New issue groups swaying outcomes (READ PLEASE)

[coda]

subtitle should be: Purge of moderate Republicans in full swing

Go to the story and read the whole thing.

The astroturf is spreading like crabgrass.

"It's almost like a franchise," he said of the Club for Growth



Posted on Thu, Aug. 05, 2004

New issue groups are successful in swaying outcomes

BY STEVE PAINTER

Eagle Topeka bureau

TOPEKA - Spending by two groups new to Kansas politics and a strong get-out-the-vote effort by churches gave conservative politicians some key legislative victories in Tuesday's primary.

Many church leaders strongly urged their members to oust lawmakers who voted against a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Their effort played a role the defeat of Republican Rep. John Ballou of Gardner, who held the No. 3 position in House, speaker pro tem.

Through mailings, radio ads and phone calls, the new political groups aimed their anti-tax message at voters in key races, including three in the Wichita area.


<snip>


Pat Ranson of Wichita, a moderate Republican and vice chairwoman of the party in the state, criticized the "hundreds of thousands of dollars" the groups spent on legislative races.

"It's a little unsettling when we have so much money coming in from out of state, which are basically single-issue groups," she said. "It turns these races into something other than Kansas races." It has skirted our campaign finance laws," she said.


<snip>


But just who is contributing money to the Kansas effort is unknown.



more.....

http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/9323468.htm

[beyurslf]

1. It's disgusting the way they run our elections. I only hope that

moderates see what is going on and support the Dem candidates.

[Mumzee]

2. In our area

Drier from Iola and Compton from Fredonia were both unseated in the primary for re-election to the Legislature and there was nobody on the Democratic ticket to oppose the "winners". We do have a former Republican named Nancy Boyda who changed to Democratic who is working hard and doing her damnedest to send Jim Ryun back to the track. However, he is prepared to out-spend her and he "works" the churches. If the working people don't come to their senses and start voting their pocketbook, Kansas is in for tough times!

[beyurslf]

3. From my friends up there, she messed up big when she said she supported

the FMA. None of them want to work for her now.

[SheilaT]

4. She's under the impression

that somehow by supporting a marriage amendment she's defusing the issue. I saw her a few weeks ago at a Democratic women's thing, and we were all over her about it. We tried very hard to get her to understand that she's losing her core support by her stand. The notion that she's still better than Ryun just doesn't make up for that.

I learned Tuesday evening that her 18 year old son is gay, but not completely out of the closet. And yeah, I'm somewhat outing him here, but so be it.

Mary Cheney works for her father's campaign, apparently seeing no contradiction there. I just get so angry at people like that and figure they deserve the worst that can happen.

[coda]

5. Yeah , but........

an 18 y/o kid is still just trying to figure out their life, much less politics and this could be a terrible extra burden.

Mary Cheney is a grown woman.

[SheilaT]

6. That's true, but it stinks of

hypocrisy. And it majorly alienates potential supporters. It's caused a lot of people to cut back on donating to her. Indeed, when I was at the event I mentioned above, people were pulling out checkbooks, and when she was questioned about her gay marriage stand, the checkbooks literally got put away. I halved my donation to her.

And at that, we're not being as single issue as the right is. They absolutely do not support anyone who's not 100% with them on these sorts of issues.

[coda]

7. Just noticed below that you won your primary.

Congrats SheilaT. :thumbsup:

Low turnout primaries aren't always indicative of what can happen in the general election, even with a "good guy" Republican. If I recall, Johnson county is always mentioned as the richest county in KS, so I'm guessing the issues you run on don't parallel much of the rest of the state.

It'll be a good learning experience if nothing else, but I hope it's more than that.

Good luck in Nov and kudos to you for making the effort. :hi:

[SheilaT]

8. The low turnout on

the Democrat side in my primary was not surprising. In fact, I was surprised that as many people showed up and voted for me as did!

Despite the fact that Johnson county is a relatively rich county (and reasonably well up there for the country as a whole) the big, big issue here this year is school funding.

I am finding running for office to be an amazing experience and so far it's actually fun. Not sure how I'll feel if I have to do a debate with my opponent.

I will certainly post here in November about how I do. In reality, this being Republican Kansas, I'll be considered successful if I get above 35% of the vote.

Our Democratic Congressman, Dennis Moore, has the most Republican District of any Congressman with a D after his name. I do keep on saying that that's because 20-30% of all registered Republican are truly Democrats who are sometimes desperate for the opportunity to vote for a Dem.

[newyawker99]

9. Hi Mumzee!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: