[Jokelahoma]

True... no one expected Kobach to beat Taff, frankly. Taff nearly unseated Moore in '02. I think what turned it for Kobach was the whole "funding from white supremacists" thing, and his refusal to return the money. Moore's team really played that up nicely, if I recall.

It wasn't a strong campaign by Kobach, to say the least. I'm just not sure it was his ideology that got him beat in JoCo. I know it was his ideology that beat him in Wyandotte and Douglas, though.

[Non-Sequitur]

I think what turned it for Kobach was the whole "funding from white supremacists" thing, and his refusal to return the money.

I disagree with that, although Kobach prefers to believe that was the reason. The truth is that the Republicans were divided more than usual by the particularly nasty primary. Then Kobach went and ran a really bad campaign and catered only to the conservative Republicans. In doing so he turned off the more moderate Republicans, the independents, and the moderate Democrats.