Bob Dole could be foul-tempered and rabidly partisan, but when you compare him to Sam Brownback, he was a full-blown moderate. Kansas is close to the most Republican state in the country, but it is also the home of Dwight Eisenhower and Nancy Kassebaum. This tradition of moderate Republicanism is strong in the Sunflower State, and it helps explain why the Democrats haven’t been able to make much headway there over the last century.
To get an idea of what’s been happening in Kansas, it’s helpful to go back to 2006 when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius was seeking reelection. At that time, the former chairman of the Kansas GOP Mark Parkinson switched parties and was announced as Sebelius’ running mate for Lieutenant Governor. This was a repeat of 2002, when John Moore quit the Republican Party to run with Sebelius. These defections did not really reflect any real strength for Democrats in Kansas, but they showed growing divisions within the state’s GOP.
The divisions have been badly exacerbated since Brownback was elected governor in 2010. Many moderate officeholders were purged from the party in the 2012 primaries and the legislature has been on a right-wing tear ever since.
The result is that Governor Brownback is so incredibly unpopular that he is actually trailing an unknown Democratic state Representative in most recent polls.
Basically, the people of Kansas are conservative, but they’d prefer Eisenhower conservatism to Brownback conservatism, and the only place they can find that kind of moderation today is in the Democratic Party.
I can’t say that Brownback will definitely lose because the national Democrats are very unpopular in Kansas. But he shouldn’t be favored to win, either. He’s too radical.
