(Updated to reflect latest numbers as of Monday night from New York Times/Siena College poll)
Good afternoon everyone. Sorry we’re behind today.
It’s been a big week for Sunflower State Journal. We exceeded our 500th post since starting up Feb. 11. Thanks for hanging with us the last eight months as we forged through a legislative session and a frenzied campaign season.
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Enough about us, it’s time to look at Kansas political news you may have missed in the last week but need to know. Let’s start off with embattled Congressional candidate Steve Watkins and go around the horn.
And the hits just keeping on coming…
Another bad news cycle for Republican Congressional candidate Steve Watkins. First it was questions about whether he was a Democrat, then whether he really built up his own business and finally whether his claims of being an adventurer were true.
Now this. The Capital-Journal published a story Saturday morning about his “open” marital relationship. The real nugget is buried deep within the story, where a woman accuses Watkins of forcing himself on her when she was a contractor in Fort Richardson in Alaska. By Saturday afternoon, Watkins and the Kansas Republican Party were denouncing the story in The Kansas City Star.
Kansas Planned Parenthood case
It looks like we might be close to knowing whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a Kansas case over whether the state can cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. It’s significant because it will be the first abortion case involving new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The Los Angeles Times reported that justices met Friday to discuss whether they should hear the case. The newspaper said a decision to hear the case could be a week or more away.
Earlier this year, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Kansas’ decision to defund Planned Parenthood. It was the fifth of six circuits to uphold the right of patients to receive health care from their preferred qualified provider. However, the split in circuits leads some to believe the court will hear the case. Here’s the opinion from the 10th Circuit decision for those who want to dig deeper.
Where’s Greg Orman?
For those keeping track of independent candidate Greg Orman’s whereabouts in the Kansas governor’s race, we have a little update.
Orman has been doing telephone town hall meetings across the state, including ones in western Kansas, southeast Kansas and the Kansas City area.
He was expecting to do five town halls altogether. At a peak, there are 3,000 voters on the line at once.
“It’s been a positive experience and has added momentum to the campaign,” said spokesman Nick Connors.
Asked if this was a way to save money, Connors said cost efficiency was always something to think about.
“We are implementing this because it is a direct way to speak to the voters,” he said. “Call up a voter and they are live one on one with Greg to ask any question that they choose, instead of what typical politicians do in establishment parties and just bombard people with television advertisements telling people to be scared of this or be scare of that.”
While Orman has been off of television since about mid-September, we have traced some radio buys to his campaign in the last week.
The Orman campaign has purchased at least $13,000 in airtime on Wichita radio stations in the last several days, according to federal records.
They bought about $10,800 in time on KFDI-FM in Wichita, another $1,100 on KNSS and about $1,000 on KEYN.
Davis leading Watkins in new New York Times poll
The New York Times is repolling the 2nd District congressional race between Democrat Paul Davis and Republican Steve Watkins. The Times, in partnership with Siena College, polled the race last month and it showed Davis up by a point, well within the poll’s margin of error.
As of Monday night, the live poll had contacted 478 voters and Davis led Watkins 41 percent to 37 percent with 16 percent undecided. The margin of error was 4.9 percentage points.
What’s worth noting is that Watkins’ unfavorables — through 478 voters so far — are beating his favorables. Watkins’ unfavorables are at 39 percent compared to his favorables at 41 percent. Twenty percent didn’t know.
Davis, meanwhile, has favorables at 48 percent compared to unfavorables at 32 percent. Twenty percent said they didn’t know.
Pollsters are also asking voters in the 2nd District whether they approved of Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent said they approved. Forty-two percent disapproved and 9 percent didn’t know.
Voting hurdles
So you think the only controversy over voting rights is in Dodge City? It’s not. The good folks at McClatchy have a complete roundup of all the flash fires over voting rights across the country, from Kansas to Texas to Missouri to Kentucky to Mississippi. Everything you want to know about voting controversies right here. This is about as comprehensive of a story on the issue as you will find anywhere.
Sharice Davids on Trump, Pelosi
Democratic congressional candidate Sharice Davids recently appeared on Steve Kraske’s Up to Date on KCUR.
She’s asked to grade President Donald Trump (she doesn’t) and whether she would support Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi for House speaker (won’t quite say).
For what it’s worth, she calls Trump “chaotic” and “unpredictable.” On Pelosi, Davids would only say she supports “new leadership across the board.” She said the country “needs different leadership from what we’ve seen.” She also has some interesting things to say on taxes. Kraske’s interview is worth a listen.
Kobachcare savings questioned
Throughout the governor’s race, Republican Kris Kobach has talked about introducing direct primary care to the state’s Medicaid program. He’s claimed it would save the state $2 billion. Kansas New Service looked at Kobach’s claim. Experts questioned Kobach’s math, with one person who thought up the idea conceding the calculation was done on the back of an envelope — a nine-by-nine envelope, to be precise.
Grab bag campaign coverage
Here’s a mixed bag of coverage as the candidates for governor traverse the state making their last pitches before the Nov. 6 general election.
The Associated Press examined how Republican Kris Kobach and Democrat Laura Kelly plan their disparate approaches to the budget. Kobach, of course, wants to cut taxes and government. Kelly, meanwhile, is proposing to spend more money on key core government services without raising taxes. The AP’s John Hanna looks at the two very different approaches.
Kobach, meanwhile, was in Pittsburg on Saturday as part of a cross-state bus tour. He signed a pledge to complete U.S. 69 if he’s elected governor. Here’s coverage from the Pittsburg Morning Sun. Kelly also was in southeast Kansas earlier last week talking about the importance of U.S. 69.
There’s also a new Washington Post story out Saturday on the governor’s race, where it talks about Kobach’s Dennis Quaid grin and his baggy suit jackets.
More stories: One from the Great Bend Tribune on Kelly’s visit to Ellinwood on Saturday and another piece on Kelly’s visit to Hays.
New campaigns ads you might have missed
McClendon/secretary of state
Schwab/secretary of state
Vicki Schmidt/insurance commissioner
Yoder/anti-Davids
7Gen Leaders PAC/anti-Yoder
James Thompson ad/Kansas 4th District
Ron Estes ad/Kansas 4th
Derek Schmidt
