Free Republic

Following up on my post on Friday about the long illustrious history of conservative vote suppression it’s interesting that one of the nation’s foremost activists in the field should be in the spotlight going into the November election. Indeed, he’s right in the middle of one of the most interesting races in the country. I’m referring to Kris Kobach, the Republican Kansas secretary of state who was sued last week by the former Democratic candidate for the Senate who dropped out of the race in favor of an independent. (SNIP) He also said that he might have “shrugg(ed) my shoulders...

Oral argument in the Kansas Supreme Court has now completed in the case of Kobach v. Taylor, on the question whether Taylor’s name can be removed from the Kansas U.S. Senate ballot. The issue is especially important with incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts now trailing independent Greg Orman in recent polling and with the fate of the Senate potentially hanging in the balance. While it is always hazardous to predict outcomes from oral argument (because Justices sometimes ask rhetorical questions or minds change after argument), I think it is likely the Justices will quickly issue an order removing Taylor’s name...

Independent Greg Orman has opened up a lead in his effort to unseat Republican Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, according to a new poll from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. Orman leads Roberts 41-34, with Democrat Chad Taylor — who announced plans to end his campaign earlier this month — capturing 6 percent of the vote. Libertarian Randall Batson earned 4 percent support in the poll, which was first provided to the Huffington Post. The automated phone and online survey of 1,328 likely voters was taken between Sept. 11 and Sept. 14. The margin of error is plus-or-minus 2.7 percentage points....

If Milton Wolf endorsed Pat Roberts after Wolf’s defeat in the Kansas Republican primary for U.S. Senate, I missed it. And if he has, it is the best kept secret in Kansas. I’ve checked everywhere on the web, and it isn’t there. I called Wolf to confirm, but I did not get a response. So, I think it is safe to assume the tea party challenger has decided, at least for now, not to endorse the victor. This is too bad because Wolf — who amazingly carried 41 percent of the statewide vote against 48 percent for longtime incumbent Roberts...

Kansas Democratic Senate candidate Chad Taylor’s effort to get his name taken off this fall’s ballot will be heard in the state’s supreme court, according to reports, the latest twist in a suddenly fast-changing race thought to be a shoo-in for Republicans. Last week, Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach ruled that Taylor will have to remain on the ballot since he did not demonstrate that he was incapable of serving if elected, a requirement under state statutes. Taylor went on to file a lawsuit against Kobach, claiming an election official helped him prepare the necessary documents to withdraw from...

The legal battle over Democrats’ efforts to get their nominee off the ballot in the U.S. Senate race in Kansas heated up Wednesday, with a prominent party attorney from Washington helping and Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach moving again to thwart the attempt. Some Democrats last week nudged nominee Chad Taylor out of the race with three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, but Kobach has refused to remove Taylor’s name from the Nov. 4 ballot. Kobach, a conservative Republican who’s backing Roberts, said Taylor failed to comply with a state election law that limits when party nominees can withdraw. Taylor...

"I think if you're undocumented and you are here, you should have to register with ICE, you should have to pay a small fine or perform community service as an acknowledgement that you've broken the law. Then you should have to hold down a job, pay taxes, obey our laws. And if you do all those things, I think you should be able to continue to live here and work here."

The Democratic candidate in the race for U.S. Senate, Chad Taylor, withdrawing last week from the race has created an interesting dynamic going forward, in the race to represent the state of Kansas on the Senate floor on Capitol Hill. The latest KSN News Poll, conducted by SurveyUSA exclusively for KSN-TV, released Monday indicates that, if the race for the U.S. Senate were held today, September 8, and Chad Taylor’s name remained on the ballot, Independent Greg Orman and incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts are effectively tied. Orman would get 37 percent of the vote, while Sen. Roberts would get...

The biggest poll of the day came in Kansas, where SurveyUSA found independent candidate Greg Orman ahead of Republican Sen. Pat Roberts 37 percent to 36 percent. Notably, Democrat Chad Taylor, who has dropped out of the race but remains on the ballot, pulled in 10 percent. Roberts’s support has barely budged, but Orman’s backing has almost doubled. Importantly, SurveyUSA informed voters that Taylor no longer appeared to want to run. That means Orman may not gain much more ground in the polls when voters realize on their own that Taylor ceased his campaign. Orman has more upside with the...

A Tulsa, Okla.,-based plumbers and pipe welders union is clearly flush with cash, as a dozen of their top officials made more than $200,000 last year, federal records show. Plumbers AFL-CIO Local Union 798 paid business manager Daniel Hendrix $280,000 and financial secretary/treasurer Wade Pilgreen $272,000 in fiscal 2013, according to disclosures the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. ... Hendrix said his pipe fitters make about $50 an hour and work at least a 60-hour a week plus expenses, and the union staff is compensated at a similar rate for their roughly 80-hour work weeks. A person...

