Kobach campaigns inside the virtual polling booth

There are long established laws and regulations that prevent campaigning within 50 feet of voting places.   But when it comes to internet, there are not such clear cut rules. We are often left with only ethical restraints.

It is not surprising that Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has taken advantage of the lack of regulations to make sure he is prominently promoted in the state's web sites promoting voting and reporting voting results.

Here is Kobach at the very front of the voteks.org website

 

And, here Kobach on the site which reported Kansas primary elections results Tuesday night.

 

And, of course, on the Secretary of State's webpage.

There may well be more serious problems with Kobach's political activities.

Tmservo433 wrote on Daily Kos

Topeka Capital Journal reports it entered a whole new phase as Kris Kobach (Secretary of State, lead ALEC drafter) found his private PAC (The Prairie Fire PAC) in the troubling position of having been caught red handed financing attack ads against sitting Republicans who just aren't right-leaning enough.

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-08-04/kobach-pac-sends-mailers-not-reflected-spending-report

Secretary of State Kris Kobach's political action committee sent out mailers seeking to influence at least two House Republican primaries this week, without reporting the spending on campaign finance reports.

 Rep. Russ Jennings, R-Lakin, and Rep. Kent Thompson, R-LaHarpe, both said Monday that Kobach's Prairie Fire PAC was active in their races with a mailer blasting Jennings and another endorsing Thompson's opponent in Tuesday's primary.

The state of small "d" democracy in Kansas

With the August 5 primary a few days away, some thoughts of the state of democracy in Kansas seem appropriate. An article in Friday's Wichita Eagle predicting  low turnout for Tuesday's primary, despite heated US Senate and House Republican primaries, indicates that there is a real problem. Here are some thoughts.

 The biggest issue, in my opinion, is the restrictive voter identification laws enacted by Secretary of Sate Kris Kobach, but there are others.

Another problem is outsider dark money which has poured into Kansas elections at the last minute with minimal transparency, minimal honesty, and minimal respect for the facts.

Kansas has a closed primary, only one of 12 in the nation.  That means that you have to be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote in the respective primary.  However, the chair of the party can allow independents to vote in their primary. In recent elections Democrats had allowed this. This year the KDP, at its February state convention,  joined the Republicans in adopting the more restrictive policy.

The Kansas legislature at the prodding of Kris Kobach made it more difficult for voters to change party registration. In the past this could be done up to 21 days before the election. This year the deadline was moved back to July 1 and in future elections it will be June 1. If I understand correctly, there will be different deadlines to change party registration and to change from unaffiliated to a party.

CORRECTION August 4: Unaffiliated voters can still chose a Democratic or Republican ballot at the polling place on election day. and thereby register for that party.  That hasn't changed.
  

Kansas Democrats have filed a full Federal and state-wide slate.  In 2010, Democrats had no candidate in the prohibitively Republican Big First District and no candidate in the potential swing 3rd Congressional District. (The 3rd gave Obama 48.8 percent in 2008 and 44.3 percent in 2012.)

Far too many Kansas voters won't have a choice on their ballot for the state legislature this November. Forty-seven seats, nearly 40 percent of the state's 125 House seats, will  have only one candidate on the ballot.  This includes 38 Republicans.  And, of these, only 16 have a Republican primary challenger.  Also, two Republicans will face only a Libertarian challenger.  Nine Democrats will face no challenger, and two will have only a Libertarian challenger.

The same problem crops up in the State Board of Eduction races where Democrats filed candidates for only one of the five seats up this year; they filed for only two when the same set of seats were up in 2010. And, for three of the different set of five seats up in 2012.

It would take a detailed analysis to figure out what is behind this low state of competitive elections.  From what I can tell it's not just a Kansas problem and it's not new.  A 2005 article reported that "state legislative races were even less competitive [than Congressional races.] Nationwide, 40 percent of the more than 7,000 races were uncontested."

Parties can put energy into recruiting as many candidates as possible, even in districts that are very strongly partisan for the other party.  Or, they can concentrate resources on a smaller number of swing districts. I don't know if a switch like can explain the poor number of Democratic candidates, but it is certainly possible.

Campaign finance reform, some form of public financing of legislative campaigns might increase the number of districts with races.  One possibility, for example, has had a system where candidates can get public financing after they show a basis of support, raising, say, $50 each for 100 district voters. Arizona has a system somewhat like this.

Ballot access for parties and candidates is the other side of the right to vote.  On the positive side, the Kansas legislature passed a law allowing out of state canvassers for petition drives.  (It is not obvious to me that this is a good development, but courts have been ruling this way so it seems a positive.)

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach changed the interpretation of state law making it more difficult for minor parties to remain on the ballot and ruled the Reform Party off the ballot. In 2012, Kobach argued successfully that Kansas did not have to allow voters register in unqualified parties that are active in the state.

To be established as a new political party in Kansas, the group must present petitions must be signed by qualified electors equal in number to at least two percent of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last preceding general election. In Kansas, currently, that would mean 16,777 valid petition signatures.

To nominate an independent candidate for statewide evidence takes just 5,000 signatures.

