I was sitting at home, working on helping some candidates onboard with Daily Kos — my day job — when I received a phone call out of Salina, KS, asking me if I knew that Gov. Jeff Colyer — a conservative Republican who took up Brownback’s mantle upon his exit, was quoting me, by name, in an ad running on Kansas television station. No, in fact, I didn’t. With a little research, I was able to find the buyer of the ads, Axiom Strategies, Jeff Roe’s conservative operation, had placed the ad. A quick phone call to Axiom confirmed they had placed the ad, but after initially promising they would see about getting me a digital copy of it, no further responses came from the Kansas City, Missouri entity.
The ad, which deals with Kobach’s veterans scam would certainly stand out — after all, it isn’t often that a campaign marketing itself as “True Conservative” would choose to cite the Daily Kos in a campaign ad, or the Kansas representative to the Democratic National Committee by name. But, assuming Gov. Jeff Colyer is reading — I do stand by my words that Kobach is a scam, and encourage more of your readers to follow the original article, available here.
And as strange as this twist is, it is only one in a state full of wild, out of kilter Republican campaigning that looks unlike anything Kansans have seen in a long, long time.
The Governor’s race will certainly gain attention, but it sometimes other races which stand out for the unusual antics. Let’s take a look at what this year’s Kansas Republican crop has delivered.
Republican Attorney General candidate Vermin Supreme
Kris Kobach managed to get Vermin Supreme thrown off the ballot for Attorney General; however, in that same meeting, using different criteria, he accepted a Wichita house candidate, Michael Capps. This has led to Vermin Supreme filing a federal court case in protest of the unfair treatment, and this week his case will be heard — to determine if the man with a boot on his head that promises ponies and dental work, will have a place in the Kansas Attorney General race.
Kansas Congressional District 4
In Kansas Congressional District 4, the Republicans will have a primary showdown between Ron Estes and.. Ron Estes. Two individuals with the same name, but very different outlooks on what it means to be a Republican. One is a donor to Democratic campaigns, the other, well, a strong Trump supporter. The conflict has driven Rep. Ron Estes into a tizzy, filing FEC complaints and making harsh attacks on Twitter against a man carrying his own name.
Kansas Congressional District 2
A Republican field that seems to go on for days, with three state senators, a state representative and outsiders, all looking to claim the title of being the most conservative. In one case, the claims of conservative roots are being challenged, because, well.. this is where it gets interesting. While conservatives claiming conservative bonafides isn’t unusual, the race to replace Lynn Jenkins has seen some truly unusual happens, probably nothing more unusual then the recruiting of Steve Watkins, a person with a strong military background and what many felt was the look of a congress person. That’s certainly what several Democratic organizers who met with Watkins in 2017 thought; when Watkins pitch to Kansas Unions was met with interest, though tampered as former Rep. Paul Davis was actively running as a Democratic candidate, and there really wasn’t a lot of room on our side. Still, the bio was impressive — a proud military career, a fiance who was by his statements a member of Doctors without borders and a national award winner with Planned Parenthood for her pro-choice activism.
When the Democratic door closed, though, Watkins tossed himself into the Republican primary, making his lead statement: “Conservative Family Values”. This caused many of the traditional Republicans to wonder what the heck was going on.
InsideKSGOP — a site run by Kris Kobach’s current communication director, raised the red flags.
Inside Kansas GOP certainly tossed down the gauntlet.
She earned the honor by being a "patient escort, lobbyist, educator and past president of her local chapter of Medical Students for Choice."
For me, this disqualifies Watkins as a viable Republican candidate for U.S. Congress. It's not uncommon for a candidate to have a spouse with differing political views, but this isn't a soft-sort of difference of opinion about something like tax policy. This shows a dramatic moral departure from what most Kansas Republicans demand from their Congressional candidates.
Make no mistake — most Republicans have photos of Watkins posing with his now spouse and Leader Nancy Pelosi. But will his hard pivot to the right work out? Or are too many people going to be off put by someone who seemingly decided to only run as a Republican after being told the slot was full by the Democratic party?
Kansas Congressional District 1
Roger Marshall was seen by the Kansas Farm Bureau as a chance to dump Rep. Tim Huelskamp, and help one of the largest farm districts in America. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite work out. This weekend, the Kansas Farm Bureau dumped the Representative, withholding his endorsement, an unusual move but a way to signal that the sitting Representative isn’t in favor of one of Kansas most powerful political organizations.
Kansas State House
Kansas statehouse also presents Kansans with several unusual races on the Republican side, often primaries between Republicans, but sometimes, cases that are guaranteed to cause more than a bit of confusion.
In Johnson County, Kansas, Tom Cox (R-Lake Quivira), came under fire during the legislative session for his support and deciding vote on a discriminatory measure that would allow organizations to discriminate against LGBT individuals with Kansas tax dollars. The proposal, which impacted adoption policy, saw several flip sides, sometimes, they thought, for political purposes. Greg Orman, an independent running for Governor, had his Lt. Gov. candidate Sen. John Doll also switch sides on the proposal, voting in favor of the discriminatory measure.
For Cox, however, it was another step in the road that seemed to signal he wasn’t, well, a moderate. Cox had previously been in some hot water over his sponsorship of a bill placing restrictions on abortion clinics, including font requirements for all print outs, waiting periods, among other hurdles. In Kansas City, Mainstream Coalition, a localized PAC that was created to advocate for “Common Sense and the Separation of Church and State” endorsed Cox, creating a social media firestorm about their credibility.
In 2008, using the Wayback machine, Mainstream Coalition’s main points focused around separating Church and State, as a fairly pro-choice, pro-rights organization. And, until this years round of endorsements, the organization had contended that was still a major factor. Now, prior to endorsements, not only have they chosen to endorse anti-choice and anti-LGBT candidates, they’ve gone one step further, removing commentary about the separation of Church & State, their original mission, entirely from their website.
Mainstream 2016
Mainstream Today
I guess with Trump in office, separation of Church and state is no longer considered a “Mainstream” value.
And that’s not even the start — from those who campaigned to start their own third party running as Republicans to Republicans who are running with their spouse to be Governor, Kansas this year has it all for those who just want to eat candy and wonder what the heck happened.
Later this week, we’ll talk more about the evolution of an organization that began in large part as a response to anti-evolution teachings, Mainstream Coalition.
With such a wild Kansas Republican field, the question may be: what’s more strange: 2 Ron Estes? A Man with a Boot on his head? A Democrat flip Republican, and a super conservative one last minute? Or is it the fact that a Kansas Republican is citing DAILY KOS to bash their primary opponent?
Happy fourth of July week, Kansans, let’s keep it strange.