WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - With the Primary Election behind us, the races for statewide offices are heating up, especially the one for governor. Monday, both Governor Laura Kelly and her challenger, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt were in Wichita to make their case for your support.

Both toured different facilities while in town. Kelly visited the Comcare Crisis Center, discussing the need for a state psychological hospital in the south central Kansas area, and Schmidt went to a manufacturer, Cox Machine. While in town, Kelly also announced additional road construction work to broaden and upgrade Kellogg to the east at the same time Schmidt was attacking her record on education and the economy.

Schmidt says Kansas has not yet fully recovered from the 2020 COVID shutdown. He believes the state’s economy isn’t as healthy and strong as the governor is painting it.

“Some of those jobs are jobs that already existed, somebody decided not to leave. And they're counting that as an added job. Some of those jobs are jobs that exist on paper, but the investment hasn't been made, yet. They're not here. Some of them won't be for years," Schmidt said.

Kelly defended her record, saying that the 30,000 more jobs than 2019 statistics that she has been using is accurate when you look at the entire picture of the state’s economy.

“If you add farm jobs and you add nonprofit jobs and you add domestic worker jobs and small business jobs, because sole proprietors are not counted in that tally. When you include them we're up about 30,000 from 2019," Kelly said.

Political analysts say there’s no secret why the candidates picked when, where and who they visited. These same arguments are playing out on our TV's on a daily basis.

Dr. Neal Allen from Wichita State University says there's more money available for campaigns and supporting political action committees (PACs) than ever here in Kansas.

He adds, especially when it comes to those PACS, candidates have little to no control over what's said or when.

“A lot of the spending we've seen so far in Kansas has been not from campaigns, but from PACs and other issue groups. The campaigns don't have strong control of these groups and sometimes have zero control,” Allen said.  "Plus, we've known who the candidates were going to be for quite a long time. And, so, it makes sense for both state and national groups to have crafted their messages and to be ready to spend.”

If you've ever heard the phrase, ‘It's the economy, stupid!’, you're on the right track. Political analysts agree, voters tend to vote their pocketbook.  When they've got money to spend, they vote for the incumbent.  But when jobs disappear and finances get tight, challengers do better at the ballot box.

Except, Allen said, Kansas is caught right in the middle on that right now. We have plenty of jobs to go around, more jobs than workers actually. Yet, at the same time, finances have been tight thanks to inflation, even if that has started coming back down in recent weeks.

So the fight over jobs, in many ways, is a fight over the definition of what makes a good economy to Kansas voters.

"What inflation are voters going to think about when they go to vote? Is it going to be the prices that they've seen staying stable or even dropping for the last two or three months maybe? Or is it going to be the substantial increase in prices that we've seen in the last year, year and a half?” Allen explained.

Other topics Allen says you can expect to hear a lot about in the next couple of months include: taxes, government spending, education, and good management of the government and the state economy.

Meanwhile, why bring this argument to Sedgwick County?  Allen said it’s all about demographics.

“There are less votes available for Democrats in Western Kansas and less votes available for Republicans in Northeastern Kansas than there were in previous cycles,” Allen said. “So, with Kansas politics polarizing in terms of geography, it makes sense for the campaigns to look for a center of population where their party is competitive, but not necessarily dominant.”

Dr. Allen says Wichita and greater Sedgwick County is about the only place in Kansas that meets that definition. Which means we're likely to see more of these candidates in the coming weeks.