To maintain party ballot status, a qualified party must get one percent of the vote in the lowest voted race it contests. In 2010, that threshold would have been 6,772 in the Commissioner of Insurance race.

If a minor party gets five percent of the vote in the Governor's race it will become a "major party" and thereby hold primaries instead of conventions.  That is a major goal of Kansas Libertarians  in the belief that being port of a statewide primary along with Republicans and Democrats will give them the potential for further growth. They may be helped by the demise of the Reform Party as there have been several statewide races where the LP +RP vote came to 4.4 percent (2010 Governor) or 4.2 percent (2006 Secretary of State).  Libertarian Patrick Wilber received 4.2 percent in the three-way 2006 Insurance Commissioner race.  With Libertarian nominee Keen A. Umbehr drawing five percent in the latest SurveyUSA poll that Libertarian goal doesn't appear unreasonable, although there is usually a fall off from polls to election results.

Perhaps if the Libertarian Party achieved "major party" status (with five percent of the vote) they might field more than seven legislative candidates they have in 2012. And, that could increase participation.

Perhaps if there were additional parties--a Moderate Party,  Constitution Party, a Working Families Party, or others there might be more competitive elections, a higher turnout, and better state government.

But, I think, there is a limit to the potential of additional minor parties to enhance participation and increase democracy.  Kansas is one of a vast majority of states that ban fusion voting.  By allowing a candidate to aggregate votes on more than party line, fusion voting avoids the spoiler affect when voting for a more conservative (liberal) candidate takes votes away from a slightly less conservative (liberal) candidate and thereby elects a third more liberal (conservative) candidate.   Fusion enables minor parties to influence election results and policy by offering to endorse or nominate a major party's candidate.

 Wichita activists have gathered signatures to place a referendum on the ballot to decriminalize marijuana possession.  This could have the potential to increase turnout among voters who usually stay at home during off-year elections.

The real path to improving Kansas democracy will be based on re-invigorating the Democratic Party, the growth of grass-roots progressive organizations like Kansas People's Action, and a more creative and energized political effort by teachers and other unions.

Dueling Kansas Gov Polls: who to Believe

There are now two recent polls with very contrasting results out on the Kansas Governors race. A poll from Survey USA showed the Democratic team of Paul Davis and Jill Docking with a 48-40 lead over incumbent Republican Governor Sam Brownback and Lt. Governor Jeff Coyler. Then, on Sunday a poll done by British YouGov polling firm for the New York Times and CBS News showed Brownback with 47 to 37 lead, and including leaners at 52 to 40 lead.

Naturally, this has prompted some questions. How can such divergent results, around a 20 percent swing, be explained? Which poll is most reliable?

The first thing I noticed is that the YouGov poll didn't include Libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr who draws about 5 percent of the vote in the Survey USA poll.

The NYT/CBS/YouGov poll is part of massive national poll of every Gubernatorial and Senate race in every state, with over 100,000 taking part.

Taniel at DailyKos notes

In 2012, the margin of YouGov's final polls favored Republicans by an average 5 points, including large errors in competitive races in Nevada, Wisconsin, Connecticut, and Virginia—all in the GOP's favor.

YouGov doesn't use the same random-digit dialing use by Survey USA and traditional pollsters. Instead they use a panel of respondents, who aren't random selected. In a scientifically valid poll every voter should have an equal chance of being randomly selected, making the sample representative.

Nate Cohn of the New York Times observes:

 YouGov attempts to build a large, diverse panel and then match its panelists to demographically similar respondents from the American Community Survey, an extremely rigorous probability survey conducted by the Census Bureau. This step is intended to mimic probability sampling. But it can require significant assumptions about the composition of the electorate, including partisanship. These assumptions are contestable and based on varying amounts of evidence.

Some groups tend to be underrepresented in web panels: the less educated, the less affluent, Hispanics and those over age 65. You Gov then blows up the under represented groups. So those in the subgroups in the panel, if they have unrepresentative views can skew the entire poll.

Comparing Internals/Crosstabs

Let's peer underneath the topline to understand the differences and see if there are signs that one or another poll is implausible.

 Black voters. One of the more implausible results in the YouGov poll is its claim that black voters prefer Davis by only a 53-46 margin.  There is no "race" breakdown in the latest Survey USA poll, but a November 2013 had Davis up by 65-21 margin.  I think the YouGov result  is implausible and quite likely that Davis-Docking will carry the black vote by a bigger margin.

If blacks are five percent of the electorate, the difference between a 50-50 split and a 90-10 split would be about 4 percent, about one-third of YouGov's Brownback edge.

By the way, YouGov interviewed only 31 black out of 1274, or 2.4% of the panel. In contrast blacks are estimated to have been 5 percent of the 2012 electorate.

YouGov also interviewed only 25 Hispanics.  

Women voters. Incredibly, the YouGov poll has Brownback leading Davis 50-41, while Survey USA has Davis up 51 to 35.

A news report on an exit poll for the Kansas 2012 said that among women Obama was almost equal, while 69 percent of men favored Romney. That is a gender gap of about 20 points in 2012, compared to a YouGov gender gap of 6 and a Survey USA of 13 points.

