How many times can Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State, be wrong? Apparently the GOP is willing to give this clown another pass:
The state Supreme Court Thursday ordered him to strike Democrat Chad Taylor from the November ballot for U.S. Senate, ruling Taylor had complied with state law allowing a candidate to withdraw.
Just a few minutes later, Kobach — a Republican — said he’ll tell the Kansas Democratic party to pick a replacement by noon Sept. 26.
All of this in a bid to weasel incumbent Senator Pat Roberts in to another term.
The thing that amuses me the most, is just how many times Kris Kobach has had his extremist ALEC-incubated directives overturned. He is a well-known chupacabra in the migrant rights movement because of his involvement with the Hazelton, Pennsylvania outrage and SB1070 in Arizona. His efforts almost always end with egg all over the face of his allies.
The towns that passed nativist laws in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas and Nebraska, along with the state of Arizona, have spent millions of dollars to defend them in court, and almost every judicial decision so far has gone against them. One community, faced with skyrocketing legal costs, had to raise property taxes, and another was forced to cut personnel and special events and even outsource its library.
That was just the beginning. The four towns and one state examined in this report all saw a crisis in race relations as conflicts between Latino immigrants and mostly white natives escalated. Latinos reported being threatened, shot at, subjected to racial taunts and more. Police are having trouble getting cooperation from any in their Latino communities. Pro-immigrant activists have been threatened with notes that promise to “shed blood” to “take back” communities. The mayor of one town had his house vandalized after opposing a proposed law and was warned by federal agents to be careful; he ended up retiring after four terms in office. Angry protests and counter-protests, along with dangerously rising tensions, have rocked one town after another. In some communities, business districts have largely collapsed.
The modern GOP working toward a society that has drowned in Grover Norquist’s bathtub? Sounds about right.
November will show if Kansas has finally had enough of Kobach and his ideology’s losing strategy.
That is tough to read, the consequences of advocating hate.
It’s also the real reason he has led efforts at voter suppression…
Is there a KS statute or regulation requiring political parties to run a candidate in all statewide elections? Is there even one that denies ballot access if the political party fails to obtain a certain number of votes in the last election? IOW is there any legal grounds for Kobach’s order? I suspect not as he seems not to have cited one.
btw — the most recent PPP poll has Kobach tied with his Democratic challenger for reelection. Can’t imagine that his latest stunt is going to improve his numbers with the 15% undecided.
Whether there are grounds or not, I can’t see how he can force the KS Dems to act, if they don’t want to.
Sure, he could have them arrested, get some bogus charges brought, but then they could nominate “Kris ‘Asshole Republican’ Kobach” and further split the GOP vote.
Yes.
Ratfucking works wonders.
It’s Kansas, so it is par for the course anyway.
I think that the Court has already ruled against him again, if I understood Ari Ravin-Hoft over the weekend. State law requires the party to nominate a candidate. They did. That candidate withdrew before the legal deadline. Case closed. But not quite. Seems the SoS is mailing military ballots with the Dem candidate’s name on them despite the Kansas Supreme Court’s order expressly forbidding that. Of course he claims that it was an “accident”. I’d love to see that court send armed marshals to arrest him and bring him to court in handcuffs as a lower Texas court did to my former employer’s CEO.
Me 2
It was my understanding that the court ruled on the questions raised which were the legality of the DEM candidate’s withdrawal and finding that it was, required the SOS to remove his name from the ballot. That could be read to mean that is was legal for a political party not to run a candidate in an election, but as that question wasn’t before the court, it didn’t technically rule on that question.
I think they ruled on the second question too and ordered Kobach to not mail ballots with the Dem candidate on them. But I listen to SXM Progressive between 5:00AM and 5:45AM while driving to work, so I might well be mistaken.
One should take a lesson from Kobach. The man knows that GOP control of the Senate along with that currently of the House would allow the GOP to sabotage any initiative coming out of the White House. Kobach also knows that Kansas could be the critical Senate contest. So, akin to George Bush’s lawyers during the 2000 Florida vote recount, he is pulling out every single thing that could swing the election to Roberts.
Do not laugh at Kobach for “going to the blankets” for his side. Democrats ought to emulate his aggressiveness, because if they had in 2000 the world would be looking a lot different today.
Both deeply dishonest, unethical and I would argue illegal.
When did that ever stop politicians?