KS-Gov: Campaign finance reports are in for all of 2017, giving us our first real look at all the contender's financial strength. We'll start with the GOP, but we won't bury the most interesting point: Presumed frontrunner Kris Kobach's fundraising is bad.
Former state Sen. and 2006 nominee Jim Barnett: $59,000 raised, additional $505,000 self-funded, $514,000 cash-on-hand
Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer: $632,000 raised, $549,000 cash-on-hand
Businessman Wink Hartman: $11,000 raised, additional $1.69 million self-funded, $1.5 million cash-on-hand
Former state Rep. Mark Hutton: $382,000 raised, additional $200,000 self-funded, $393,000 cash-on-hand
Secretary of State Kris Kobach: $355,000 raised, $261,000 cash-on-hand
Former state Rep. Ed O’Malley: $218,000 raised, additional $3,000 self-funded, $158,000 cash-on-hand
State Insurance Commissioner Ken Selzer: $428,000 raised, additional $286,000 self-funded, $669,000 cash-on-hand
Remarkably, Kobach had less cash-on-hand than any of his noteworthy GOP rivals aside from Ed O'Malley. Kobach has devoted much of his time towards spearheading Trump's bogus and now defunct voter-fraud commission, but to out surprise, Kobach's national notoriety and Trump ties hasn't helped him fill his coffers. Kobach does have plenty of name recognition, and that may be enough to help him win the August primary. Still, it's quite possible that his national witch-hunt isn't helping him with GOP movers-and-shakers at home.
We'll turn next to the Democrats, who hope that outgoing GOP Gov. Sam Brownback's horrific unpopularity will give them an opening in this red state.
Former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer: $45,000 raised, $15,000 cash-on-hand
State Sen. Laura Kelly: $156,000 raised, $155,000 cash-on-hand
Former state Secretary of Agriculture Josh Svaty: $193,000 raised, $67,000 cash-on-hand
State House Minority Leader Jim Ward: $91,000 raised, $59,000 cash-on-hand
Not exactly massive hauls from anyone. Kelly, who is close to former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, only entered the race two weeks before the deadline, so it's noteworthy she already has a larger war-chest than everyone else.
Wealthy businessman Greg Orman is also raising money to run as an independent since the beginning of December, and it's more than a bit distressing that he lapped the entire Democratic field. Orman raised $436,000 from donors and threw in another $17,000 of his own money, and he had $441,000 in the bank at the end of 2017.
Back in 2014, Orman was the de facto Democratic nominee for Senate against GOP incumbent Pat Roberts after the actual Democratic nominee dropped out. If Orman's candidacy catches fire, he'll likely sop up many more votes from the Democratic nominee than Republican in a state where Team Blue doesn't have many votes to spare.
Orman's hoping that he'll be able to take enough support from both parties to win a three-way general (or perhaps even thinking that the eventual Democratic nominee will drop out for him again), and it does look like he'll have the resources to get his message out. Still, unless Orman can make serious inroads with Republican voters, he's much more likely to keep the governor's mansion red.