Republicans.  YouGov, in contrast to Survey USA has Brownback doing exceptionally well with Republican voters grabbing 82 percent to only 9 for Davis. In contrast, Survey USA has Davis getting an impressive 29 percent of Republican voters, compared to only 60 percent for Brownback. It may just be a coincidence, but the Survey USA poll shows "some dudete" symbolic candidate Jennifer Winn drawing 30 percent in the Republican primary.

Independents.  YouGov shows this segment, breaking narrowly for Brownback 46 to 43, while Survey USA has Davis leading 48 to 27. (Independents are 36% of the YG panel and 24% of Survey USA.)

Senior Voters.  YouGov has Brownback leading 57-39, Survey USA has Davis on top 56-36. (65+ voters are  projected to be about 29% of voters.)

Summing up: YouGov has a historical +5 GOP bias, excluding the Libertarian candidate likely gives another +5 bias for Brownback.  Adding in the very suspicious cross tabs for blacks (and Hispanics) and women, not to mention the other categories, makes a strong case that the Survey USA poll is closer to the truth and that the Davis-Docking team is very well positioned to win in November.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts Re-ignites Residency Controversy

 

With the Kansas primary only a month away, it  looks like Senator Pat Roberts has "Lugared" himself with what the right-wing media outlet Breitbart,com  called a "Freudian slip" in an interview on radio station KCMO and reported on July 3 in the DC insider newspaper The Hill saying he returns home to Kansas “every time I get an opponent”  and proclaiming that he doesn't measure his voting record by "how many times I sleep wherever it is."

Back in February Roberts got caught in a controversy with an interview in the New York Times

In an interview, the three-term senator acknowledged that he did not have a home of his own in Kansas. The house on a country club golf course that he lists as his voting address belongs to two longtime supporters and donors — C. Duane and Phyllis Ross — and he says he stays with them when he is in the area. He established his voting address there the day before his challenger, Milton Wolf, announced his candidacy last fall, arguing that Mr. Roberts was out of touch with his High Plains roots.

“I have full access to the recliner,” the senator joked. Turning serious, he added, “Nobody knows the state better than I do.”

"We’re not going to get Lugar’d," Roberts adviser David Kensinger told the Times, in a reference to long-time Indiana Senator Richard Lugar who lost a 2012 primary to a Tea Party challenger, who in turn lost to a Democrat Joe Donnelly in the general election.


Roberts fits the Lugar profile, so Kensinger concern was understandable. Roberts is getting up in years; he's 77. And he's been a Congressman and Senator since 1980 and before that, starting in 1967, a D.C. staffer for Kansas Senator Frank Carlson and Congressman Keith Sebelius.   

Roberts made some astute moves to avoid Lugar's fate.  He lined up almost every conceivable challenger, virtually every state Senator and Representatives for an endorsement.  He shifted his voting record from conservative to very, very conservative.

Despite this, Roberts got a primary challenger:  Milton Wolf, a distant cousin of President Obama and radiologist.  Wolf is being backed by many of the same Tea Party organizations and media that backed Dave Brat's upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Mississippi Senate challenger Chris McDaniel.  In fact, Wolf has gone on national right-wing shows like that of Mark Levin to back McDaniel and attack not only Roberts, but the state's other Senator Jerry Moran, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign.

There have been signs that Roberts is vulnerable. A 2013 poll, for example, found that just 42% of Republicans say they would vote to re-nominate Roberts, while 34% say they would prefer someone "more conservative."  And, a February  2014 PPP poll show that Kansans disapproving of Roberts by a 38 to 29 margin.

But Wolf hasn't caught on.  The February PPP poll found Roberts leading Milton Wolf 49 percent to 23 percent among GOP primary voters. A June Survey USA poll showed Roberts ahead of Wolf, 56-23 percent.

One reason is that Wolf, though he is sometimes an effective sound biter, has some big problems of his own,which are highlighted on "The Real Milton Wolf" tumblr created by the Roberts campaign.  The tumblr doesn't mince words promising to document.

character flaws, missteps, and flat-out lies. We assure you that the incredible array of evidence below will leave no doubt in your mind, Milton Wolf is not only unvetted, untested, and unelectable, but a completely discredited candidate.

Personally, I hope that Roberts and Wolf have a full out slugfest in the nice month and that votes come to see the former as an out-of-touch, D.C. insider, carpetbagger and the latter as an unethical, right wing nut job.

Then, perhaps Kansas can elect its first non-Republican Senator since  George McGill was re-elected in 1932.  The Democrats have a potentially strong candidate in Chad Taylor.


In a future post, I'll take a look at vanity austerity millionaire independent candidate Greg Orman threatens to split the anti-Roberts (or anti-Wolf) vote. 

Poll Shows Brownback, Roberts,and Kobach Vulnerable

A new poll from the respected Public Policy Polling shows that Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, Senator Pat Roberts, and Secretary of State Kris Kobach are all seriously lacking in popular appeal.

