JoCo primary race for Kansas House too close to call

[proud2BlibKansan]

It will be Monday before voters in Johnson County’s 24th House District know who won Tuesday’s Democratic primary there.

In unofficial returns, Andy Sandler was ahead of Mike Slattery by three votes. However, there are about 60 provisional or challenged ballots that won’t be counted until the official election canvass at 9 a.m. at the Johnson County Election Office in Olathe.

Those ballots could change the outcome. The eventual winner will face Republican Rep. Ronnie Metsker of Overland Park in the general election.

http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/13589

[Mabus]

1. C'mon Andy!

Fingers crossed.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Andy is the best candidate to beat Metzger

It's been an interesting primary, to say the least.

[Mabus]

3. I remember Andy

I liked him. When I think of him he reminds me of a combination of Columbo and Dustin Hoffman. Andy struck me as someone who can see the forest for the trees, the brains to put it together and the chutzpah to act. We need someone like him in government.

[bad_robbie]

4. You'd think anyone could beat Metsker . . .

. . . but I've been wrong before. Many times.

Anybody who's written Metsker a letter knows that he doesn't reply. A good campaign promise might be: "If you write to me about an issue, I'll respond". Metsker's best strategy -- on the other hand -- is to hope that few voters know his record.

Anyway, I think you're right. Andy nearly won in '06. I think a lot of Eisenhower Republicans will vote for the Democrat rather then an Evangelical Republican like Ronnie.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. He replies to me

But since we rarely agree, it isn't that big of a deal to get his emails.

Do you live in the 24th? Are we neighbors? :hi:

[bad_robbie]

11. Hi Neighbor

I'm a Roeland Parker, and a citizen of the Kansas 24th district.

Maybe it's just my tone that turns off Ronnie.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. Ronnie knows I am a friend of Andy's

So he must realize there is no way I will vote for him. And I did email Ronnie regularly about various legislation. Doubt we agreed but felt it was my duty to be a progressive voice in his inbox, since this is a fairly progressive district.

At any rate, Ronnie will be hard to beat in November since he got more votes in the primary than both Democrats combined.

[SheilaT]

5. I'm frankly appalled

and stunned that Andy didn't win that primary hands down.

Some weeks ago I was going over to a friend's house in that district, and as I pulled up Slattery was waving goodbye to my friend. I told her she should vote for Andy, and suggested she do on-line research. She's a good, strong Democrat, and I do hope she voted for Andy. I just wonder how much door-to-door Andy actually did. He should have been walking every single day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. He did, Sheila

He covered the whole district more than once. His opponent didn't work half as hard but sent out a lot of mailers and letters. He isn't at all involved in the local party. He never comes to meetings or events. He just has a famous daddy. (And a lot of money.)

Andy had at least twice as many yard signs and he went to a lot of the houses where his opponent had a sign and talked them into switching.

Andy got every major endorsement except The Star. That hurt.

I have worked on a lot of campaigns and I haven't seen many candidates work as hard as Andy did. And not just in the last 4 or 5 months, but for YEARS. He knows the district inside out. His opponent just moved here a few months ago. But he has a well known last name.

Other than being upset Andy didn't sweep it like I really thought he would, I am upset because this 26 year old kid will never beat the GOP machine in Johnson County. If he ends up our candidate, we will continue to have this idiot fundie preacher as our rep. :puke:

I know I sound disillusioned because I am. This so sucks. The provisionals counted today put Andy back by 3 votes. He will ask for a recount. And we are keeping our fingers crossed. Someone told me today Gene Rardin was behind also when they counted the provisionals. And he ended up winning by 1 or 2 votes after the recount.

So please keep your fingers crossed.

[SheilaT]

8. I was talking last night

to another good JOCO Dem, and she said exactly what you did about Andy's hard work.

I can only conclude that Slattery simply had enough name recognition to do so well. But I even fin that a little amazing, since I lived in Kansas starting in 1990, and the name Slattery meant nothing to me when father and son popped back up.

And actually, Gene was always ahead. Originally (I think) by six votes, then eventually he won by three. I even accompanied our County Chair to a woman's house so I could notarize her signature on a form giving permission for her mailed ballot to be opened or verified in some way. But that's another race that should not have been so close. Gene should have tromped Kriegshauser. I honestly think that in that case he was given some bad advice about which neighborhoods to canvass. I have told Gene that I think he should do a "postcard campaign", which is what I would have done. Send personalized postcards to every single person you think voted for you, and then knock on the doors of new voters and those you think you can persuade. Do not knock on the doors of those you have reason to think are die-hard Republicans, in the hopes they'll not bother to vote at all.

Perhaps we should try to spread the rumor that Obama is going to win Kansas, so as to totally demoralize Republicans into staying home.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Well I think getting rid of Phill at the primary level

will keep a lot of them at home in November. I was NOT in favor of him winning the primary for this very reason. I heard several Democrats say they wanted him to win as he would be so easy to beat in November. But I knew that would also bring Republicans to the polls in November and those votes would probably NOT go to Obama. Nick Jordan is not going to be a draw either; he has a snowball's chance in hell of beating Dennis Moore. There is no governor's election this year either. So getting Phill off the November ballot will help rather than hurt us.

Now if we could just get Andy on the ballot too. :)

[SheilaT]

10. You've just mentioned what is so very wrong

about Dems registering as R's to vote in the primary. It means people like Andy don't get the votes they need, And, quite frankly, just from casual conversations with all those RINOs those who vote for the extremist on the theory that he'll be easy to beat in the general election, are balanced by those who vote for the moderate, because at least they can live with him if he wins. I just wish I could get through to those people that they need to let the Republicans worry about the Republicans, and concentrate on getting good Democrats elected all across the board.

And I agree. Having Phill Kline off the November ballot is good in very many ways.