Voice For Liberty

Kansas Democrats described as ‘imploding’

Bob Weeks

in

Larry J. Sabato, who is director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, is a respected national political analyst who publishes Sabato’s Crystal Ball, an informative look at campaigns and races around the country.

In the most recent issue Sabato takes a look at 2010 gubernatorial races and concludes that “There’s now no question that the gubernatorial turnover in November will be historic.” He estimates that Republicans will add six or seven states to the count of those states with Republican governors.

In Kansas, Sabato is pointed in his criticism of Kansas Democrats and Governor Mark Parkinson:

Kansas: Gov. Mark Parkinson (D), who succeeded Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) when she joined President Obama’s Cabinet as Health and Human Services secretary, has left his party high and dry. He refused to run in 2010, and to add insult to injury, he picked as his new lieutenant governor a Democrat who also pledged not to run. Despite a respectable Democratic candidate in Tom Holland, the election is all but over. Republicans will re-take the governor’s office with current U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback. This is a remarkable example of the governing political party imploding. The GOP can count this one as in the bag.

Sabato rates Kansas as a “solid Republican takeover.”

While Sabato describes Kansas Senator Tom Holland as “respectable,” if Holland was attempting to use his votes in the senate this year to establish a record that might appeal to moderates, he failed in that effort. In the Kansas Economic Freedom Index, Holland is the only senator who scored 0%, meaning that voted against economic freedom in all votes considered by this index.

While it may be that the Kansas Democratic party is imploding, it has done very well in placing its members in statewide office. Considering Kansas statewide elected offices, five of the six are held by Democrats, and none were elected to their current positions.

Governor Parkinson, while elected lieutenant governor in 2006, rose to his present position when Kathleen Sebelius resigned as governor to take a position in President Obama’s cabinet.

Lieutenant Governor Troy Findley was appointed by Parkinson to replace himself.

Secretary of State Chriss Biggs was appointed by Parkinson when Republican Ron Thornburgh resigned earlier this year.

Attorney General Stephen Six was appointed by Sebelius when the incumbent, a Republican-turned-Democrat resigned.

Treasurer Dennis McKinney was appointed by Sebelius to replace Republican Lynn Jenkins, who won election to the United States Congress.

On the Kansas Supreme Court, there are three Republicans and three Democrats, with one Justice being unaffiliated, according to a Kansas Liberty story. In 2005, an analysis by the Kansas Meadowlark had the breakdown as five Democrats and two Republicans.

Comments

6 responses to “Kansas Democrats described as ‘imploding’”

  1. Anonymous

    Too bad Ron handed over yet another office to the Dems. Couldn’t wait to make the big bucks working for a company he awarded a sweet contract to as Secretary of State. Can’t imagine I’ll be taking his endorsement into account when I vote.

  2. Larry’s Notes

    America is done with big government ruling over the people. When republicans start to do the same, we will remove them too. Thank you Obama, you have made communism a bad thing again. After the 50s it seeped into the cracks of America’s armor. You have destroyed any chances for a commie commander for years to come. Thank you Obama, thank you very much ! Communism will fall from America forever. We the people will not let it return, ever.

  3. Kansas observer

    Bob is too kind in mentioning that the Democrat attorney general resigned in disgrace following a scandal that placed a filthy stain on this state office. Sadly, the news media had pushed hard for this Johnson County Democrat to beat Phill Kline in 2006. Kline’s mistake was trying to follow the law as it was written and taking on the state’s powerful abortion lobby.

    The left wing Kansas Supreme Court might be playing games with their political affiliations, but this entire bench is a left wing disgrace. This became evident by a federal court decision. The KS Supreme Court was throughly discredited when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed their death penalty decision when then Attorney General Kline successfully appealed this flawed decision to the nation’s top court.

    Today, it is disgraceful that five out of the six statewide offices in Kansas are filled with appointees. The fact that liberal Democrats and one very liberal Republican, who was actually elected by voters, Sandi Praeger as Insurance Commissioner, will see some substantial changes after the November election. I’d like to see six new people in these offices next year.

    Governor Parkinson’s recent attack on Kansas business because they would not cowtow to his tax ‘n spend programs is one reason that the Democrat Party in KS is imploding. Attacking the state chamber of commerce is a mistake.

    I believe this implosion as Prof. Sabato calls it, is part of a national trend in the age of B. Hussein Obama. We’ll see if the Republicans can find a winning slogan.

    My first vote on a slogan is: “Had enough yet?”

  4. sue c.

    Larry Sabato is right: The democrats are imploding in Kansas! I hope the RINOs will too!

    We have not been helped in Kansas by Republicans in the House and Senate who have been “moderate” or “progressive.” They are complicit in much of the flawed legislation coming out of Topeka. I hope we can get rid of them too!

    We need some conservative, common sense leaders in Topeka. Brownback, Estes, Schmidt (I hope he is conservative!), Powell, and Kobach will do much to stop this train wreck that the previous crew are leaving behind.

    I am sure all the “departing” will get cushy, lucrative, top salary jobs though. No worries there…

  5. Anonymous

    The Republicans and Democrats are for BIG GOVERNMENT. Don’t kid yourself. The GOP has never been for limited government! Dress it up as “national defense” or “a strong military” and the elephants will spend, spend, spend! VOTE LIBERTARIAN! They are our only hope!

  6. Ann H.

    I can only hope he is right about Democrats imploding. I hope the RINOs are shown the door too; they make me as angry as the Dems. We need to get rid of them just as much. Fortunately there are some good candidates this year–the primaries are going to be VERY important. We have to clean up the swamp.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More posts