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Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has taken the lead in two new polls released on Wednesday as his opponent Greg Orman again endorsed amnesty for illegal immigrants during Wednesday's debate. In a Fox News poll, Roberts leads Orman, the liberal Democrat running as an "independent," by 5 points. Roberts leads Orman by a point in a CNN/ORC poll. Three weeks ago, Orman was leading Roberts by six points. In Wednesday's debate, Roberts accused Orman of supporting amnesty after Orman tried to convince voters that he did not. The Kansas City Star reports that Orman does indeed support "a path to citizenship...

In the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas, independent candidate and businessman Greg Orman leads Republican incumbent Pat Roberts by 10 points among likely voters including those who are undecided yet leaning toward a candidate. Orman’s lead is bolstered by better than a two-to-one lead among independents likely to vote. Voters’ impressions of incumbent Republican Roberts is upside down with nearly half of likely voters viewing him negatively. In contrast, Orman is more positively viewed by likely voters and has lower negatives. Turning to the contest for governor in Kansas, the Republican incumbent, Sam Brownback, faces a tough challenge from...

Poll available at link. To summarize the results among likely voters: KS Senate Race: Roberts (R) 49% Orman (I) 48% KS Governor Race: Brownback (R) 49% Davis (D) 49%

A few weeks after the national Republican Party moved in to revamp the campaign and begin an ad blitz aimed at saving incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts' job, a new poll shows him facing more of an uphill battle than ever against independent businessman Greg Orman.

he Supreme Court has turned away appeals from five states seeking to prohibit same-sex marriages, paving the way for an immediate expansion of gay and lesbian unions. The justices on Monday did not comment in rejecting appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The court's order immediately ends delays on marriage in those states. Couples in six other states should be able to get married in short order. That would make same-sex marriage legal in 30 states and the District of Columbia. But the justices have left unresolved for now the question of same-sex marriage nationwide.

A new poll out Wednesday from Suffolk University and USA Today confirms something we kind of already knew: Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) is in a remarkable amount of trouble. The poll shows independent Greg Orman leading Roberts 46 percent to 41 percent with Democrat Chad Taylor now off the ballot. It has plenty of bad news for Roberts, but also some reasons to believe his goose isn't cooked just yet. Below, we're recapping three ominous signs for Roberts, and three reasons for hope. (And it all comes with the caveat that one poll shouldn't be taken as gospel.) First, the...

Vanquished Republican Senate candidate Milton Wolf is expected to endorse Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback before the midterm elections, GOP sources said Wednesday. Brownback, a Republican, faces an unexpectedly tough re-election bid in usually deep red Kansas, and the GOP has worked hard to unite the party in the aftermath of a bitter Senate primary. (SNIP) National Tea Party endorsements have poured in for Roberts, among them pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson and talk radio host Laura Ingraham. Expected to roll through Kansas and endorse Roberts this month are Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, as well...

Independent businessman and political enigma Greg Orman (46 percent) is leading three-term Republican incumbent Pat Roberts (41 percent) in the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas, with 11 percent undecided, according to the latest Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll of likely voters in the general election. In the race for governor, Democratic state Rep. Paul Davis (46 percent) is leading incumbent Sam Brownback (42 percent), a Republican, with 6 percent undecided in the survey conducted by the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston.

Republicans are scrambling to save a seat that they thought was in the bag. Republican chances to win control of the Senate in the 2014 midterms, requiring a pickup of six seats, have taken a blow. Kansas, a state no one considered anything other than a safe hold for the party a few months ago, now appears to be slipping away. After a contentious primary resulting in a victory for the 78-year incumbent Pat Roberts over tea party challenger Milton Wolf, things have gone steadily south for Roberts. Wolf refused to close ranks and endorse Roberts. A self-funded independent, 45-year-old...

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) declared his opposition to granting amnesty for illegal immigrants and contrasted this with his Independent opponent’s support for amnesty on Friday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.” “[Orman] says he that wants to grant citizenship to all illegal aliens if they pay a small fine and promise to obey the law, these people have already broken the law. I have fought amnesty every time I will always fight amnesty, that’s a big difference in our debate" he said. Roberts added that he would “absolutely not” support increasing guest workers in the United States.

