Schodorf – Goyle race might feature reversed roles

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If Jean Schodorf captures the Republican Party nomination for United States Congress from the fourth district of Kansas, the general election contest against likely Democratic Party nominee Raj Goyle might feature a reversal of commonly-held roles.

That’s because in this year’s session of the Kansas Legislature, Schodorf, as a Kansas Senator, voted for the budget bill that increased spending and required an increase in taxes to support the spending. In this case, the main source of increased taxation is the one cent per dollar increase in the statewide sales tax that will go into effect on July 1.

At about the same time, as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, Goyle voted against both bills. Only one other House Democrat voted against the budget bill.

The usual case, of course, is that Democrats favor increased taxing and spending, while Republicans are generally opposed.

During this year’s legislative session school spending advocates said that schools have “cut to the bone,” and that without increased school spending, Kansas schoolchildren would suffer. Similar claims were made for people dependent on social services from the state. Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson, a Democrat, agreed. He proposed the spending and sales tax increase (and a cigarette tax increase) in his state of the state address in January, and aggressively promoted both during the session.

So it would be interesting to see how Goyle would explain his votes to the usual Democrat constituencies such as, say, the Kansas National Education Association (or KNEA), the teachers union.

More evidence of the reversal of the usual positions of candidates from the two parties comes from analysis of votes during the recently-completed legislative session. In the Kansas Economic Freedom Index for this year, Schodorf scored 18%, resulting in a tie for 27th place among the 40 Kansas Senators. In the House, Goyle’s votes earned a score much more supportive of principles of economic freedom. He scored 67%, ranking 47th in a field of 125 members of the Kansas House.

On scorecards produced by Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, things again are upside-down. Schodorf’s rating was 25%, while Goyle scored a rating of 60%, which is more in align with AFP’s promotion of limited government and free markets.

Schodorf’s votes are not out of line with her history. Goyle’s votes this year are more conservative than his past votes, leading us to wonder if there was a bit of election-year window-dressing going on as Goyle prepared for his campaign for Congress.

Comments

6 responses to “Schodorf – Goyle race might feature reversed roles”

  1. Wichitator

    Rep. Goyle’s election year shift in his fiscal votes is not unusual. A number of other Kansas legislators have done the same when seeking statewide office.

    Jim Barnett is one whose vote rating by the Kansas Taxpayers Network shifted dramatically when he ran for governor in 2006. Barnett had been a big advocate for raising a number of taxes, particularly on politically correct items like alcohol and cigarettes as well as gasoline. Barnett also voted for the Graves sales and business tax hikes in 2002.

    Then Barnett ran for governor and became a fiscal conservative.

  2. Anonymous

    I’d trust a rattlesnake before Schodorf and most career politicians. These people have been to T parties and they still don’t get it. Less government, taxes, bailouts and debt. How hard is that to understand?????? They actually help the middleclass when they do NOTHING. I would even vote for Goyle before Schodorf, the tax and spend lady.

  3. Anonymous

    Jean doesn’t stand a chance of winning.

  4. Ann H.

    Anonymous (#2): From your mouth to God’s ears–let us pray we don’t end up with a dreadful Schodorf-Goyle race. I’d vote third party or write-in and I know a lot of other people would too.

  5. Anonymous

    Hi, it would be nice for Pompeo and Hartman to flip a coin to see who runs as the Conservative Party Candidate when the Schodorf and Goyle when their respective primaries. I’d almost rather vote for Goyle who doesn’t pretend (much) to be someone he’s not.

    Mike

  6. Anonymous

    I’m sure that Pompeo’s campaign manager being the immediate past head of the AFP had nothing at all to do with the ratings.

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