and that was really maybe beyond, you're suggesting beyond his role as Attorney General Kansas,
I'm saying that the attorney general should be very selective about the lawsuits that are filed, I will never be concerned about who is in office when I'm filing a lawsuit on behalf of Kansas. I'll make sure though, that I'm not using that platform for political gain or for chasing the spotlight, I'll make sure that any lawsuits that we file or any actions that we take as an office will be for the betterment of the people of Kansas,
when opportunity you might have to go through that thought process in regards to abortion in Kansas, very controversial issue. You know, the Kansas Supreme Court says there's a right to abortion embedded in the Bill of Rights. And in the state, the voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would nullify that decision. But the legislature has not spoken for the last time on abortion, do you? What is your view on abortion? And how might you approach that legal dilemma and that balancing act between the legislature and the judicial branch? Yeah, so
the people of Kansas have clearly spoken in this August 2 primary, and they want there to be a right for women to make their own private medical decisions. I can tell you that I'm not going to use the limited resources of the Attorney General's office to attack anyone's constitutional rights. I'll obviously enforce any laws that are on the books, but I won't use this office for my own political agendas.
Finally, to wrap up, I was looking at your website and you've apparently decided to have a phrase to go with your campaign and you're selling hats, coffee mugs, hats, shirts, sweatshirts, coolers, you name it. With the with this on there, it says vote Chris CHR is not Chris. Kr is, as in Kris Kobach for Kansas Attorney General so we got to Chris's here spelled differently. How are sales of your mugs and T shirts? Do you have any idea?
You know, I don't know. But I can tell you I've gotten some photos from people who have texted me and are proud to be wearing the shirt. And I think that'll show in the polls later in November when I
went what's a good thing Bob and somebody named Bob or somebody didn't get nominated for attorney general by the Republican Party because your shirt would really would have messed it up in singing quite in the same way. I want to thank Chris man, former police officer and attorney and the Democratic candidate for attorney general of Kansas, thank you for your time today. And good luck with your race.