There will be no meeting Friday in Kansas between former tea party Senate candidate Milton Wolf (R) and independent Senate candidate Greg Orman, a person familiar with Wolf's thinking told The Washington Post, in response to rumors of a potential Wolf endorsement of the independent candidate. "Dr. Wolf is not meeting with Greg Orman and there is no consideration of a Wolf endorsement for Orman," said the person, who was informed of that information directly by Wolf. The person was granted anonymity to speak freely about Wolf's plans.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts put a signature to documents associated with the mortgage on a Virginia residence that identify the Fairfax County home as “principal residence” of the three-term incumbent Republican. The re-election campaign of the Kansan has been awash in controversy about whether his ownership of a duplex in Dodge City, which is rented out, and his payment of about $300 a month for a room in a Dodge City supporter's home satisfied legal requirements for public office. On Wednesday, records surfaced that Roberts signed a Deed of Trust in 1997 and 2003 for property owned in Alexandria, Va.,...

When Pat Roberts faced a conservative primary challenge this summer, he did what most Republican senators have learned to do: turn hard right. Now, facing an unexpectedly strong independent challenge, Roberts is doubling down. On Thursday, the three-term Kansas senator turned to tea party darling Sarah Palin to rally voters behind his flagging campaign. The former Alaska governor praised Roberts for standing with Sen. Ted Cruz a year ago during his marathon floor speech against President Obama's healthcare law, which preceded a strategy that resulted in a government shutdown. "He [was] one of the few senators fulfilling campaign promises, doing...

Shirley Deege is a proud Republican. For as long as she can remember, the nurse has been voting for Pat Roberts — in the 1980s, when he represented a vast patchwork of dusty plains hamlets in the House; in 1996, when he first ran for the Senate; and every six years after that. “Looking back over my life, I’m wondering, ‘What major things has he done for Kansas?’ I’m coming up empty,” said Deege, 53, as she sipped coffee while waiting for Roberts to arrive at the county fairgrounds in Kinsley this week. “He’s spent so much time in Washington,”...

“Gov. Palin is one of our party’s grassroots leaders, and we are thrilled to have her support in this important race for U.S. Senate. Republicans in Kansas, and across the country, are uniting around our campaign because we cannot win the Senate majority without Pat Roberts,” said Roberts’ campaign manager, Corry Bliss, in a statement. http://www.hutchnews.com/news/local_state_news/roberts-campaign-thrilled-to-have-palin-s-support/article_6b856110-4e6a-5a03-823a-bd538814fdfb.html

Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, will come to Wichita on Sept. 29 to stump for U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in a tight Senate race that has drawn national attention. Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article2207842.html#storylink=cpy

Control of the Senate is potentially at stake in Kansas, and the GOP is beginning to double down. With a two-man race now looking all but certain, national Republicans are planning a scorched-earth offensive to frame Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) independent opponent, Greg Orman, as a shady businessman. Their first volley this weekend: reports that Orman represented Rajat Gupta — the former Goldman Sachs board member who incurred criminal and civil fines of more than $18 million and was jailed earlier this year for securities fraud — on a two-person board of a Cayman Islands private equity partnership. Kansas Republicans...

Former Alaska Gov and GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin will campaign with vulnerable establishment Republican Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas as a "special guest" at an Independence, Kansas event on Thursday.

The campaign for incumbent Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts is reaching into the GOP hall of fame to try to win a tight race and help the party take control of the Senate -- bringing 91-year-old Bob Dole on the trail.The former 1996 GOP presidential nominee and Senate majority leader from Kansas will also purportedly participate in a TV ad for Roberts, as first reported by ABC News. The 78-year-old Roberts, seeking a fourth term, is involved in one of the toughest and most unusual races of the midterm cycle.

Democrats won a key legal battle in the Kansas Senate race Thursday, but now the party faces a wrenching choice: Spend precious dollars to try and unseat Republican Pat Roberts in a solidly red state, or sit on the sidelines and pass up a chance to steal a seat — and potentially the Senate majority — from Republicans. The ruling removed the Democratic candidate from the ballot, clearing the way for a showdown between Roberts and independent Greg Orman and, at least on paper, increasing the likelihood that the longtime senator can be beaten. A smattering of recent polls shows...