Voice For Liberty

Kansas primary election analysis

Bob Weeks

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At State of the State KS, Fort Hays State University Political Science Professor Chapman Rackaway contributes analysis of the statewide and Congressional races.

Rackaway notes that the Kansas first and fourth Congressional districts were expected to be very close races, but both Tim Huelskamp and Mike Pompeo won going away with large margins.

The big message of the night, he writes, is this: “[Jerry] Moran’s win in the Senate primary suggests that the Kansas GOP prefers a more centrist message. But Moran’s win was an anomaly. Kobach, Pompeo, Brownback, and Huelskamp suggest that the state has taken a turn to the right.”

At National Review Online, Denis Boyles, author of the insightful book — despite its name — on Kansas politics Superior, Nebraska: The Common Sense Values of America’s Heartland, contributes (Mostly) Good News from Kansas. he starts by laying out the essential facts of the Kansas political landscape: “In Kansas, local politics is often made confusing by the powerful presence of very liberal RINOs [Republicans In Name Only]. They constitute a third party, and their half-century of influence has done some nasty work, most recently insuring the victory, twice, of Kathleen Sebelius.”

Boyles is enthusiastic about the first Congressional district result: “But for people who like their conservatism straight up — no glass, no ice — the best news may be the victory of state Sen. Tim Huelskamp.”

About the fourth district, Boyles wrote: “In Tiahrt’s district, a very liberal Democrat named Raj Goyle will spend a lot of his own money to try to defeat the GOP’s Mike Pompeo, a local businessman with a military career (he graduated first in his class at West Point) behind him. The Wichita newspaper, a McClatchy thing, has always been loyal to Goyle. Fortunately, fewer and fewer readers will notice.”

But for the Kansas statehouse, the picture is not as bright. He presents a message he received from an unnamed Kansas legislator, who wrote: “Overall though, I am very disappointed … we did not change the left-wing Republican margin in the House.”

Boyles concluded: “It’s true that the state senate and the house are both at the mercy of liberal Republicans. RINOs really do tear up the landscape.”

For results of statewide races and other state offices, click on 2010 unofficial primary election results at Kansas Secretary of State.

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Comments

4 responses to “Kansas primary election analysis”

  1. sue c.

    Someone very wise told me that although Kansas is a Republican state, it is not a Conservative state. I think that is true, but not necessarily because we Kansans want it to be that way.

    I think we good “hoodwinked” by these RINOs who tell us what we want to hear, and are so well funded.

    The conservatives have less money, thus less ability to get their messages out to the electorate who are good people and believe the lies they are told.

    The RINOs are progressives, and progressives have the art of manipulation/deception/lying down to an art form.

  2. Mike

    Hi

    The reason that “The conservatives have less money, thus less ability to get their messages out to the electorate who are good people and believe the lies they are told.”

    The conservatives have less time and incentive to run for office because they’re at their job working to make more money to support the Democrat’s wasteful programs.

    Mike

  3. Ann H.

    Boyles sure is right. I hope people are starting to wake up about the nature of the RINO’s in Kansas. Perhaps by the next election people will be frustrated enough to toss the bums out. I have been politically engaged for a long time but hadn’t cared as much as I should about state-level politics until recently. I hope that frustration with national-level politics and the national awakening to the need for the states to be more assertive of their rights against an ever more tyrannical federal government will wake people up to get engaged at the state level.

  4. PR

    Some disagree with me, but I am of the opinion that Todd Tiahrt helped BOTH Pompeo and Huelskamp.

    I guarantee you that Moran did NOT vote for Huelskamp.

    In fractured primaries, a strong plurality can make a huge difference. Though Tiarht did not get a majority of the rural vote, Tiarht got enough to help those candidates who did win, with less than a majority, in their respective races.

    Coat tails do matter!

    Also, Huelskamp should try to do what Jerry Moran did, in the 1st District. Huelskamp should help the conservative movement grow, just as Moran always favored the moderates.

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