Discussion for article #227277
And this children is why ballots and the running of elections doesn’t
belong in the hands of elected partisan officials.
Example…Canadian elections are managed by Elections Canada who have no party affiliation to speak of. They manage the voters lists, set up the polling stations, get the ballots out without overt interference from any party.
At the end of the day…much less opportunity for anyone to
manipulate results
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Tradition be damned. Roberts was in trouble from the get go. I don’t think Kobach’s chicken sh*t gambit is enough to save Roberts. Orman’s problem is he is doing all of his own talking on his commercials and he doesn’t exactly have a great voice. His message is spot on and running against elected Republicans after Brownback’s purge of all of the moderate Republicans from state government and his general Koch inspired misadministration isn’t all that hard in Kansas this year.
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Oh look, Dylan Scott is learning to write Kapur-like headlines!
Someone is on the TPM fast track!
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I would like to take issue with the following wording:
Democratic voters would presumably line up against anybody-but-Roberts
No, Democratic voters are not going to line up against the Republican candidate’s opponent. The phrase should read:
Democratic voters would presumably line up behind anybody-but-Roberts…
Or possibly even better:
Democratic voters would presumably rally behind anybody-but-Roberts…
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Taylor can advertise, and should. Run ads saying “Don’t vote for Chad Taylor.” Have Taylor explain the issues, why it’s vital to vote against Roberts, AND, by the way, why Kris Kobach needs to be run out of the state as well. Make him appear an honest man, a truth teller, spend some money on that, and not only will Orman win but you’ll set Taylor up for state office down the road.
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Yeah…this headline seems just made for handwringers (and, of course, right in Kapur’s Wheelhouse)…but, if true, the REAL handwringers would be Kansas Democrats, who would respond to one of the most crass, partisan rulings by a Secretary of State possible (given Taylor’s statements that he had prior authorization to drop out) by going to sleep and somnolently checking the Democratic candidate box, because “I’m s’posed to do it” without being remotely aware of the subterfuge of Kris Kobach and its implications.
There was a movie about my people called “Stand and Deliver” in which the math teacher (of Chicanos) stated: “People rise to the level of their expectations”.
Are Democratic voters THAT clueless?
Don’t people know that Lisa Murkowski won her U.S. Senate seat over Joe Miller against similar odds?
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“First, more than 90 percent of Democrats need to vote for Orman.”
Take that for granted, Kansas Dems aren’t dumb and they are certainly stubborn, they aren’t going to vote for their own non-candidate if they can beat Sir Roberts with an Indie, that was what the whole withdrawal thing was about in the first place.
“Lastly, he needs to turn out actual independents and win them convincingly.”
That was going to happen anyway. They were fired up over Orman long before he was the upset du jour.
…everything in between those fragments is speculative, but the two ends of that prerequisite paragraph are already in the bag for Orman.
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Even if he dropped out it is not a guarantee that the other fellow would win, it would just help the chances.
Two words…Angus King. There was a Dem on the ballot in ME when he ran.
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You just know that Crazy Kobach has some unseemly skeletons in his closet…He just reeks of corruption and political payola.
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Better yet, Taylor should announce that he’s had an “epiphany” and
a “Come to Jeebus” moment and joined the Tea Patsies. He could
run a campaign attacking Roberts as a commie-fascist-librul RINO.
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You’re such a nay sayer - Roberts is extremely unpopular in Kansas. The entire GOP brand in Kansas is now on life support thanks to Brownback and his nonsense - I think it’s much more likely that Roberts has a narrow path to win. People are fed up with him.
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I guarantee… I abso-frickin-lutely GUARANTEE that somewhere in Kansas, a print shop just got a gigantic order for “VOTE TAYLOR!” yard signs.
I’m guessing the name on the invoice will be something like “Independents for Taylor” or some such.
Oy. I’ll bet you’re right. Republicans are all such ratfuckers.
Left out of the discussion so far is whether or not Kansas allows straight ticket voting which could make a difference with these facts in a close election if Taylor’s name is still on the ballot.
Rest assured that we’re aware of it here in Kansas–this is all my more politically-active friends (Republicans and Democrats) have been talking about for the past two days. There aren’t that many of us, for one thing, and the events of the past two years have made us especially attentive to politics.
Left out of the discussion so far is whether or not Kansas allows straight ticket voting
I can’t find any evidence that they do. I looked at a few sample ballots from years past and didn’t see it, nor does Wikipedia list it as one of the states that still does it.
Apparently it’s not nearly as common as it used to be–that is, a single box that automatically checks all other boxes.
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Just because he is on the ballot doesn’t mean he has to campaign for himself. Just run banners not running, please support…
Could easily turn around and bite Republicans in the b***. Use the opportunity to point out all the bad things Kobach and Brownbeck have done in Kansas.
It could be a two for one chance.