Source
A moderate Republican who lost her seat in the Kansas House to a conservative GOP opponent will try to win it back as a Democrat.
Cindy Neighbor, now a member of the Shawnee Mission Board of Education, is the second prominent Republican from Johnson County to switch parties in order to run next year.
And get ready for the required line when it comes to switching..
"We haven't left the Republican Party," Neighbor said Friday. "They left us."
Indeed. It doesn't hurt to get a few of the relatively sane Kansas Republicans on our side.
But, under the fold, Neighbor and Shallenberger clash some more. Also, I have stats, or just numbers!
Neighbor had these words for the Kansas GOP
Neighbor criticized county and state Republican leadership as "inflexible and intolerant," unwilling to work with Democrats or moderates - a charge state GOP Chairman Tim Shallenburger denied.
"We've tried very hard to be flexible and very tolerant," said Shallenburger, a conservative who lost the 2002 gubernatorial race to Democrat Kathleen Sebelius. "She's running as a Democrat because she's a liberal."
Tim Slash'n'burner loses another person to the Democratic Party.
Nothing like responding to a charge of intolerance towards moderates by calling the person a liberal. Maroon.
Let's look at some stats, such as Cindy Neighbor's interest group ratings.
The Kansas Taxpayers Network put her "lifetime" rating after her one term at 17.5, which was the lowest lifetime rating for any Republican in that session. Amongst Kansas Republicans, only Don Hill and Terrie Huntington approached such low ratings from KTN.
Mary Pilcher-Cook, Neighbor's opponent, has a lifetime rating of 97.5 from KTN. That's in the range of being a staunch TABOR supporter.
In 2005, Pilcher-Cook voted a straight line with Kansans for Life. I can't find anything on Neighbors in her one session.
But basically Neighbor lost because she pissed off the Norquististas, the KTNs and ATRs of the world.
But her district isn't as hopeless as a lot of Johnson County.
2004 Primary results:
Pilcher-Cook: 2284 (55%)
Neighbor: 1883 (45%)
2002 Primary results:
Neighbor: 1929 (50.51%)
Pilcher-Cook: 1890 (49.49%)
Presidential Results in Kansas House District 18 (compiled from the precinct list in HD18 results and the precinct results for Bush/Kerry in those precincts):
George W. Bush: 6727 (57%)
John Kerry: 4980 (43%)
Concluding points:
#1 - Welcome to the party Cindy Neighbor. All these Johnson County Republicans seem to be getting more friendly to us everyday.
#2 - HD18 didn't have a Democrat running in 2002 or 2004. But maybe 2006 is the year that the Democrats get some downballot traction in Johnson County, even if it has to start with disgusted former Republicans.
$3 - Being a former Republican, I'm sure Neighbor could have something in her record that we'd dislike. But, I'm pretty sure the 'law of party-switching' says "The switcher will usually shift towards the mainstream of their new party."
#4 - The precinct results for Bush/Kerry and the Cook/Neighbor GOP primary election show that there's some pretty Democratic precincts in the district, and that Neighbor's best showings with Republicans were in Lake Quivera Precinct 1 (245/132 Neighbor, 60/40 Bush) and Shawnee City Ward 1/Precinct 4 (200/162 Neighbor, 65/35 Bush). In the precincts where Kerry got a lot of votes, the Republican primary had strong results for Cook. Basically, she has a decent chance if she can get the Democrats who don't vote and the Republicans who voted for her.
Or as the article says: "Neighbor's supporters believe the larger voter pool in a general election - as opposed to a party-only primary - will give her the base of Democrats and moderate Republicans she needs to win"
Either way. Kansas can provide good news from time to time.
