Hot campaign here at home
Saturday, May 3, 2008
IF THE DEMOCRATIC primaries seem a bit far away, Kansans have another political race to focus on at home.
Pat Roberts, who was beginning to look as if he was elected Kansas’ Senator for Life, has some serious competition this year: former Kansas Rep. Jim Slattery, a Democrat who was popular in his district in the 1980s and 90s before he gave up his seat to run for governor.
Roberts has known for some time that he was likely to be a target for Kansas Democrats this year. Long before Slattery announced, it had been remarked that Roberts was devoting more effort than he had in years to raising money for his re-election campaign.
Before, Roberts’ Senate seat was considered to be a hereditary Republican fiefdom. Kansas did not elect Democrats often, and hardly ever to the Senate. Roberts had piled up a good bit of seniority in Washington and was not touched by any of the big scandals.
But back in his home state, Democrats were gaining ground with the help of independents and disaffected Republicans. Kathleen Sebelius easily won two terms as governor. The Kansas delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives went from a 3-1 lock for the GOP to 2-2 split.
The state that Roberts returns to in his campaign this year is not the state that elected him 12 years ago. People are weary of war, scared of rising food and oil prices and tired of a Congress that never seems to work up enough energy to get anything done.
Will the voters hold Roberts responsible for the state’s woes? The senator is taking no chances. He has already begun to mount a campaign that focuses on Slattery, rather than on his own record. A Roberts radio ad labels Slattery as a Gucci loafer-wearing liberal Washington lobbyist. All of those things may be true, but none of them has much to do with Slattery’s talents as a legislator or his fitness for office.
Slattery, on the other hand, is targeting Roberts’ performance in office, lumping him with political leaders of “breathtaking incompetence.” Expect Slattery to lean heavily on Roberts’ connection to the handling of the war in Iraq. Until the Democrats regained a slim majority in the Senate, Roberts was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Democrats accused Roberts and the committee of dragging their feet in the investigation of pre-war intelligence errors.
So while Kansans wait for other states to decide who will be the Democratic presidential candidate, they will have an important Senate campaign to keep them involved and entertained.
That campaign is likely to address many of the issues that will be at the core of the presidential race.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
shoehorn (anonymous) says...
What an amazing twist! "He has already begun to mount a campaign that focuses on Slattery, rather than on his own record"......"Slattery, on the other hand, is targeting Roberts’ performance in office".... instead of his own record? What a subtle play on words Mr. Kelley.
May 3, 2008 at 2:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
USNretired (anonymous) says...
Considering the the state of the State, I don't intend to help put any more Dems in office in the near future.
May 3, 2008 at 4:42 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jayhawker (anonymous) says...
I suspect that Pat Kelley is right - the Democrats will want to keep the focus away from Jim Slattery. He lives in a million dollar home in the Washington D. C. metro area making a large annual income from lobbying for anyone who will pay him. The Democrats will also hope that we have completely forgotten the House Banking scandal that Slattery was involved in. (For those who have forgotten, when Slattery was in Congress he and others created a House Bank, paid for by tax dollars, that allowed its patrons (congressmen) to write bad checks that were never collected. It was free money. Slattery was one of the biggest offenders. He barely escaped jail on the deal.) I'm not so sure about Slattery's fitness for office.
May 3, 2008 at 5:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
pizza (anonymous) says...
I sure agree with jayhawker but Roberts hasn't been very impressive for a long time. Think a little stirring up would be good for him. Was he asleep at the switch when the big defense contract went to France instead of Boeing? That is a foul up none of us should forgive. Of course, our other Senator wasn't much help either.
May 3, 2008 at 11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
KevinS (anonymous) says...
House members were convicted of wrongdoing in the House Bank scandal - but Slattery wasn't one of them. Wikipedia has a good write-up of the whole thing - but here's a run-down: The bank didn't provide regular statements to members, overdraft notifications weren't sent, and deposits weren't posted in a timely manner - often as much as 7 weeks(!) after the fact. Plus, like many banks here in Kansas, the house bank allowed overdrafts, as long as they were less than the next paycheck. To say that he barely escaped jail is a complete fabrication. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_ba...
The million dollar home thing is a joke. A million dollar home in DC is probably like a $200,000 house in Topeka. And since when are Republican's against an entrepreneur, like Slattery, making money?
The fact is, Roberts will lose on issues. He's provided no oversight of the failure of the Iraq War - and the intelligence failures that led to us entering the war in the first place. He's supported the irresponsible fiscal policies of Bush/Cheney that cut taxes (during wartime!) leading to a huge increase in the national debt. He's also voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices, and against stricter emissions standards - all while accepting thousands from Big Oil and $188K (!) from the pharmaceutical companies. Jim Slattery wants to put an end to inter-generational robbery, the failed Bush/Cheney/Roberts no-win war in Iraq, and create a responsible energy plan for the future. No wonder Roberts wants to focus on Jim's shoes.
May 4, 2008 at 11:55 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )