Free Republic

TOPEKA, Kan. -- U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts is touting his expertise in agriculture policy as he runs for re-election in the nation's leading wheat-producing state, and tea party challenger Milton Wolf's campaign accused him Thursday of trying to exploit geographical tensions with a new radio ad in western Kansas. The 60-second spot, which began this week and will run until the Aug. 5 Republican primary, says Wolf doesn't understand agriculture and can't be counted upon to defend federal subsidies for crop insurance. The ad describes Wolf, a Leawood radiologist, as living "right next to Missouri" and says he "just doesn't...

Here’s why incumbent politicians hate competitive primaries: They only hurt poll numbers. A new poll from SurveyUSA for KSN-TV in Wichita showed Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts leading Democrat Chad Taylor in a November general-election matchup by 38-33 percent. Check that out again: 38-33 percent. Here’s a question: When’s the last time a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate has been within the margin of error in any race going back decades? Remember that no Democrat has won a Kansas Senate race since 1932. That’s the longest such streak in the nation. Independent candidate Greg Orman took 14 percent — that’s...

<p>TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has endorsed Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts as he battles an aggressive GOP primary challenge from tea party candidate Milton Wolf.</p> <p>Huckabee announced his endorsement Thursday. He described Roberts as a conservative warrior and said he's fought tirelessly for lower taxes and federal government spending.</p>

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s push to get tough on illegal immigration has apparently cost him the support of ranchers. The Kansas Livestock Association has come out in support of Kobach’s Republican challenger Scott Morgan in the Aug. 5 primary. The group says Kobach strays beyond the traditional roles of secretary of state by taking up issues such as immigration and blocking federal environmental protections of the lesser prairie chicken.

I believe government at the national level is not going to get any better until the congressional good old boys’ club is shut down and closed for good. The antique fossils in both chambers are not the solution to today’s problems. They are a big part of the problem. I ask you to vote for anyone running for the U.S. Senate other than Sen. Pat Roberts. Forty-seven years in office have kept him overpaid and underworked. DALE CRAFTS, Topeka

A new poll shows conservative Dr. Milton Wolf (R-KS) surging in the Republican primary against incumbent Senator Pat Roberts. The survey shows Roberts with only a 42-30 lead over Wolf, which is a stunning 21-point drop since the last poll taken three weeks ago! Dr. Milton Wolf's message of limited government, personal freedom, economic liberty, and respect for the Constitution is resonating with voters.

OSAGE CITY, Kan. — Milton Wolf reminds voters, without fail, that he’s new to politics. Yet he performs as if born to the trade. Ready with a smile. Just-right firmness on the handshake teamed always with just-folks patter. Good looks eclipsed only by those of the wife and kids. And above all, the Senate hopeful remains ever eager to share his conviction that the nation’s founders got it right and those guys in Washington today consistently get things wrong. He thinks they’ve been getting it wrong for about a century. As for long-serving fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, well,...

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts won't debate tea party challenger Milton Wolf ahead of the state's Aug. 5 Republican primary. The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Roberts executive campaign manager Leroy Towns said Friday that Wolf has failed to outline positions beyond what Towns called vague rhetoric and false attacks on the senator. Wolf campaign spokesman Ben Hartman said it's unbecoming for Roberts to duck debates and noted that Roberts previously had promised publicly to have them. The 78-year-old Roberts is seeking his fourth, six-year term in the Senate. Wolf is a 43-year-old radiologist making his first run for...

A new poll shows conservative Dr. Milton Wolf (R-KS) surging in the Republican primary against incumbent Senator Pat Roberts. The survey shows Roberts with only a 42-30 lead over Wolf, which is a stunning 21-point drop since the last poll taken three weeks ago! Dr. Milton Wolf's message of limited government, personal freedom, economic liberty, and respect for the Constitution is resonating with voters. He can win this race if the grassroots rise up and work together to inform Kansas Republicans of the choice they have on August 5th. SCA TV Ad - "Rarely"That's why we launched a massive TV...

There were about 6 or so at the protest in Lawrence, Kansas. People honked their horns and waved (often with just one finger). The police got a few complaints that we were hanging over the side. He didn't want to make us leave and said we could stay until 12:30. Most of the responses were positive and I think it was encouraging. I met some great people. I was amazed at how many people are so disrespectful. This is a small city and I'm sure I'll interact with those people again. Am I supposed to be respectful to them? I...

