Republican primary in Kansas highlights continuing battle between tea party, establishment

The upcoming Republican primary battle in Kansas between Rep. Tim Huelskamp and a local physician is proving to be the latest showdown between the tea party and establishment wings of the party as tensions between the two GOP factions continue to grow.

Since being elected in 2010, Huelskamp, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, has been a thorn in the side of his party’s leadership who repeatedly clashed with former House Speaker John Boehner and as a result was removed from the House Agriculture and Budget committees in 2012.

He has promoted a small government agenda while decrying as “crony capitalism” programs pushed by business groups.

His reelection bid is being backed by Koch brother supported groups Freedom Partners and Americans for Prosperity, which are devoting “low six figures” to knock on doors in Kansas’s 1st Congressional District urging voters to support the congressman. Also in Huelskamp’s corner is the conservative Club for Growth, which has spent $400,000 aiding his reelection efforts, including a $130,000 television ad launched this week attacking his challenger, physician Roger Marshall.

Huelskamp is my rep. They sure are throwing a lot of money in to this race. While many political ads are somewhat misleading. The ones Marshall has been running against Huelskamp has been very misleading. I really don’t care for that as Huelskamp has been a very good conservative for this area. He has been a thorn in the establishment’s side as the day Boehner was forced to step down, Huelskamps tweeted, “Today the establishment lost”.

I was a little miffed at Huelskamp’s support for Cruz but a lot of people got duped by Cruz, that is understandable. I did consider Marshall but his hit and run and trying to run over someone, where he was tried and convicted, says a lot about his character that I really don’t care for as well as the very misleading ads.

I do believe Huelskamp will do a good job working with Trump now that the Cruz debacle is behind him.

CGato

Huelskamp has an uphill battle ahead of him.

The flap over school finance has the electorate in a foul mood. This is a State issue and should not affect our national reps, but this is not a perfect world.

My evidence is only anecdotal, but there's a big push to sweep ALL incumbents out, regardless of party affiliation.

School finance has been a sore spot for decades - some KS counties even threated to secede over the distribution of State education funds to local school districts. The State Supreme Court only magnified the problem by declaring State funding plans unconstitutional. This summer it went down to the wire again. Funding was delayed as schools stayed shuttered. Teachers and Parents were understandably concerned that schools may not open in the fall.

The crisis was averted, but nothing was solved and people are fed up over it. Brownback seems to be getting most of the blame (undeservedly), but anyone who's in gov't has a target on his back right now.

I hear you, last poll I saw Huelskamp and Marshall was running neck and neck. I just hope people don’t throw out a good conservative politician just because they are mad at the whole thing. We then would end up with an establishment CINO candidate in Marshall so hopefully Kansans think hard about this before voting.

While I do think education is important, I really don’t like the judicial branch getting involved with the legislature branch’s business. I read the legislature could tell the judicial branch where to go but they cave to them every time. Our state’s economy is a mess and our nation is broke so, in the real world, education funding would be what it would be. We can’t wish for more just because some liberal fatcat in the judicial branch wishes it so or some liberal wishes it so.

If we have to do some school district consolidation to be able to afford education, then that is the legislature’s business to figure out. Plus, I read a study awhile back that way too much money goes to administration in this state and consolidation would help save quite a bit of money with more money going to the students and teachers.

There are real world consequences at play here. The bigger the gov’t, the more taxes needed, etc. is going to have a negative impact on business and I see that everywhere I drive around Kansas as so many small businesses and national chains have closed. Many of those small businesses have been long-time businesses gone forever and also the tax base all that represents. Yeah, we get a few new businesses that replace them but we’ve lost far more than have come in. We also have many people, jobs, and businesses leaving the state for less tax-burdening waters. Oklahoma and Texas are benefiting greatly at our mismanagement at the government levels.

For much of the mess in Kansas, I put much of the blame on our local news medias. They sure know how to agitate people when it comes to cutting government and taxes. Anytime those things happen just look how they work some people up in a frenzy. There are times it is necessary work for the legislature when economic times are not so good but these leftists in the media think they can force their utopia Disneyland all the time.

As for Brownback, no he doesn’t deserve all the blame. Decades of irresponsible spending and judicial meddling has brought us to this point. The statist Sebilius has her fair share of blame in this. My only disappointment in Brownback and some of the republican leadership is not taking on the media and caving in to their pressure. They need to follow Trump’s lead and not let the media get away with their deceptions.

CGato

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