BROWNBACK

Here is what PPP says about Brownback

PPP's newest Kansas poll finds that Sam Brownback has continued to become even more unpopular in the last year, and that he slightly trails his Democratic opponent for reelection. Only 33% of voters in the state approve of the job Brownback is doing, compared to 51% who disapprove. That's down from a 37/52 spread when PPP last polled the state a year ago.

Brownback trails Democratic challenger Paul Davis for reelection by a 42/40 margin. Davis isn't particularly well known- only 41% of voters have an opinion about him one way or the other- so those numbers are more a referendum on Brownback than anything else. Davis leads largely because he is winning 23% of the GOP vote, a large amount of crossover support in this polarized political climate, while only 11% of Democrats plan to vote for Brownback.

“Kansas voters really don’t care for Sam Brownback and haven’t for some time now,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling.

According to conventional political wisdom, an incumbent at 40% is in definite trouble and there is no reason to think that the PPP poll is an outlier.  Last October, SurveyUSA released a poll showing Brownback trailing Davis, who had just announced his candidacy.

Sam Brownback, who has served in Kansas as a Congressman, U.S. Senator, and now Governor, is in danger of being unseated after one term, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted for KWCH-TV in Wichita. ...the Democratic ticket of Paul Davis and Jill Docking edges the Republican ticket of Brownback and Jeff Colyer, 43% to 39%.

Of those who voted for Brownback when he ran for Governor in 2010, just 59% stick with him in 2014, and 25% defect to the Democrats. Though today Brownback leads 2:1 among Republicans, he trails 11:1 among Democrats.

In early February, the GOP leaked an internal poll from

Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research, [which] puts Brownback ahead of Democratic state House Minority Leader Paul Davis 42-31. If you're wondering why these mystery Republicans would leak a poll that has Brownback well below 50 and gives him middling 45-41 favorables, 

ROBERTS
PPP writes

Pat Roberts has seen his net approval rating decline 12 points over the last year, in the wake of news media reports that he spends little time in the state. In February of 2013 we found him on slightly positive ground at a 31/28 spread, but now only 29% of voters approve of him compared to 38% who disapprove.

 Roberts could be in trouble in the primary ... He starts out with a 49/23 lead over Milton Wolf, but a lot of that is simply a function of name recognition since only 24% of GOP primary voters are familiar with Wolf. And concerns about his lack of attention to the state ring through with Republican voters just as they do the overall electorate- by a 42/34 spread they think Roberts is more focused on being a Washington DC insider than he is in representing Kansas.

While PPP shows Democrat Chad Taylor trailing Roberts by 16 points, its shows Wolf and Taylor neck-and-neck at 33-32.

One has to wonder if some of the far right politicos in Kansas are kicking themselves for letting themselves be talked into signing up to the Roberts re-election effort.  A year ago, PPP noted

Roberts' low profile could give him more trouble in a primary. Just 42% of Republicans say they would vote to re-nominate him, while 34% say they would prefer someone 'more conservative.' Those are pretty uninspiring numbers if a more fiery candidate wanted to challenge him from the right. Roberts has bigger leads over specific GOP alternatives we tested against him though- 21 points over Todd Tiahrt at 47/26, 31 over Tim Huelskamp at 53/22, and 36 over Kris Kobach at 55/19. 

Remember, those results were before the controversy about Roberts "lazy-boy" residence in Kansas became public.

The conventional wisdom at this point seems to be that Taylor doesn't have much of a chance against Roberts, but that he might have against Wolf.  I'm not so sure.  Seems to me that the themes of Roberts not spending enough time in Kansas and being more interested in being a DC insider  might just play in November.

KOBACH

The PPP poll is also encouraging for Jean Schodorf's chances of defeating the Secretary of Hate.


Do you approve or disapprove of Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s job performance?

31%  Approve  34% Disapprove  35% Not Sure

If the candidates for Secretary of State were Republican Kris Kobach and Democrat Jean Schodorf, who would you vote for?

  41% Kris Kobach   34% Jean Schodorf  25% Not Sure

Shame on Kansas for Refusing to Expand Medicaid

There will a protest in Topeka on Monday to demand that the state accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid to working Kansans. For details and to RSVP, click here.

Nouveau Quintest (gypsy jazz) opens Bartlett Arboretum 2013 Concert Series

Wichita's gypsy jazz group Nouveau Quintent is performing this Sunday March 31 from 2-5 pm at the Bartlett Arboretum in Belle Plaine, Kansas. It is the first of their 2013 Tree House Concert series. There are some truly excellent performers on the schedule. Definitely worth checking out. And the arboretum is an important historical, cultural, and ecological institution that deserves support.

Stand UP! Fight BACK! Rally Photos

Kansans To Converge On Capitol To Defend State On Saturday

Rally To Feature Broad Cross-Section of Kansans Addressing Extremist Legislation From Corporate Lobbyists

 Topeka, KS—Nurses, teachers, clergy, elected leaders and others will rally at the State Capitol this Saturday February 23 at 2:00 p.m. to push back against an increasingly extreme legislative agenda. Kansans from a variety of backgrounds, political parties and professional backgrounds will be in attendance and among the featured speakers.