Jason Perkey cut his teeth in politics working campaigns in the Bluegrass and now the Louisville, Kentucky native is applying the lessons he learned from his time in the state to the Kansas governor’s race. Perkey, who is the executive director for the Kansas Democratic Party, is applying a strategy first implemented in the 2011 re-election campaign of Governor Steve Beshear in Kentucky. Democrats in Kansas launched a secretive mass endorsement of high profile former and elected Republican officials which has the GOP in the state off message and striking out at one another. More than 100 Republican officials endorsed...

Several Republican former Kansas officials have endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Paul Davis over GOP incumbent Gov. Sam Brownback. Republicans for Kansas Values, a group of more than 100 former lawmakers and GOP officials, including two former lieutenant governors and a former congresswoman, announced their support for Davis on Tuesday. “All of us are proud Republicans. We came together because of our common love of Kansas, our commitment to Kansas families, and our belief in moderate, commonsense leadership,” former state Sen. Wint Winter said in a statement for the group. "We are deeply concerned by the direction Sam Brownback is taking...

WICHITA, Kan. — Moderate Republicans have been kicked around by the tea party for years in Congress and the states. Here in Kansas, they’re fighting back. A moderate GOP uprising is in full swing against Gov. Sam Brownback, the fierce fiscal and social conservative whose policies led to a purge of middle-of-the-road Republicans from the legislature early in his tenure. In a rare and surprising act of political defiance on Tuesday, more than 100 Republicans, including current and former officeholders, endorsed Brownback’s opponent, statehouse Democratic leader Paul Davis. Polls show the challenger with a surprisingly strong shot at taking out...

Four months after a New York man was arrested for slipping abortion pills into his girlfriend’s body after sex, causing the death of the couple’s unborn child, another man is being tried for a similar crime.A Kansas man has killed his girlfriend’s unborn baby by crushing up an abortion causing drug and baking it into a pancake, which he then gave to her to eat. 30-year-old Scott Bollig is being held for trial after two days of preliminary hearings.Police say that the drug involved is mifepristone. Mifepristone, sometimes referred to as RU-486, is commonly given in abortion clinics to kill...

On July 9, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence filed suit against Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (R) and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt over a state law--the Second Amendment Protection Act--that "makes it a felony to attempt to enforce federal gun laws in Kansas."

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts stoked the political brushfire he was hoping to smother during a recent Kansas City-area radio morning show. "Every time I get an opponent — uh, I mean, every time I get a chance — I'm home," Roberts said during the KCMO interview. That's just Milton Wolf's point. The tea party-backed challenger for the GOP nomination has been casting the third-term senator as a Washington politician who has lost touch with his constituents. The charge is a potent one already in the 2014 midterm elections: It was a key factor in the ouster last month of House...

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) told Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) that he may be the next victim of the anti-incumbent Tea Party mood sweeping America with the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor earlier this year, Politico’s Manu Raju reports. “I might be next,” a “deadly serious” Roberts told Corker on a ride on the underground senate subway, Roberts recounted in an interview with Politico’s Raju in Kansas. “You never know.” Roberts was referring to how Dave Brat beat Cantor using an anti-incumbency style that Roberts’ current conservative primary opponent, Dr. Milton Wolf, is following. Wolf—President Barack Obama’s second cousin—has...

SALINA, Kan. (KAKE) -- The Saline County Sheriff's Office was inolved in a bizarre, 43-minute chase Saturday morning. It began when a deputy clocked a passing car on Interstate 70, travelling at over 90 mph. The deputy began pursuit of the driver as he traveled west towards Salina. The car was spraypainted with derogatory statements about law enforcement. The suspect was able to drive around spikes that were set up at the junction of I-70 and Highway 81. Eventually, the suspect drove into a soybean field. Sheriff Glen Kochanowski says the suspect then drove the car in circles for 40...

In 2012, Kansas governor Sam Brownback signed a massive tax cut into law, arguing that it would boost the state's economy. Eventually, he hoped to eliminate individual income taxes entirely. "Our place, Kansas, will show the path, the difficult path, for America to go in these troubled times," he said. National conservative activists raved. Patrick Gleason of Americans for Tax Reform said Kansas was "the story of the next decade." The Cato Institute praised Brownback's "impressive" tax cuts and gave him an "A" on fiscal policy. And the Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol said that, if reelected, Brownback would be "a...

Appearing on a Kansas City local radio talk show on KCMO Thursday morning, Senator Pat Roberts made a verbal gaffe that plays right into his primary opponent's main talking point against him. Reports show that Roberts spends very little time his home state of Kansas - less than 100 days using official funds over the course of two years, an issue his opponent, radiologist, Dr. Milton Wolfe has capitalized on. "After 47 years in Washington, it's clear that Kansas is a distant memory for Pat Roberts," Wolf said back in May. "How else do you explain Roberts wanting to spend...