Good morning everyone:
Because there’s more happening than we can possibly get to in one day, here’s a wrap of Tuesday’s big political news for you to catch up on this morning.
Struggles with KanCare contractor
After many months of struggle, the state is going to continue forward with KanCare contractor Maximus. As reported on Monday, the state isn’t going to sue Maximus over failure to meet its performance goals for processing Medicaid applications.
Instead, the state’s going to keep them on the payroll, pay them more money and require them to do less. It was enough to leave leading lawmakers – Republicans and Democrats alike – flummoxed. Here’s a complete roundup of the coverage from the Wichita Eagle, the Capital-Journal and Kansas News Service.
New poll: Davids leading Yoder
Roll Call reported on Tuesday that a new poll shows Democrat Sharice Davids leading Republican incumbent Kevin Yoder in the 3rd Congressional District.
The poll done by the Davids campaign shows her with 46 percent to 43 percent for Yoder. The Libertarian candidate had 4 percent. Seven percent of the likely voters polled were undecided.
The poll also found that 37 percent had a favorable opinion of Davids, while 15 percent had an unfavorable opinion. Yoder had a 44 percent favorability rating. The congressman had a 46 percent unfavorable rating, according to the poll.
Yoder endorsement controversy
A flurry of endorsements for Congressman Kevin Yoder from Kansas City-area leaders has caused a quite a stir.
The Kansas City Star reports that Yoder’s campaign has apologized to Olathe City Councilman Jim Randall for including him on a list of about a dozen regional Kansas City leaders supporting the congressman.
The story details how a somewhat dated quote from Olathe Mayor Michael Copeland ended up being attributed to Randall in support of Yoder in an endorsement the councilman didn’t want to make.
The Kobach effect
The Kansas City Star looks this morning at how Republican gubernatorial nominee Kris Kobach might affect Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder in his race for re-election against Democratic challenger Sharice Davids. Of course, the answer to the question depends on whether you talk to Democrats or Republicans.
New 3rd District ads
Plus we’ll thrown in these new ads/videos from the Yoder and Davids campaigns.
Yoder ad: Radical
Davids ad: Service
New 3rd District ad
And one last attack ad for good measure. The Congressional Leadership Fund is out with a new ad on Wednesday morning attacking Democrat Paul Davis in the 2nd Congressional District. The ad suggests that Davis refuses to work with Republicans. If you watch it, you will see a common theme with the 3rd District ads: Nancy Pelosi (who seems to be replacing Obama as the new Kansas political villain).