“The Governor and legislative leaders need to know that what they’re doing will not happen in some back room where nobody notices,” explained AFT Kansas President Lisa Ochs. “The people of Kansas will know exactly who is destroying the quality of life in our state, along with its future.”

Divisive, extremist bills being threatened by some legislators are known as "model legislation" from the corporate lobby ALEC—essentially a one-size-fits-all legislative template the group has introduced in a number of states.

“They’re threatening Kansas with bills that have nothing to do with our state,” Ochs continued. “They’re the same ones, written by the same corporate lobbyists, we’ve seen submitted in one state after another across the nation.”

Speakers at Saturday’s rally will include:

• State Sen. Anthony Hensley
• State Rep. Paul Davis
• Former State Sen. Jean Schodorf
• Vanessa Boyler, KU Medical Center Nurse
• Lisa Ochs, AFT Kansas President
• Rev. Joshua Longbottom, Plymouth Congregational Church Pastor
• Dave Reber, Free State High School Biology Teacher
• Resa Boydston, Kansas Neurological Institute Technician
• Randy Mousley, United Teachers of Wichita President
• Sulma Arias, Sunflower Community Action Executive Director

“Governor Brownback cannot claim to care about our state’s future while dismantling it," added Randy Mousley, President of the United Teachers of Wichita. "As a science teacher, I can tell you that slashing education and then expecting our kids to compete in a global, knowledge based economy is shortsighted and self-defeating in the extreme.” 

Rally with Public Speakers

This Saturday, Feb. 23, at 2pm

State Capitol in Topeka, South Steps

###

AFT Kansas is the oldest public employee union in the state, and represents teachers, school employees, health care workers and other public employees across our state. 

Stop the Koch Brothers Greed Agenda Tour Reaches Kansas: Teacherken Reports

Patriot Majority USA has run two bus tours, one on the West Coast, and one in the eastern  half of the country. focused on the Koch Brothers and their Greed Agenda, which they push with hundreds of millions of dollars and through organizations they have established and funded such as Americans for Prosperity, American Legislative Exchange Council, and Freedomworks.

Ken Bernstein,  a recently retired National Board Certified Social known for his blogging as teacherken at Daily Kos reported on the trip. Here is his report from Kansas re-posted with permission from the Education Votes website

When I say “we” it is because on Friday both buses, the one I was on in the East and the one that had been traveling the West, caught up with one another in Topeka, the state capitol, and then finished the tour at a union hall in Kansas City. Oh yes, and Bill Burke and some others first went to Wichita, to the headquarters of Koch Industries, founded by Fred C. Koch, father of the Koch Brothers Charles and David, who are the perpetrators of the Greed Agenda.

In Topeka, we set up outside the Kansas State Capitol

to hold a press conference and deliver a letter to Gov. Sam Brownback asking him to break his ties with the Koch Brothers and end his support of the Greed Agenda.

We had lots of press. There were interviews both before and after the formal event. For example, Sid Voorakkara from the West bus got interviewed by Kansas One News

and Mariah Hatta of the East Bus (on which I traveled) by CBS affiliate WIBW-TV, Channel 13:

We had coverage from all four networks, from the AP, and from several print and radio organizations.
Mariah began the press conference by covering the content of the Greed Agenda:

She was followed by Jim McCullough, Director of The Topeka Center for Peace and Justice:

who spoke on voter suppression. He said it was nice to have someone talking about the 99% and pointed out that the Koch Brothers are Kansans. He told us

Your taxes are helping out their profit margins.

Joy Ginsburg, a concenred parent (of the charming young lady next to her):

told us of her concerns about what the Greed Agenda was doing to her public schools. She referred to this editorial from The Wichita Eagle and the Kansas City Star, which criticized Governor Brownback appointing an “efficiency task force” to wring more saving out public schools whose 10 “experts” included no one based in schools or serving as educators. As the editorial, to which I will return later, noted:

Intended or not, the exclusion of practicing educators comes across as a show of disrespect for the people in the trenches who understand what resources are necessary to educate the children of Kansas.

Sid closed the pressed conference

 

by announcing and reading the letter to Gov. Brownback, which is signed by Patriot Majority but also backed by more than 84,000 people who “LIKE” (and if you follow the link you will see the numbers keep going up – feel free to “LIKE” it as well) the Patriot Majority’s Facebook Page before he and others then headed off to the Capitol:

to deliver the letter to the Governor’s office.
After a brief stop for some barbecue – how can you visit Kansas City and not eat local barbecue? – both buses traveled to a union hall in Kansas City: 

You will note this local hall servers both Laborers (who do construction) and Public Employees.

Sid kicked off the proceedings, and introduced Mark Nidiffer (in the ball cap on your left): who is the business manager and Secretary-Treasurer of Local 1290, who welcomed us and thanked us for what we were doing. He was followed by Andrea Veronica Hodges of Patriot Majority: who told us the Koch Brothers are attempting to rob us of our rights. She mentioned that ALEC has supported 38 pieces of legislation that effectively rob us of our civil rights. We need to send a message to the Koch Brothers that we will not let them get away with it.

