2010: The View from Kansas

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Thursday November 20, 2008 · 12:19 PM PST

2008/11/20 · 12:19

I note this paragraph in GTPinNJ's posting this morning on Senate prospects in 2010:

Kansas – open seat (R) – likely Republican. This is the seat currently held by Sam Brownback, who has indicated that he will be retiring based on self-imposed term limits....Governor Kathleen Sebelius would be our best candidate to flip this seat, but if she doesn’t run, any other Democratic candidate would probably have only a slightly better chance of winning than I would have in getting a date with Jessica Alba.

It's my opinion, based on nothing but my own instincts, that Sebelius would rather be in charge of a multi-billion dollar cabinet department than be the Number 96 Senator. I haven't heard any leaks about her yet,

although I would have thought of her for HHS before Daschle got it, and I have no idea if Napolitano going to Homeland Security fulfills Obama's quota for Democratic women governors from lean-red states. If not, it looks to me like Energy is about the only place left for Sebelius, which would be cool because it would drive the coal industry crazy.

As for the Senate, given the balance in the Senate now and the fact that Kansas hasn't had a Democratic senator since the time of FDR I'm just not that worked up about it. If she's here and she runs that's gravy as far as I'm concerned.

I'm much more concerned about governor. Brownback seems likely to run for it, and he's good on Israel (from an AIPAC kind of perspective) but that's less of a consideration for a state-wide post - Kansas not having much foreign policy and all. (Although I can see Oklahoma from my house!) On everything else, he's real bad. Sebelius has served as the last defense against wingnuttery for the past 6-1/2 years - anti-choice laws get passed, and vetoed, here all the time, and the brave stand she and her appointee Rod Denby took on the Holcolmb power plant would not have been taken, it's safe to say, had Sam Brownback been in that chair. So this strikes me as far more important than the Senate, because people's actual lives are involved.

It's hard to imagine who from the Democratic side could beat him. Mark Parkinson is the lieutenant governor, and he's the only Democrat with any statewide name recognition. I suppose if Sebelius gets appointed to something now and leaves him as governor for a year and a half that would improve his chances. Otherwise (and even then, probably), well, say hello to Gov. Brownback, and hope the courts start serving as last defense again.

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