Good morning everyone:
Yes, the state’s attention is glued on the intense Republican gubernatorial primary between Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer and Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
But there’s more going on in Kansas politics than just the governor’s race.
Let’s take a look at a few of the political news items you may have missed but need to know from Friday.
Waggoner widens lead over Becker – slightly
Here’s the latest news out of District 104 in Hutchinson where another moderate-controlled House seat is on the line.
Conservative Hutchinson businessman Paul Waggoner has slightly extended his lead over moderate state Rep. Steve Becker in the Republican primary for the seat once held by former House Speaker Mike O’Neal.
Election Day ended with Waggoner up one vote. The Hutch News now reports it’s five. And there are 65 provisional ballots to be counted in the 104th District. Here’s the scoop.
Provisional ballot numbers
The secretary of state’s office on Friday released a complete list of the number of provisional ballots in each of the state’s 105 counties. Here’s a link to a spreadsheet showing the number of provisional ballots by county. Here’s another link to a spreadsheet showing when each county will meet to certify the results.
323 Orman petition signatures questioned
The Democrats have been very open about their plans to give independent gubernatorial candidate Greg Orman’s petitions a thorough scrubbing and they say they’re already finding issues.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported on Friday that the Democrats want 323 signatures removed from Orman’s petitions because they were collected by someone with a felony conviction.
Under Kansas law, someone collecting signatures has to be eligible to vote in Kansas, which means you can’t have a felony conviction.
Orman submitted petitions with 10,338 signatures. He needs 5,000 to get on the general election ballot.
Watch this situation closely. There’s likely much more to come.
Orman vs. Kobach?
The GOP primary isn’t even close to being decided and there’s a poll out showing that independent candidate Greg Orman has the best chance of beating Secretary of State Kris Kobach in the general election. It shows Orman getting 53 percent to 40 percent for Kobach. A Kelly/Kobach race would basically be tied at 46 percent each.
The poll was done by a group associated with Orman’s campaign manager from his 2014 race for the U.S. Senate. Democratic nominee Laura Kelly and Kobach dismissed the poll reported by the Capital-Journal on Friday. Read it and place your own value on the information.
Republicans threaten to raise strip joint
The race for the 2nd Congressional District isn’t even less than a week old and the GOP is already threatening to make Democratic nominee Paul Davis account for being at a strip club 20 years ago that was raided for drugs.
The threat – from Corry Bliss, executive director of the Congressional Leadership Fund super political action committee – came after Davis called for television stations to stop airing an ad that says he would vote for Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.
“Out-of-state special interests lying about my record is further proof that we need independent leaders willing to fix a broken Washington,” Davis said in a statement.
“I’ve stated since day one of my candidacy that I will not support Nancy Pelosi for leader or speaker if elected,” he said. “Deceptive ads like this have no place in Kansas and are a clear sign of how broken our system has become.
The super PAC immediately responded with a threat to start running ads about the strip club, which first surfaced during Davis’ race for governor in 2014.
As a refresher, here’s a story from yours truly and another from Politico from 2014 about the strip joint.
Sharice Davids/Kevin Yoder
Some interesting news already starting to germinate out of the 3rd District race, starting first with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee adding Democratic nominee Sharice Davids to its “red-to-blue” list of top candidates.
Being added to the list means the DCCC will provide candidates with the organizational and fundraising support they need to run robust campaigns.
The DCCC also will provide Davids staffing and training that she will need going into a tough campaign against Congressman Kevin Yoder this fall.
In another development, the Yoder campaign has paid for a new website that calls Davids “the most radically liberal nominee for Congress in the history of our district.”
“Kansans would never elect someone pushing these extreme ideas to be our voice in Congress,” the website says.
Moran discusses Southwest Chief
U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran was out in Garden City on Friday discussing plans about preserving passenger rail service in western Kansas.
Amtrak was looking at the possibility of replacing the Southwest Chief with bus service from Dodge City to Albuquerque because it needed about $50 million in track upgrades and safety improvements.
But the U.S. Senate passed a bill last week with the money needed to pay for the track work.
Here’s a recap of Moran’s meeting on Friday with area leaders and residents from Garden City and Dodge City talking about plans to keep rail service in place.
Marshall talks Mueller probe, tariffs
U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall was in Herrington on Friday where he talked about whether U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be impeached. Of course, Rosenstein is the one who appointed Robert Mueller as the special counsel in the Russian meddling case.
Marshall also talked about tariffs, saying that while he believes they’re hurting the state now, the long-term gain will ultimately be worthwhile. He praised the president’s $12 billion bailout package for farmers. Here’s the coverage from the Salina Journal.