After Joy Ginsburg spoke again, the final speaker was Don Jones of Patriot Majority:

who talked about growing up in a union hall like this. Both of his parents, his uncles, now even his 21 year old son, were/are union members.

I was raised and taught that you get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

But the Koch Brothers and others pushing the Greed Agenda want to take these jobs overseas. Don said that what we want is jobs to provided “everyday stuff” like our houses, being able to send our kids to school, to be able to pay for our cars.

This is OUR country… Labor hands built this country.

Kansas is an appropriate place to end this Stop the Greed Agenda Bus Tour for a number of reasons. First, let me return to the editorial from which I quote:

Once again, Brownback has shown he will heavy-handedly wield the state’s authority over local communities even as he decries the idea that the federal government should have a say in what goes on in the states.

A key approach of the Greed Agenda is to take power away from the Federal government, including the power to regulate corporations as much as possible, and to return it to state government, where through organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council, with its cooperation between state legislators and corporations shaping laws government can be perverted to benefit corporations and the rich. If the Federal Government is hamstrung and limited in what can be done, and state governments are controlled by ALEC and other similar organizations, then the ability of local governments to protect their people begins to disappear, as does the meaning of democracy as a form of government that is rule by “We the people.”

Kansas is also ground zero for something else. One needs to remember that Governor Brownback is on record as not fully supporting evolution – as seen by his raising his hand at a Republican primary debate and by this op ed in the New York Times – even though the Roman Catholic Church to which he converted as an adult has no difficulty with Darwin’s theory. Kansas is also the state whose elected state school board sought to downplay evolution and require the teaching of  ”intelligent design.” While that school board was eventually voted out by the people of Kansas, this points at something to which we often do not pay attention. Those pushing the Greed Agenda realistically care little about such social issues – what they want is unfettered ability to run their corporations, break the unions, and maximize their profits. They have seen that they can use the concerns of some fearful of change to rile them up about social issues and vote for legislators and others who will be compliant on the economic issues that concern the likes of the Koch Brothers, and these same legislators, having been courted and financially supported by organizations like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks will then join ALEC and support the Greed Agenda which is the real concern of the Koch Brothers.

Remember, many people who are anti-evolution also tend not to believe in anthropogenic Global climate change. Wanting people not to accept climate changes is important to those whose profits depend upon continued reliance on fossil fuels, which is an apt description of Charles and David Koch.

We cannot merely push back when legislation is passed or state constitutional amendments are placed on the ballot. We must recognize what is going on, and fight strongly on every election through which the Greed Agenda is being advanced, or we will lose our democracy.

We must be informed and inform others.

This is my last post from the road, describing particular events.

I will offer one more post, without additional pictures, focusing on the issues of concern to those of us who work in and for public schools and/or who support public education.

It has been an honor to travel on behalf of Education Votes, and to share my observations and thoughts here.

UN Take Over of Internet? :Congressman Mike Pompeo vs. New York Times

Mike Pompeo (R-KS4)

...there is an effort to manipulate the International Telecommunications Union—a treaty originally created in 1865 to address telegraph service—to provide the United Nations jurisdiction over the Internet.  The showdown over whether the UN will seize control will happen at the December 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai.

 Pompeo  boasts that he has written a House resolution opposing the UN takeover of the internet.

New York Times

Documents prepared for the December meeting, which leaked out last week — yes, on the Internet — show that there are no proposals to hand governance of the Net to the I.T.U. The union insists that it has no desire to play such a role. And even if some governments would like to give the agency increased regulatory powers, the United States and other like-minded countries could easily block them.

Congressional Stall Over Tax Break Could Cost Kansas a Vital Wind Energy Project

by Chaz Bolte

 

 Congress’ willingness to extend a tax break for wind energy may predict the future of Kansas’ flourishing wind power industry. Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas proposed a one-year extension over two weeks ago but it has yet to be voted on. The tax break, which has been in effect since 1992, was part of President Obama’s stimulus plan and therefore is likely to gain opposition from both deficit hawks and Obama detractors running for re-election.

John Graham, CEO of BP Wind Energy, the company which runs Kansas’ Flat Ridge Phase I and II wind farms, says the tax credit is an excellent stimulant to the industry at a minimal cost to the government.

The tax credit, Graham said, costs the government $3.5 billion a year and attracts $15 billion to $20 billion in investment. Sixty percent of wind energy components are now made in the U.S. “We think it’s a very good return,” he said. 

In Kansas, where wind energy has taken off in part thanks to the tax credit, investors are waiting to see the result of the political process before committing the next round of resources. Historically, when this tax credit has been cancelled, which happened in 1999, 2001 and 2003, new construction plummeted between 73 and 93 percent the following year. Kansas and the wind industry can ill afford a hiccup of this magnitude.

“There is no state in the country that has more at stake in this than Kansas,” Sen. Moran said.
Without renewal, the tax credit will end on January 1st, 2013. This is a rare opportunity to flex bipartisan muscle in the interest of the environment. Alternative energy is a tricky issue on Capitol Hill, but if Washington can get its act together for a few moments the wind industry and Kansas’ economy will continue to witness growth and employ more people.

