Republican Extremists Have Gone Too Far in Kansas: 7 On-the-Ground Developments

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http://www.alternet.org/election-2014/republican-extremists-have-gone-too-far-kansas-7-ground-developments




1. Gov. Sam Brownback really is in trouble. The Republican former U.S. senator who was known for right-wing attacks on pro-choice groups and even Catholic members of Congress was elected Kansas governor in 2010’s Tea Party wave. Two years later, he and other Republican extremists—social conservatives from the religious right and libertarians aligned with the Koch brother wing (who are fellow Kansans)—led a party coup ousting moderate Republicans in their primaries. That gave Brownback a green light to begin a great experiment, as he called it, which was to make giant cuts in state income taxes and reorganize state agencies and programs. This is what congressional right-wingers dream about: cutting taxes and services while saying the resulting growth will lead to prosperity, showing taxes and programs aren't needed.


***SNIP

2. The ‘strip club’ attack on Davis actually helps the nerdy Dem. You may have heard that Paul Davis recently was put on the defensive after acknowledging that he was caught up in a raid of a strip club in 1998, when he was 26. Davis was a young lawyer at the time and said a client had taken him to the club. Like many attacks coming from the state’s religious right, the goal here was to paint Davis as morally compromised and therefore unfit for high office. The irony, according to one campaign consultant who is helping Democrats running for the Legislature, is that this attack seems to be helping Davis. Why? Because he’s a nerdy educator from Lawrence, the liberal city and home of the University of Kansas, and his strip club visit makes him look a little more like a regular guy.

3. The religious right is not fired up about Brownback. That was what right-wing minister Terry Fox said, adding that his side was nowhere near as motivated to turn out in November as the teachers unions and their allies. That's surprising, if it’s true, because Brownback is as fervently anti-abortion and anti-LGBT as he is anti-tax. But Fox said Brownback deeply disappointed social conservatives last winter when he did not insist the state Senate pass a “religious freedom” bill that would have allowed religious employees to refuse to serve a client if it offended their religious beliefs. That bill was mostly aimed at LGBT individuals but also could have applied to interracial marriages. Fox said that Brownback abandoned social conservatives and yielded to the "bad for business" lobby. That letdown may be behind the strip club attacks, which are aimed at the state’s social conservative base.

4. There was no U.S. Senate race until there was no Democrat. Much of the national coverage of the U.S. Senate race has focused on whether Independent Greg Orman, a 45-year-old multimillionaire, will beat four-term GOP incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts. Roberts has said that Orman walks and talks like a Democrat. Orman says he holds liberal and conservative values. Meanwhile, Orman won’t declare what party he would caucus with if elected. Meanwhile, a parade of nationally known Republicans, including Sarah Palin, have been campaigning to save his seat, which could bring a GOP Senate majority.

[Fred Sanders]

1. Young lawyer at a strip club, brought by clients? Brown back attacked criminal lawyer Davis for

that?

Freaky idiots who ran that ad theme probably boosted Davis by 5 points, the voting pool loves that kind of shit.