Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts (R)
out of Kansas shows that Republicans are on the ropes in all three marquee statewide races. First up in the Senate contest, which has been on everyone's lips since Democrat Chad Taylor's dramatic decision to drop out of the race last week. In a blatantly partisan move, Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach has refused to remove Taylor's name the ballot, but news of his decision has already reached most voters, as you can see from the numbers below (SurveyUSA's
August results are in parentheses):
Greg Orman (I): 37 (20)
Pat Roberts (R): 36 (37)
Chad Taylor (D): 10 (32)
Randall Batson (Lib): 6 (4)
Undecided: 11 (6)
This is great news for Democrats, who've united around independent Greg Orman, because it shows that Orman can still win even if Taylor isn't successful in challenging Kobach's shenanigans. (SurveyUSA did help matters by reminding voters in their question that Taylor was no longer running.) While there aren't many comparable examples, Taylor's vote share is
only likely to sink further as Orman and his allies make it clear he's not an actual candidate. And if he
does get his name taken off the ballot, that should benefit Orman further.
The bottom line is that Pat Roberts is in a tremendous amount of danger. And so is his ticket-mate, Gov. Sam Brownback:
Paul Davis (D): 47 (48)
Sam Brownback (R): 40 (40)
Keen Umbehr (Lib): 5 (5)
Undecided: 7 (6)
Even though Republicans have stepped up attacks on Davis—predictably calling him an Obama-loving liberal—the race remains unchanged over the last couple of weeks. That's desperately bad news for Brownback, who's trailed in
almost all the polls ever conducted in this race. He needs to turn things around, and a flailing Roberts can't help matters.
Finally, there's Kobach, a Republican hack and extremist xenophobe who's already earned brickbats for inserting himself into the Senate race in a rank effort to help out his own team. For a guy who's received endless criticism for his mismanagement of the secretary of state's office, such blatant hackery can't help his image—and it hasn't:
Jean Schodorf (D): 46 (46)
Kris Kobach (R): 43 (46)
Undecided: 11 (8)
Daily Kos
just endorsed Jean Schodorf, whose chief campaign plank is restoring integrity to the secretary of state's office and reducing the excessive burdens that Kobach has placed on people who just want to exercise their right to vote.
Kobach is one of the worst election officials in the country (amazingly, he's the author of Arizona's virulently anti-immigrant SB 1070), and he truly has to go. We can help Kansas Democrats make a clean sweep this year in the most unlikely of states. It starts with Kobach, and with any luck, Roberts and Brownback will wind up out the door, too.
Please give $3 to Jean Schodorf to help her turf out the odious Kris Kobach.
