In election after election tonight, Brownback supporting conservatives found themselves going down in flames, with incumbents being thrown out of office in races from Johnson County to Reno County, and moderate Republicans — some recently former (D)s — doing the tossing. Whether it was the senate or the house, nothing could stop the voter refusal of the Brownback plan.
Gone are Greg Smith and Jeff Melcher. Gone is Terry Bruce, Senate leader, who had imagined himself as senate president this term.
Bye, Bye, Bye. In the end, moderate Republicans did not just drive the bus over the competition; they crushed those on the inside of the Brownback plan.
www.sos.ks.gov/...
The damage didn’t just extend to the Kansas House & Senate, though. Gone is Tim Huelskamp, the US representative from the 1st district.
The run of Brownback favored allies in the state looks like a firing squad, as Brownback supporters who faced opposition ran into a buzzsaw of those who voiced the ‘Throw the bums out’ complaint. Now, many races for the fall will show a new landscape: Democrats VS moderate Republicans in a chance to reshape the state house with new ideas. This gives a whole new look for both parties in the fall, in many races locking out Koch-supported allied groups like AFP and others, who openly opposed these primary challengers.
Now, the voters in Kansas will get to choose a direction forward with issues and substance. Conservative Republicans in some districts could be lost to a (D) in the fall. This may be a scary omen of what is happening in their party.
Political insiders say you have to go back to the 1990s.
List of incumbent conservatives who lost:
Senate
Jeff Melcher — Johnson County, Senate District 11
Greg Smith — Johnson County, Senate District 21
Forest Knox — SEK, Senate District 14 Virgil Peck (challenging conservative who wanted King’s position), Senate District 15 Tom Arpke, Senate 24, Salina Terry Bruce, Senate District 34, Reno County
Larry Powell, Senate District 39, Garden City
House
Craig McPherson, House District 8
Brett M. Hildabrand, House District 15
Rob Bruchman, House District 20
Jerry Lunn, House District 28
Charles Macheers, House District 39
Connie O'Brien, House District 42
Will Carpenter, House District 75
Kasha Kelley, House District 80
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