A few weeks ago, Democrat Jay Sidie released a poll that initially showed him losing to Republican Rep. Kevin Yoder 49-37 in Kansas’ 3rd District, but with one very persuasive argument for voters in this suburban Kansas City seat. The poll gave Republican Gov. Sam Brownback a horrific 18-70 approval rating, and the memo argued that, when respondents heard negative information about both candidates, "including attacks tying Sidie to Nancy Pelosi and linking Yoder to Gov. Brownback," Sidie moves into a 44-40 lead.
For years, Brownback has radically slashed the state budget, and his cuts to education have been particularly brutal. It’s gotten so bad that last month, local Republican primary voters revolted against Brownback’s self-described “experiment” and ousted several of his allies in the state legislature in the GOP primary.
Sidie is now testing out his strategy of tying Yoder to Brownback in his first ad of the race. Sidie tells the audience that “earlier this year, I wasn’t sure if there’d be a school for my daughters to go back to.” He then argues that Yoder was “the architect of Sam Brownback’s radical plan to cut education to pay for corporate tax breaks.” Sidie concludes that, “I’m a small businessman, not a politician. But I’d do anything to protect my daughters’ future.”
Yoder wasted absolutely no time responding with his own spot. The narrator claims that Sidie actually “skipped every school funding vote here in Kansas.” (Sidie’s not an elected official; Yoder is referring to ballot measure elections.) Interestingly, Yoder released his own poll in August giving himself a massive 53-36 lead over his challenger. However, the fact that Yoder immediately had an ad on this very topic ready to go is a good indication that, despite what his poll showed, he believes this issue could cause him problems if he doesn’t deal with it properly.
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