Kansas 3rd District, made up of Johnson County and Wyandotte County primarily has traditionally been strong ground for Democrats. After the district was redrawn in 2000, Dennis Moore, a democrat held the office for 10 years, until he retired, leaving a vacancy to be filled by Kevin Yoder.
Yoder who entered in 2010 hasn't really faced an organized Democratic campaign against him in his two election bids. In fact, he faced NO democratic challenger at all in 2012. With a real challenger in 2014, you'd think Yoder would plan ahead and make sure that his campaign was set out to hit the ground running, but Yoder has found himself put in a tight box thanks to Tea Party critics, the demographics of the district and his ongoing penchant for foolish spending and use of taxpayer dollars.
It all begins before Yoder took office in 2010. Attending a local legislative update session, one located a measly 1.9 miles away from his house - at this time as a state legislator - Yoder bilked the state a almost $1,000 in fees, including a $354.00 per Diem.
In 2009, based on IRS credit per mile usage, Yoder in effect charged the state nearly TEN THOUSAND TIMES the IRS re-reimbursable amount for his travel. I mean, maybe it is just me, and if I lived only about a mile away from the event I was attending, I doubt I would have spent $436 on food when my family kitchen was so close, but by the time we remove food, tips and the cost of the session we are left with a per Diem that is 68 times larger than the $7 per day provided to traveling speech & debate students at Kansas Universities in 1999.
This, of course, reflected the Yoder that, according to his own website, believed that the state government was in the midst of an economic crisis. This crisis, however, did not seem to extend to Yoder himself.
Yoder's free spending days haven't stopped - and tea oriented conservatives have noticed. His large fundraising expenditures, including boat trips in other states, thousands of dollars in ornaments and fees, cigars and jaunts in the North East didn't sit well with Kansas Tea Partiers.
In 2013, I noted here that Yoder faced down a fairly angry group at a town hall in Johnson County, which left attendees taking to Yoder's facebook to attack his stances on the president and spending.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I attended [Yoder's Town Hall] and was disappointed as well. Congressman Yoder keeps talking about upholding the Constitution but when pushed about impeaching Obama he is very noncommittal. If the president is refusing to uphold laws of the United States then that is malfeasance of office which is impeachable!
By the time the townhall was over, Yoder found himself being subject to a potential tea-party run by Milton Wolf, who later decided to run for US Senate. The crowd at one point openly booed Yoder and Pat Roberts who were there holding an event to 'meet the voters'. That town hall was the sign that the tea party wasn't buying and they had decided candidates like Yoder were part of the problem.
The tea party group who descended on Rep. Yoder that day haven't forgotten their accusations of free spending and Yoder's lack of real legislative effort. In his two years there, he's been behind a sum total of 6 pieces of legislation, ranking him in the bottom 30% of legislators.
This brings us to the recent SurveyUSA which came out this week from Wichita's KSN TV. The poll provided some interesting and troubling news for Kevin Yoder.
http://ksn.com/...
In the Eastern Kansas regions which are most in line with the counties that Yoder faces he runs into two problems: Republicans who are so unhappy with their party they are backing a libertarian - more here than anywhere outside of the west, and a fair sized deficit to Democratic Candidate Paul Davis.
These things were all expected months ago, that a Davis campaign would do well in the North Eastern corner of the state. But with an effective Democrat in the race for house, Yoder finds himself trapped - he can work to appeal to the Tea Party groups who have been steadily harassing him on his facebook and through local meetings or he can try to be a moderate so that he isn't wiped out by Davis voters who provide down ballot support.
Yoder will have to navigate a district that has given Democrats 60% of the public vote for over a decade. And he'll have to do it with his right-flank pointing out his outrageous spending and demanding he sign a pledge to impeach Obama. He will face down the right where their Tea-Party standard Bearer, Milton Wolf lives.
As long as Yoder isn't passing bills or impeaching Obama, the tea party will continue to point out he's burning your money for nothing. His continual spending on junkets (including that strip tease act in Israel a few years ago) aren't forgotten by those on his left.
Keep Burning money, Representative Yoder. Maybe it will help warm you from the icebergs ahead.
In the meantime, if you want a Democrat in Kansas who has a race that is setup for her to make some noise and flip a seat back into Democratic hands, that's Kelly Kultala. Her campaign is uniquely positioned to take advantage of what is quickly turning into a campaign where a candidate cannot effectively triangulate between the realities it would take to win and part of the more.... entrenched base to make sure they get a win.
So, if you feel like a campaign in Kansas that you should pay real attention to because it absolutely can win and has the legs to do it, I'd consider chipping a small bit to Kelly Kultala. A great candidate.. and a candidate that can grab and hold this district for a lot of elections going forward.
https://secure.actblue.com/...