Kansas continues to fascinate
In the Kansas Republican primary Tuesday, two members of the House faced challenges from the center while Sen. Pat Roberts faced a challenge from the right. All survived. Now, it's the governor's turn to worry.
In the Kansas Republican primary Tuesday, two members of the House faced challenges from the center while Sen. Pat Roberts faced a challenge from the right. All survived. Now, it's the governor's turn to worry.
In 2004, Thomas Frank wrote 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the Matter With Kansas?鈥� a fascinating if tilted view of the political dynamics of a state that takes its politics very, very seriously.
Kansas is an overwhelmingly agricultural state. It also has a vibrant (or once vibrant) aviation industry and a wind energy sector.
It is also a pretty rural state, sitting smack in the middle of the country.
Kansas has always had a pretty volatile political history, stretching back to when it first entered the union. This is what the History Channel鈥檚 website said about that entry:
And from that point forward, the politics of Kansas became pretty contentious.
Mr. Frank鈥檚 thesis was that overwhelming social conservatism of everyday Kansans today has distracted them from the economic populist issues that should drive them to the Democrats.
It鈥檚 an interesting thesis, but I think it needs to be updated, because what is happening to the Republican Party in Kansas is fascinating.
Pat Roberts, the venerable and conservative senior senator, faced down a challenge from an obviously unqualified Milton Wolf. Dr. Wolf鈥檚 chief claim to fame was being Barack Obama鈥檚 distant cousin.
But Roberts wasn鈥檛 the only one to face a challenge. Rep. Tim Huelskamp, the conservative who voted against John Boehner for speaker, barely squeaked by his primary challenge, mostly because he voted consistently against the state鈥檚 farm interests.
Rep. Mike Pompeo faced a heated primary challenge from his predecessor, Todd Tiahrt.
Both Reps. Pompeo and Huelskamp ran on an economic populist platform that eschews all federal help, even help from programs that help Kansas businesses.
As a former chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Roberts was put in the uncomfortable position of having to defend his record of helping his state鈥檚 farm interests against attacks from the populist Wolf.
He succeeded, but it was closer than many thought it would be.
The problem for the conservative movement in Kansas comes at the top of the ticket. Gov. Sam Brownback has been perhaps the most conservative governor in the history of the state of Kansas. But he is facing a challenging battle for reelection because his policies haven鈥檛 worked like he or his constituents thought they would.
The irony is that neither Roberts, Huelskamp nor Pompeo face any general election issues, while Governor Brownback, who had no primary opponent, might lose.
Kansas continues to fascinate.
John Feehery publishes his Feehery Theory blog at http://www.thefeeherytheory.com/.