Senator Chirs Steineger switches to the Republican Party

[hfojvt]

Can he still win re-election in Wyandotte County?

Kind of a strange ticket Republicans will be offering in 2012 then - Mark Gilstrap in the 5th and Chris Steineger, two former Democrats.

Unless they get primaried and lose.

Did I, or did I not say that Steineger was no progressive.

[SheilaT]

1. Several years ago Steineger started

showing up at events, especially Democratic Party events, in a way that made several of us conclude that he was positioning himself to run for some kind of higher office. This move makes me wonder if doesn't still have higher office aspirations, but has concluded that his best bet is to do so as a Republican.

[hfojvt]

2. well he did make that run for Governor and the Secretary of State

kind of annoying when your own party works against you though, isn't it? First, they dumped him for Tom Wiggins, who fell flat on his face and then we ended up with Tom Holland. I like Tom Holland, even though he snubbed me in the Jayhawker, but in the end we could have lost the Governor's race badly with Steineger just as well as we did with Holland, and I certainly wish the Party would quit looking for people like Tom Wiggins (or Sean Tevis, for that matter).

His calculation certainly seems to be correct. I had this notion, before the last election that people like Biggs, McKinney and Six could and would win their statewide elections, but in the end it wasn't even close. Maybe Sandy Praeger is going to retire in four years. But Praeger had a primary challenger too and people in Tonganoxie were saying Praeger is a dino. It might be hard for a moderate like Steineger to win a Republican primary.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. He was a regular at tea party events here

That was telling.

[SheilaT]

4. Didn't know that.