The Republican primary campaign for the U.S. Senate took a sharp pivot this week when Congressman Roger Marshall rolled out an ad attacking businessman Bob Hamilton.
Most of the Republican primary so far has pitted Marshall against Kris Kobach as the two leaders have gone back and forth at two debates, including one with Hamilton.
But now Marshall has put a new ad on the airwaves attacking Hamilton, the founder of a prominent Johnson County home service company noted for its pink vans and its slogan, “Better call Bob.”
It is the first time that anyone — outside of media — has devoted much attention to Hamilton, who put $2 million into his U.S. Senate campaign.
The ad, some believe, signals that Marshall views Hamilton as a candidate who could draw votes away from him in the primary and help Kobach.
It’s also an idea that the Marshall campaign pushes back against as it challenges the Hamilton ads that have been running uncontested in recent weeks.
The ad accuses Hamilton of being a fake Republican, saying he supported Hillary Clinton for president, financed a transgender rights group and supported abortion. Here’s a link to the ad, if you want to watch.
It starts: “You’ve seen his ads. Now meet the real Bob Hamilton.
“Hamilton supported Hillary Clinton for president, opposing Trump. He bankrolled a transgender rights group pushing liberal judges and pro-abortion policies.
“And while Bob has given his own campaign millions, he’s never given a dime to any other Republican,” the ad says.
The ad is partly based on a blog run by Jerry Kratochvil, who was the communications director at the state health department in Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration. The blog suggested that Hamilton had cleaned his Twitter account of any left-leaning content.
A couple months ago, a spokesman for Hamilton called the accusation a “false political attack on a business account that was previously run by marketing managers.”
“Only career politicians could make up attacks this dumb. Bob Hamilton is a plumber, prolife father of 12, Lifetime NRA member who supports President Trump,” Hamilton spokesman Garrett Miller said in an email Wednesday.
“The unauthorized tweets of a millennial marketing staffer do not represent Bob Hamilton’s views,” Miller said. “This type of gutter politics shows we need to send a plumber to drain the swamp.”
The ad also is partly pegged to Hamilton’s business joining the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce, which helped Kansas City International Airport with designing all-gender bathrooms.
A Facebook post indicates the company joined the chamber in 2016.
“These claims,” Miller said, “stem from a local chamber organization affiliation and do not represent the personal views of Bob Hamilton, who sold his company three years ago.”
Some observers say the ad suggests Marshall is worried that Hamilton could siphon voters away from him in a primary field that includes 11 candidates and could be decided with just about 30% of the vote.
It’s that very fear that has Republicans anxious about the prospect of nominating Kobach, who has a solid core base of supporters that may not be enough to win a statewide election. He is just two years removed from losing the governor’s race.
“For Marshall to have an ad attacking Hamilton clearly shows that the Marshall camp believes Hamilton is a threat,” said Washburn University political scientist Bob Beatty.
“If Marshall thought that a Kobach voter could vote for Hamilton, he would just leave him alone,” Beatty said.
Eric Pahls, the campaign manager for Marshall, dismissed that idea.
“He’s a liberal spoiler, not a threat,” he said of Hamilton.
“He’s Kansas’ Mike Bloomberg, thinking spending millions will make him a conservative.
“A closer look at his real views prior to running for Senate will alarm Republicans who have only seen the expensive ads.”
However, one Republican operative who spoke anonymously to be candid thinks the ad indicates that the Marshall campaign is worried.
“Marshall knows that people probably voting for Hamilton would probably vote for him if Hamilton wasn’t in the race,” the strategist said.
“If he can sit here and just bury Hamilton now and more or less define him as a Democrat, that’s only really his last hope,” the source said.
“Kobach’s just sitting back laughing his ass off right now. Nobody’s going after Kobach. They’re going after each other because they know they chip away at their potential vote count.”