Below, video of the Flat Ridge wind farm with cattle grazing…

  

Chaz Bolte is a native of Pittsburgh, PA where he attended Slippery Rock University. He currently contributes to WePartyPatriots, where this post originally appeared.

Hutchinson News On Kobach

The Hutchinson News had a great editorial last week on Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach

...Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach made yet another incomprehensible move that puts his own interests above the residents of Kansas and further erodes the integrity of the office of the state's top election official.

Kobach - the elected gatekeeper of fair and impartial elections in Kansas - has created a political action committee, naming himself as chairman. Its name is Prairie Fire PAC, and its purpose is to raise money for Kansas candidates. While Kobach said no decisions have been made about whom the PAC might support, he wouldn't rule out casting behind potential GOP candidates in upcoming primary elections, especially those "who are serious about fighting voter fraud."

And, here is the conclusion

...it is starting to seem like the person Kansans should fear most is not the one who comes to the polls without identification but the one who will go to seemingly any length to control the ballot before voters ever arrive.  

Read the whole thing.

Blues on a Saturday: Hound Dog Taylor and Little Walter

 Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers featuring Little Walter on harmonica in 1967, about a year before Walter's death.

When Delmark Records shipping clerk Bruce Iglauer couldn't convince his boss to record Taylor, he launched Alligator Records.

And there's a Kansas angle. Bob Koester, the owner of Delmark Records and the Jazz Record Mart, was born and grew up in Wichita.

Pompeo plays bigot card

In August, Republican candidate Mike Pompeo was embroiled in a controversy when his official campaign tweet recommended "a good read" that attacked Democratic candidate Raj Goyle as a "turban topper." Pompeo apologized, sort of. Pompeo claimed that a staffer had inadvertently linked to the wrong story." Goyle, a second term state representative, is the son of Indian immigrants. While a some experts pointed out that the Pompeo denial lacked creditability, it was generally accepted.

Now, just days before the election, the Pompeo campaign has a new electronic billboard which proclaims "True Americans Vote for Pompeo."

Not only does the billboard uses bigotry, it is apparently illegal.



The Kansas Democratic Party is reportedly preparing to file a formal complaint with the Federal Elections Commission because the billboard does not have a disclaimer as required by election law.

The Goyle campaign has launched an on-line petition demanding that Pompeo take down the billboard.
Here is the letter the Goyle Campaign sent to Rodger Woods, Campaign Manager for Mike Pompeo for Congress.

Dear Rodger,

I am writing to request that the Mike Pompeo for Congress Campaign put an end to all bigoted and fear mongering attacks and tactics. The political process deserves better, as do Kansans.
I have been informed that the Kansas Democratic Party will be filing a FEC complaint for illegal and offensive billboards located at 540 S Broadway Wichita, KS.

The statement "Vote American Vote Pompeo" is unfortunately another example of offensive material linked to your campaign. We hoped that your apology over the posting of the infamous "turban topped" blog post in August was the last time we would deal with bigotry in this campaign.
We have known about this billboard for at least 24 hours. It is simply hard to believe you and your campaign are not aware of its existence.

I hope you agree that illegal, offensive and bigoted material has no place in this campaign.

Sincerely,


Kiel Brunner
Campaign Manager for Raj Goyle For Congress

Dems gain in State-wide races

The latest Survey USA poll shows gains by Tom Holland for Gov, Atty Gen Steve Six,
Treasurer Dennis McKinney, and Secretary of State Chris Biggs. There's still a long ways to go in these races, but usually when Dems win in the state it is due to late movement.

For Governor, US Senator Sam Brownback and running mate Jeff Colyer today defeat Democrats Tom Holland and Kelly Kultala 59% to 32%. Compared to an identical SurveyUSA poll released 1 month ago, the Republicans are down 8 points; the Democrats are up 7. Among women, Brownback had led by 35, now leads by 19. Among voters 50+, Brownback had led by 31, now leads by 20. Among the 1 in 3 likely voters who identify themselves as moderates, Holland and Kultala had trailed by 10, now lead by 9, a 19-point swing to the Democrats.


Incumbent Secretary of State Democrat Chris Biggs has gained some ground in his fight against Republican Kris Kobach. Kobach today defeats Biggs by 17 points, 53% to 36%, down from a 32-point margin a month ago. Biggs has gained strength and Kobach has simultaneously lost ground among women, where the two are now essentially even, and to a lesser extent, among voters 50+. Biggs has also found support among moderates, where he had led by a 5, now by 22.

Another Democratic incumbent, Attorney General Steve Six, is also gaining ground against his opponent, Republican Derek Schmidt. Schmidt today defeats Six 50% to 41%, a 9-point lead for the Republican, down from 20 points last month. There has been an 18-point swing toward the Democrat among women, a 12-point swing among older voters, and Six has dramatically improved his standing in southeastern Kansas, where he had trailed by 25 points, and is now neck-and-neck with Schmidt.

The State Treasurer race has also tightened, with Republican Ron Estes today defeating incumbent Democrat Dennis McKinney by 11 points, down from 21 points last month. McKinney, like his fellow incumbents in the Attorney General and Secretary of State offices, is up gaining strength among women, older voters, and moderates.

