With Wichita Councilman Brandon Johnson unable to seek reelection due to term limits, five candidates recognized the opportunity to help shape the policies that impact us most.

Four or more candidates trigger a primary, which will be held on Aug. 5, making it important to get up to speed quickly on the candidates vying to represent near-northeast Wichita residents.

The final two candidates to enter the race were Chris Pumpelly and Daryl Carrington, both of whom have been active in leadership roles in Wichita’s communities.

Pumpelly, a College Hill resident, is a political operative more used to working in support of candidates than being the candidate. In 2016 he founded Inclusion, LLC, a full-service communications company based in Wichita. In 2022 he founded Proud of Wichita, Inc., the LGBT Chamber of Commerce.

Pumpelly told The Wichita Eagle his platform includes building additional housing units, east-bank riverfront development downtown, and acting on a “backlog of existing city recommendations” including police reform recommendations from the Jensen Hughes study.

Carrington has been active in the Wichita community for 20 years and has served on the executive board of the Fairmount Neighborhood Association for 10 years and has held most of its offices, including president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer.

As part of his advocacy, he encouraged the city to install a landscaped traffic diverter at the intersection where LaVon, Gentry and Matlock streets come together. He personally entered a contract with the city to maintain the island and to maintain in a way that doesn’t create a liability for the city.

“I planted trees, tulips we get from the [Wichita State] university and irises, which are the official Fairmount Neighborhood flower.

Carrington spent several years working at WSU, beginning as a plumber, but involvement with the Fairmount Neighborhood Association led to his recruitment as the community liaison for a three-year grant between WSU and the Fairmount Neighborhood. In this position, he was paid to engage with neighborhood members to help make their area better. He currently works for FEMA, but his long-term employment is in question due to cutbacks by the Trump Administration.

With his neighborhood roots, Carrington’s platform focuses heavily on strengthening neighborhoods. He’d like to see WSU do more to help neighborhoods in the designated Shocker Community and wants to look into how a portion of the WSU 1.5 mill levy assessed on all Sedgwick County properties can be used to help neighborhoods.

He suggests some of those funds could be used to help bring a grocery store to the community.

Early candidates included active community members Joseph Shepard and LaWanda DeShazer, whose announced run we covered on March 1, even though both had been “low-key” campaigning for almost a year. You can read that story here https://bit.ly/4mZR6kF .
We announced Northeast Millair Neighborhood Association President Aujanae Bennett’s entry into the race on May 9.

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