The Davis-Docking campaign has released a list of 104 Republicans who have, as a group that calls itself "Republicans for Kansas Values," endorsed Paul Davis, the Lawrence liberal Democrat, and his running mate, Jill Docking.
Looking through the list, the names are overwhelmingly names that appear on a list of so-called "Traditional Republicans for Common Sense." I wrote about this group in May, and made the following points:
Founding members of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense include former U.S. Sen. Sheila Frahm, former U.S. Rep. Jan Meyers, former State Sen. Dick Bond, and others who have not stood for election since the last century. It might be unfair to call these politicians “has-beens,” but there is an “All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up” feel to the group....
Former State Sen. Wint Winter, Jr. of Lawrence is also a member of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense. Winter, last elected to office in 1990, has opposed conservative Republicans for many years. For example, in November 1998 Winter and other “moderate” Republicans backed Craig Templeton over Jim Mullins, a conservative, in the election for chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Vince Snowbarger had just lost to Democrat Dennis Moore, leading one “moderate” to accuse Mullins of “sitting on his hands” prior to the election. Interestingly, just a few months before the chairmanship election, Templeton was the president of the short-lived Douglas County chapter of the Mainstream Coalition, a liberal organization founded by Rev. Robert Meneilly in Johnson County in 1994. The coalition’s political action committee, MAIN*PAC, actually mailed 67,000 postcards in opposition to Snowbarger’s reelection in 1998.
Is it possible that Winter was unaware of the Mainstream Coalition’s opposition to Snowbarger? Not likely. Winter’s brother, Dan, was on the Mainstream Coalition’s board of directors at the time. MAIN*PAC did its banking with Johnson County Bank, where Dan was the CEO and president.
Of course, Winter is quoted in the Davis-Docking press release along with Dick Bond, who recently accused U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts of "drinking the Kool-Aid" since he allegedly has moved to the right during recent years.
Conservative Republicans would be wise not to assign too much credibility to Republicans for Kansas Values. Their values are neither Kansas nor Republican values. Endorsing a far-left state representative who shares Barack Obama's ideology proves that.
UPDATE: Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Lawrence, is also a member of Republicans for Kansas Values. Earlier this year, she teamed up with Jill Docking and other liberals to form "Reroute the Roadmap." At that time, Praeger "insisted her membership in the group was not tantamount to an endorsement of Davis." Of course, that claim fits in with her tendency to stray from the truth.
Looking though the list of “Republicans” endorsing Davis, I see a very generous helping of loser's anger in this bunch. The number on the list of current officeholders as Republicans is very slim and a great number of these former officeholders lost to true Republican conservatives.
ReplyDeleteMost of the KC metro area former office holders are members of the laughingly titled Mainstream Coalition - which is little more than a semi-official branch of the Democratic Party. Their newsletters and website in a year and a half of watching have not a single time supported a single position which could be recognized as coming from anywhere other than Obama central - also called Organizing for America.
I’m surprised that the Obama Davis campaign didn’t include those few former Republicans that had enough personal honesty to actually change their registration like former Lt Gov Parkinson or the disgraced Sebilius AG Paul Morrison.
The media are really playing this up. However, they're not asking a simple question: Why didn't any of these 104 Republicans challenge Brownback in the primary INSTEAD of endorsing a liberal Democrat like Paul Davis? Their endorsement of Davis implies that they believe Kansas values are to the far left.
ReplyDeleteAlso note that this group had to pad its list with school board members to get to 100. They did not stand for election as Republicans since those are not partisan positions.