Tom Holland at State Fair

Tom Holland, Democratic candidate for Governor of Kansas, at the Kansas State Fair debate.

Raj Goyle's Social Security Pledge and Why it Matters

Image via Wikipedia(August 18) Saturday at the  Wichita Hyatt, in front of a crowd of nearly 200 people  at Demofest, State Rep. Raj Goyle, candidate for Congress representing the 4th District, signed a pledge promising to work to strengthen and protect Social Security. The event came on the 75th Anniversary of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signing the bill into law.

Now some political pledges are primarily  symbolic, but some have real consequences and mark dramatic political differences. This is just such a case. Goyle's opponent, Mike Pompeo and the leadership of the national Republican party have Social Security in their crosshairs.
 

Goyle's Pledge
In a speech that received a standing ovation from the crowd, Raj Goyle stated, "Seventy five years ago today President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law one of the most groundbreaking, progressive and forward-thinking programs in our nation's history when he created the Social Security system. Social Security has withstood a World War, thrived in times of peace and unrest, survived recessions and deficits and held firm under Democrats and Republicans."
"And in 2010, Social Security will be protected and nurtured for many more decades to come, because we in this room - and other like us nationwide - will not let special interests, the Club for Growthers, the greedy Wall Street raiders, the John Boehners and the Newt Gingriches of the world anywhere near this American institution," Goyle continued,
"I pledge to you today that I will protect Social Security. I will oppose all efforts to privatize it and I will certainly oppose John Boehner's idea of raising the retirement age to 70! Together, we will protect the guarantee of dignity, security and hope that began with FDR 75 years ago," Goyle concluded.
Pompeo's Plan to Gut Social Security
In an April 10 interview with the Winfield Courier, Pompeo stated his position on social security.  Pompeo supports raising the retirement age and a Bush-style privatization of social security. And note that the article is featured on the Pompeo campaign website.

On the spending side, the government needs to move down a path to reform entitlement funding, including Social Security  and Medicare -- the government's two biggest entitlement programs, Pompeo said.
Options that could be examined include increasing the age for full Social Security benefits to retirees, he said.
"I would advocate for a partial privatization of the system so people could choose to go into the government-funded program or to a retirement investment program where they could get a return on their capital," Pompeo said.

Pompeo's GOP vs. Social Security 

Pompeo's intention to privatize social security, unfortunately, is not an isolated case.
The Wonk Room summarizes

Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) much ballyhooed Roadmap for America's Future calls for the creation of private Social Security accounts, akin to those proposed by President Bush in 2005. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has explicitly advocated "reviving President George W. Bush's failed plan to partially privatize Social Security." 

Reps. Dan Lungren (R-CA), Jack Kingston (R-GA), and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have all touted personal accounts, while Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has expressed a desire to "wean everybody off" Social Security entirely. Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ) even questioned the constitutionality of the program. 

Kentucky's Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul, meanwhile, has said "let young working people opt out, the sooner the better, let 'em opt out and get a better investment." Indiana's GOP Senate candidate Dan Coats has endorsed a Social Security plan "along the lines of what Paul Ryan has proposed."

As a Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis found, under a Bush-style privatization plan, an October 2008 retiree would have lost $26,000 in the market plunge of that year, and if the U.S. stock market had behaved like the Japanese market during the duration of that retiree's work life, "a private account would have experienced sharp negative returns, losing $70,000 -- an effective -3.3 percent net annual rate of return." But despite the market turmoil that America just went through, Republicans are most certainly pushing a privatization agenda, under the guise of a manufactured Social Security crisis.

Kansas primary outlook 4th District

Via Daily Kos which also has analysis of other Kansas races.

A SurveyUSA poll taken just during the past few days identifies the favorites for both parties in this battle to replace Todd Tiahrt. The district is reddish (58-40 McCain in 2008), but Democrats are high on their well-funded challenger: state legislator Raj Goyle. SUSA polling in June showed Goyle actually trailing unknown retiree Robert Tillman, but a quick pre-primary advertising blitz handled that effectively. Goyle now has a 40+ point lead. Meanwhile, Republicans have a more muddled field, which has become a three-way race at the last. For the longest time, it was a battle of the businessmen, as manufacturing exec Mike Pompeo and Florida transplant Wink Hartman paced the field. But moderate state senator Jean Schodorf has surged at the wire, and could figure in the conversation on Tuesday. This week's SUSA poll had Pompeo at 31 percent with Schodorf (24 percent) and Hartman (21 percent) within striking distance.

Brownback's silly idea shows ignorance of Kansas

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I imagine Sam Brownback is mighty pleased that the New York Times gave him a puff piece story for his silly idea to create a  "State Office of the Repealer whose job it would be to start disposing of all the silly, needless, over-the-top regulations that state officials have dreamed up."

Brownback then cites the prime example "the rejoicing of residents in Saline County, Kan., when a strict fireworks ban was lifted there."

Hey, Sam, that was a county ordinance, it had nothing to do with a state law or regulation.