(Updated: Adds interview with Owens; reaction from Orman campaign)
Former state Sen. Tim Owens of Overland Park announced today that he was resigning as treasurer of independent Greg Orman’s campaign.
Owens said in an interview that he made the decision after it appeared that Orman was failing to gain ground in the governor’s race against front-running Democrat Laura Kelly and Republican Kris Kobach.
Owens, a moderate Republican, is now supporting Kelly out of fear that Orman’s presence in the race will elect Kobach governor.
Owens considers Kelly — a former ally in the Kansas Senate — a good friend. He admitted it was difficult to work on a campaign against her but stuck with his commitment to work for Orman.
However with Orman languishing behind Kelly and Kobach in the polls — hovering at about 10 percent — Owens said he decided it was time to leave the campaign after finishing the latest campaign finance report due Monday.
“It began to be a concern to me: Where are the polls? Where are the figures? What are we doing here?” Owens said in an interview.
“It began to look like if he’s that far behind and (Kobach and Kelly) are tied, then he could end up being a spoiler,” Owens said.
“I got to the point of thinking that I really cannot in good conscience support something that’s potentially going to give the race to somebody I consider to be an extremist.”
The Orman campaign issued a statement wishing Owens well, but gently chided him for siding with an “establishment” candidate.
“My campaign is about the people of Kansas, not about establishment figures in Topeka,” Orman said in a statement.
“As I’ve said since day one, I am committed to the tens-of-thousands of voters who support me and who are sick and tired of the status-quo.”
Owens said he had wrestled with the Orman candidacy for a while, hoping he might talk the candidate out of following through with the election if the polls showed him with little chance of winning.
“I was depending on that: If the polls were not showing any better, we’d get behind Laura and support her, and he didn’t do that.”
Owens finally decided to leave the campaign after seeing that Orman planned to press forward in remarks he made during a campaign stop in Garden City.
“I think he really believes that the polls are not that accurate and he believes he can win. It’s his call, not anybody else’s,” Owens said.
Owens said he dropped his resignation letter at Orman’s campaign office and sent him one personally by email. And how did Orman respond?
“The sad thing is he hasn’t,” Owens said. “I haven’t heard from him.”
Owens is a former Republican state representative and senator from Overland Park. He served on the Overland Park City Council with Kobach in the early 2000s.
Sometimes at odds with former Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration, Owens was among the moderate Republicans swept out of the Senate in 2012 in an election that saw conservatives gain an upper hand in the chamber.
“This was something I had to do for me,” Owens said of his resignation. “I did it because I believe it’s the best thing for Kansas. This is the right thing to do.”
