Voice For Liberty

Moran poll indicates big lead in Kansas Senate race

Bob Weeks

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A poll in the race for the Republican Party nomination for United States Senate from Kansas conducted on behalf of the Jerry Moran campaign shows him leading his chief rival, Todd Tiahrt, by a large margin.

The survey shows Moran with 56 percent of the vote, and Tiahrt with 24 percent. 15 percent of voters are undecided, and two other candidates garnered four percent of the vote.

Independent polls have shown Moran with a large lead over Tiahrt. Recently the Tiahrt campaign released its own survey showing a very close race, with Moran holding a lead within the statistical margin of error of the poll.

The contest for this nomination has been heated. In recent forums, both candidates have scarcely paid attention to the moderators’ questions, instead using them as launching pads for attacks on the record of the other candidate.

The Moran poll, keeping in mind that it is an internal effort, contends that Tiahrt has been the most aggressive with negative campaigning: “Fully 44% of primary voters say Tiahrt is running a more negative campaign, with just 10% saying Moran has been more negative.”

Tiahrt has admitted that his commercials are a little “rough,” as he said at a recent rally in Wichita.

In response to the release of this survey, the Tiahrt campaign released a statement contending that “this internal poll from the Moran campaign is about as bad as Congressman Moran’s record on taxes, immigration and national security.”

As with all polls produced on behalf of a candidate, we need to remember that polls produced and released by campaigns are just that, and the results would probably not be released by a campaign if the results did not portray the candidate favorably. Without knowledge of the questions being asked, there is always the possibility that a poll is a “push poll,” meaning an instrument designed to influence participants and produce a desired result.

As it has been seemingly forever since Kansas last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, it is likely that the winner of this primary election will be the next senator from Kansas.

Reporting from the Wichita Eagle is at Tiahrt’s campaign objects to Moran’s in-house poll.

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Comments

2 responses to “Moran poll indicates big lead in Kansas Senate race”

  1. Anonymous

    Bob, I am surprised that you treat Moran and Tiahrt equally in avoiding the moderator’s questions in the so called debates. Are you doing this because you hate to see Tiahrt appearing to be losing the race?

    I viewed the Wichita Chamber of Commerce debate in full on Channel 22, and I was appalled at Tiahrt “running on” about Jerry Moran’s previous response and in violation of the ground rules of the meeting and thus not responding to the next question. In fact, it was so bad that on either the last question or the next-to-the-last question, when Bill Roy repeated the question for Moran’s turn to respond, Moran said, “Thanks for reminding me what the question was.”

    From what I have seen, I hope that Jerry Moran wins by a large margin on August 3. Todd Tiahrt deserves to lose.

  2. Wichitator

    The Moran-Tiahrt debates have generated more heat than light. In part, this is because there are slight differences between these candidates on about 80-to-90 percent of the issues.

    I’ve talked to colleagues of Moran and Tiahrt from the legislature. In Topeka, Moran was a moderate who fit within the Bill Graves mainstream while he was in Topeka. Jerry left for Washington before Graves revealed himself as a spend ‘n tax politician in his second term.

    The contrast is that Tiahrt has always been part of the conservative wing of the GOP regardless of whether this was in Washington or Topeka. I have a contact inside the GOP in the capitol and the differences between these two can be described easily. Moran was not at the forefront of many key issues and was often late in coming to the table on difficult legislation. Tiahrt has been an appropriator and now serves as the ranking minority member of a powerful house appropriations subcommittee. The appropriators are the worst examples of the legislative “bacon” being brought back to districts.

    In my view, neither man is perfect. There are probably votes that each wishes that they could recast. However, I’ll vote for the real conservative in this race: Todd Tiahrt.

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