For erstwhile Kansas Senator Pat Roberts, “Home Sweet Home” is a relative term. While he claims “knows the state better than anyone else”, it must be through osmosis.
In fact, according to widespread media reports, he hasn’t lived in his own home in the state for many years. Oh, he owns a house, but it is one that he leases. When he manages to come back this way, he now camps out in Dodge City, on a friend’s couch in a lovely home facing a golf course. And, he only declared that as his “residence” one day before his primary opponent announced he was running for the seat. Meantime, he and his wife own a very nice place in northern Virginia, where she has a thriving real estate business. She is rarely seen in Kansas.
This too-long-in-D.C. politician has made himself so much at home in the Beltway, that he has truly neglected to keep any semblance of residency in this far-flung hinterland. He has also neglected to realize that stuff like living in the state you represent in Congress matters to the voters. He’s been in D.C. since the early 1980s, and it seems that 44 years there is still not enough for him. Since he doesn’t have to worry about mowing the lawn, he probably figured that something as time-consuming as home ownership was not necessary, at least here in Kansas.
Alas, the home folks are not taking too kindly to this living arrangement. While the national media started reporting on this story back in February, it has taken some time for the rank-and-file Kansan to let it all sink in. The local media here has been all abuzz about it (Why did they not report on this years ago? It took the NY Times to flush this out.) To add to the firestorm from some voters, a new wrinkle has emerged – the Kansas Elections Board is now reviewing his residency status to see if he even qualifies to run again.
What are Kansas voters to think? Well, for one thing, we should look at his job performance. Perhaps because of not being one of us here in the Sunflower State, he has in the past few years voted against a slew a legislation that many people here think is needed, like farm bills. Support for education. Funding for needed infrastructure projects. In fact, it seems as though he is voting more like a Colonial Virginia aristocrat, as opposed to representing the interests of mid-American farmers and working class families. So, even if he is declared a “resident” of this fine state, I think it is time to re-think our definition of who represents us. We should send this good ole boy back home – his real home – in Virginia - and get someone in there who at least knows what it means to be a Kansan.