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Kelly needs to make a point or two
……Laura Kelly https://www.laurakellyforkansas.com/ could win. She was behind by a point in the most recent poll.……Sam Brownback was Kansas’ Governor. Now he is Donald Trump’s Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. Brownback was elected in 2010 and left for Washington in January of 2018. He called his time as governor a “red-state experiment.” Huge cuts in the income tax he hoped would create economic growth and prosperity. ……The experiment’s outcome was not what he hoped for. When Brownback left office, he was competing with Mary Fallin of Oklahoma for least popular governor. Each had created huge deficits for their states; deficits that required debilitating reductions in public services.
……Secretary of State Kris Kobach is Kelly’s opponent. By a hair. Kobach defeated the former Lt. Governor, now Governor by 343 votes. Kobach had an experiment of his very own. He tried kicking people off the voter rolls. He removed 20,000 voters from the rolls as he looked for fraud. Nine confused voters were convicted for voting twice.
……Kobach wanted to take the experiment national. He was a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. Other Secretaries of State, even those in favor of voter suppression, would not cooperate. The Commission wanted confidential information from voter lists. Without cooperation, the Commission folded.
……Kobach has also tried opposing immigration, not always competently. As a private attorney, he defended municipal efforts to restrict immigrants. He defended Arizona’s attempt to require municipalities to impose draconian limits on undocumented immigrants. Had Kobach succeeded, he would have prevented undocumented immigrants from having access to housing.……Kobach often does and says the wrong thing. Running for Secretary of State he was fined for under reporting campaign expenses. When the Obama administration rejected prosecutions of some immigrants, Kobachwarned that Obama might end prosecution of all African Americans. In his enthusiasm for deporting undocumented immigrants, Kobach called deportations a jobs program.
……Kobach did not become more moderate or more competent in office. In 2014, the Democratic candidate for Senate withdrew from the race so Democrats could support an Independent. Kobach failed in his effort to get the Kansas Supreme Court to prevent Chad Taylor from withdrawing. Kobach inadvertently released personal data for thousands of Kansas employees and legislators as a result of his effort to pioneer national crosschecking of voters. He was fined for misleading the court in a suit about taking people off the voting rolls. He tossed thousands of uncounted provisional ballots claiming that there was no record of the voters having been registered.
……Laura Kelly and the Democrats would bring normality back to government in Kansas. She is a conservative Democrat from a Republican, military family. Democratic Liberals have been concerned about her openness to gun ownership, for instance. But she is an old pro in Kansas politics.
……Laura Kelly settled in Topeka Kansas with her husband, a physician. Elected in 2004, she was in the Senate when Brownback arrived. Before that, she spent 18 years as Executive Director of the Kansas Recreation and Parks Association, lobbying the legislature on behalf of parks.
……When thinking about Laura Kelly, think about her friend and neighbor and supporter, Kathleen Sibelius. Sibelius is the daughter of an Ohio Governor, a former governor of Kansas, and Secretary of Health and Human Services under Obama. Laura Kelly would bring Kansas back to earth.
……Laura Kelly has been preparing. Her particular focus has been the adverse impact of the budgets on children. The culmination of her guerilla warfare against the Governor was at a statehouse meeting with a task force on the child welfare system. Where, she wanted to know, were three missing sisters? The Agency head had no idea. The Agency had no idea they were missing. Foster care contractors followed up. Where, they asked, are the 70 plus children who have gone missing over the past few years?
……Competence counts. Experience counts. Knowledge of the system counts. Laura Kelly‘s record of fiscal prudence counts. She will reverse Brownback’s tax cuts. She will spend money on schools and teachers. She has no interest in throwing people off the voter rolls. Kansas is ready for normality.
……Kansas Republicans are ready for Laura Kelly. Bill Graves, a former Republican Governor of Kansas, has endorsed Laura Kelly, saying he has never before endorsed a Democrat. Nancy Kassebaum, a former Republican Senator from Kansas and the daughter of Republican Presidential nominee Alf Landon has endorsed Laura Kelly. Sheila Frahm, another former Republican Senator from Kansas has endorsed Laura Kelly. A former Republican Lt. Governor, two former Republican Senate Presidents, two former Republican Senate Majority leaders, and a slew of other Republicans have endorsed Laura Kelly.
……Is this a moderate Republican counter revolution? If it is, it is not the first one. Several far right Republican legislators have been primaried by moderate Republicans, lost, and then won in subsequent elections. Many Republicans supported the Democratic candidate for Governor in 2014. He came close, but could not overcome a late smear campaign. ……If this is a moderate Republican counter revolution, it is a slow one. Slowly, Kansas may show the rest of the country how to deal with a Republican party that is out of control.
……Laura Kelly https://www.laurakellyforkansas.com/ is not a shoo-in. Brownback and Kobach have been elected statewide before. She does seem to be the right Democrat at the right time. Help Laura Kelly fix Kansas. Help Democrats and Moderate Republicans elect her. Provide her with some support.
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