Brandon Whipple (born July 13, 1982)[1] is an American politician and academic who formerly served as mayor of Wichita, Kansas.
[2] When the Kansas Legislature was not in session, Whipple served as an adjunct professor of American politics at Wichita State University, his alma mater.
[4][6] Whipple later acquired a Doctor of Arts in leadership studies from Franklin Pierce University, a private college in New Hampshire.
[4][6][7] In 2012, in a run for the Kansas House 96th District seat (in south Wichita), he was criticized by Tea Party Republican Craig Gable for not having children.
In October 2019, Whipple found himself the victim of an elaborate, multi-state, covert smear campaign in which Republican state Representative Michael Capps was implicated as a perpetrator.
The funding of the salacious video as well as the anonymous mailers will not be required to be reported, according to the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission.
The Democratic party was also criticized for publicly sending a mailer claiming that Longwell was being investigated by the District Attorney for "corruption".
[33] In October 2020, Whipple, represented by former U.S. Attorney Randy Rathbun, filed suit against Capps, Wichita City Councilman James Clendenin, and Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O'Donnell, for defamation involving the false charges made against him in the 2019 mayoral election race.
Allegations cited were that the co-conspirators tried to blame the conspiracy on Sedgwick Republican County Committee Chairman Dalton Glasscock, and that, with false accusations, they intended to generate marital discord within Whipple's own family.
[32] It was dropped after Colburn provided audio, text messages, and other evidence, that had identified O'Donnell as the alleged leader of the conspiracy to defame Whipple.
O'Donnell was accused of writing the script for the video frame-up,[32] Whipple said that he felt sorry for the then-21-year-old Colburn who had been scapegoated by the actual perpetrators.
The state governor, Laura Kelly, issued a requirement for the community to wear face masks in public to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease, which had become widely fatal.
Whipple, who had been a target of local criticism for passing the ordinance, said he will increase security at his home in response to the alleged threat.
[36][37][40] In October 2020, prosecutors charged Dowty with three felony counts of criminal threats causing "terror, evacuation or disruption."
[50] March, 2022, it was revealed that a small group of local law enforcement officers, including 13 Wichita Police officers—some of them members of the SWAT team, and some who had shot civilians—had been exchanging racist, sexist and homophobic text messages, and jokes about shooting people, a year earlier.
[51][52][50] Though an ordinance forbid the mayor and council from controlling the City's discipline of employees, Whipple initially said, "We should not be tolerating this type of behavior from any employees in our city," promising to make the issue a "top priority.”[51][52][50] New Year's Eve, 2022/2023, at a roller skating rink, a teenager intervened in the arrest of another teenager by punching the arresting officer in the back of the head, leading to a fight between the officer and the juvenile.
[56] Whipple used the situation to call for a review of Wichita police body-camera policies, but ultimately apologized for his role in the event.
[60] The campaign was bitterly contested, and heavily covered in local media, with multiple head-to-head candidate debates and joint appearances at various public forums.
[60] But Wu far outdistanced Whipple in campaign donations (reported and unreported) -- receiving broad support from the business community, intense funding and advertising from Koch-related PAC's (particularly AFP), and from the local police union.