Labor Day week ought to start clarifying the partisan battle to control the Senate, but if anything, the picture just got muddier and the map bigger. An afterthought all year, conservative Kansas is suddenly abuzz. An independent candidate drove the Democrat from the race and positioned himself to consolidate discontent with three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. Washington-based GOP strategists are rushing to help Roberts, who's accused of sleepwalking through the race in the deeply Republican state. If Kansas brought welcome news to Democrats, Alaska did not. First-term Sen. Mark Begich initially was seen as running a smart campaign with excellent...

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill on Friday accused Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach of “putting his finger on the scales” by disallowing Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor to withdraw from the ballot. McCaskill, an out-of-state Democrat, has come under scrutiny for a conversation she had with Taylor that shortly preceded his decision to attempt to drop out of the Kansas Senate race. Several reports have suggested that McCaskill urged Taylor to withdraw from the ballot, allowing Democrats to rally around independent Greg Orman to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. Orman has a lead over Roberts in a head-to-head race,...

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts has shaken up his struggling re-election team in Kansas, moving aside a longtime confidante as campaign manager and getting help from a national operative in a race that’s suddenly a battleground in the fight for Senate control. The campaign overhaul comes after Roberts’ bruising primary fight and the stunning attempt by his Democratic challenger this week to cancel his candidacy in the face of a strong bid by an independent candidate. Roberts confirmed Friday that Leroy Towns – who the three-term Senator once described as his “alter ego” – has stepped down as executive campaign manager,...

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) has denied Democrat Chad Taylor’s request to be removed from the Kansas Senate ballot. His Thursday decision means Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) will face three candidates on the ballot this fall — Taylor, independent Greg Orman and libertarian Randall Batson — boosting the vulnerable senator’s reelection prospects. Now, Taylor could siphon off enough anti-Roberts votes from Orman, who’s been surging in the race and is now seen by Democrats as their best shot to take Roberts down, to deliver the senator an opening for a win. Kobach told reporters that, after evaluating state

In a boost for Republicans and Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, the Democrat who attempted Wednesday to drop out of the three-way Senate race must remain on the ballot, the state’s top election official ruled Thursday. Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who endorsed Roberts during the primary, argued that Democratic nominee Chad Taylor failed to declare that he would be unable to perform the job if elected, a requirement of Kansas law. Taylor’s withdrawal letter cited that law but didn’t explicitly reference any reason for his decision. “The law is quite clear on this,” said Kobach. “Those words...

Democrat Chad Taylor must stay on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday afternoon. Kobach said Taylor submitted a letter Wednesday to withdraw from the race but did not declare he was incapable of serving, which is also required. The Kansas Republican Party had questioned whether Taylor, the Shawnee County district attorney, could withdraw. Kansas law means “we now have no choice” but to put Taylor’s name on the ballot, Kobach told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “The law is the law.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article1504835.html#storylink=cpy

TOPEKA, KS -- Greg Orman’s deceptive campaign hit another low Wednesday by announcing a bogus list of Kansas endorsements—some of which are current and long-time supporters of Pat Roberts. In a Topeka press conference, Orman claimed support from Traditional Republicans for Common Sense. Yet, on that list are former Third District U.S. Represenative Jan Meyers, former State Sen. Bob Marshall of Ft. Scott, and former Kansas Rep. John Golden of Goodland, all of whom are strong supporters of Senator Roberts. Roberts’ executive campaign manager Leroy Towns said it is likely there are many others on the list who do not...

Greg Orman could upend the battle for the Senate and Kansas politics at once. But until Wednesday, few had heard of the businessman running for Senate as an independent — or regarded him as anything more than a potential spoiler in a close race. If Orman, 45, is able to unseat veteran Republican Sen. Pat Roberts — as at least one poll has indicated he could after Wednesday’s withdrawal by Democratic nominee Chad Taylor, provided the contest remains a two-man race — he could be a decisive vote for whichever party ends up controlling the Senate. Here are a few...

TOPEKA More than 70 former Republican lawmakers announced their support for the independent candidate for U.S. Senate over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts on Wednesday. Traditional Republicans for Common Sense, which is made up of moderate Republicans who have served in the Kansas Legislature, chose to endorse Greg Orman over Roberts and Democrat Chad Taylor. “Our members know leadership because they’ve been leadership,” said Jim Yonally, the group’s chairman and a former state representative from Overland Park. “Our members have been there. They’ve been on the frontline. They’ve had to make the tough decisions.” The group sees Orman as...

Despite filing papers with the Kansas secretary of State withdrawing from the Senate race late Wednesday, Democrat Chad Taylor may be stuck on the ballot this fall. Two election law statutes have raised questions about whether Taylor gave sufficient cause to remove himself from the ballot, and, if so, whether Democrats must ultimately choose a candidate to replace him. Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clay Barker told The Hill that Taylor is now back on the secretary of State’s list of general election candidates, while a legal team analyzes the statutes. One statute declares that, except under specific circumstances, “no...