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Saints!

Thursday
March 28th, 2024

“Why take a risk?” said Alan Cobb, president and CEO of the influential Kansas Chamber of Commerce, which has endorsed Warren in the attorney general’s race. “There are exceptions to waves all the time.”

Kobach’s years of pushing tough immigration and voter ID policies, coupled with a brash persona, turned off independent and moderate GOP voters in the 2018 governor’s race. Prominent Republicans then tagged him as too risky a bet in 2020, and he lost the Senate primary by 14 percentage points to U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, who then won the general election.

Brittany Jones, policy director for Kansas Family Voice, called Kobach “a good man” who undoubtedly would side with the conservative group on issues. But the group endorsed Warren over Kobach.

“He has proven time and time again that he can’t win,” Jones said. Kobach also lost a congressional race in 2004.

Mattivi handled high-profile terrorism cases as a federal prosecutor and has endorsements from dozens of sheriffs and prosecutors, including the district attorney in the state’s most populous county. During the recent debate, he said, “Electability is absolutely an issue.”

But Kobach argued in the most recent debate that he showed he can defeat Democrats in statewide races by winning terms as secretary of state in 2010 and 2014. Republican state Sen. J.R. Claeys, a consultant for Kobach, said the coming “big red wave” washes away any lingering questions about Kobach’s electability.

On primary day, Kansans will vote on adding anti-abortion language to the state Constitution, and Kobach argues the measure’s supporters are most likely to vote for him. But Warren was visible in the legislative push to get it on the ballot.

In Kobach’s first race for secretary of state in 2010, he was better known than his two opponents, thanks to his national profile as a law professor who had ghostwritten tough state and local immigration rules outside Kansas. That November, he unseated a Democratic incumbent appointed to the state’s top elections office only months before.

In his second term, Kobach’s star kept rising. He was the earliest prominent Kansas supporter of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid, advised Trump on immigration issues, served as vice chair of a short-lived Trump commission on election fraud and was mentioned as a possible Cabinet appointee. He was a regular Fox News Channel guest and a Breitbart columnist.

He promoted the idea that fraud distorts U.S. elections long before much of the GOP embraced Trump’s false claims about his 2020 presidential election loss to Biden.

Kobach argued in the recent debate that his 2018 bid for governor fell victim to a national midterm “bloodbath” for the GOP.

In Kansas that year, Democrat Sharice Davids ousted a four-term incumbent Republican in a Kansas City-area congressional district, and Gov. Laura Kelly was among seven new Democratic governors who replaced Republicans. Democrats won back a U.S. House majority.

But Kelly Arnold, the state GOP chair at the time, contends that Kobach’s 2018 fundraising was lackluster. In the attorney general’s race, Kobach lent his campaign $200,000 last year, which was nearly half of the $425,000 he raised.

Arnold also argues that Kobach’s candidacy energized the Democratic political base.

“The one thing that could unify Democrats to come out and vote is Kobach,” Arnold said.

Some Kobach critics still talk about the Jeep lent to him by a supporter in 2018 with a replica machine gun on back. Mandi Hunter, a 46-year-old moderate Republican and Kansas City-area real estate attorney, mentioned it in describing Kobach as “incredibly divisive.”

Kobach rode the Jeep in parades and mocked what he called the resulting “snowflake meltdown.”

“Kobach has chutzpah — extreme self-confidence through all situations,” said Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist. “Many GOP primary voters love that, unless, like in the Senate race, he faces a well-financed opponent who can inform them about his negatives.”

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and James Dobson, the evangelical author, broadcaster and Focus on the Family founder, have endorsed Kobach, as has former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, described by Kobach as a mentor.

GOP voters also might sense that the attorney general’s office suits Kobach better than the other offices he’s sought. Kris Van Meteren, head of a Republican consulting and direct mail firm in the Kansas City area, said Kobach’s campaigns for secretary of state had a “law and order” tone by emphasizing election fraud as an issue.

And, with GOP voters looking for someone to aggressively challenge the Biden administration, Kobach is better known than the other candidates for “being a fighter,” Van Meteren added.

“He’s got the most-established reputation of being somebody who’s willing to take on the left,” Van Meteren said.

Leonard Hall, a 69-year-old Kansas City-area attorney, said he hasn’t decided which candidate to support but thinks Kobach’s past losses are “a nonissue.”

“I don’t look at him in the past tense,” Hall said after the recent debate. “The mere fact Kobach lost, I don’t think that can be held against him.”

Liberal Local News

Governor Kelly signs bill honoring wartime chaplain Father Emil Kapaun

kapaun funeral church pageThe remains of Father Emil Kapaun are brought out from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency headquarters at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in September 2021. Last Friday, Gov. Laura Kelly signed a bill directing the creation of a memorial honoring Kapaun and his service. FILE PHOTO/TRAVIS HEYING/THE WICHITA EAGLEELLY GRIMM • Leader & Times

 

Father Emil Kapaun has been a prominent figure for Kansas Catholics for many years, having served as a chaplain in the Burma Theater of World War II, then served again as a chaplain with the U.S. Army in Korea, where he was captured and ultimately died in a prisoner of war camp. 

His remains were unaccounted for until 2021, when they were finally returned to Kansas and interred in Wichita.

Last Friday, Gov. Laura Kelly signed Senate Bill 431, which directs the Capitol Preservation Committee to create a memorial honoring Chaplain (Captain) Kapaun, according to a release from the State of Kansas.

“Father Emil Kapaun was known for his selfless, dedicated service and providing care to all, regardless of their religion or beliefs,” Gov. Kelly noted in the State of Kansas release. “I am proud to honor his legacy and sacrifices for our country by signing this bipartisan bill. Father Kapaun is the most highly decorated chaplain in United States Army history. After serving as a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Wichita, he tok his ministry to World War II and the Korean War. He was captured in the Battle of Unsan while refusing to leave the wounded and ultimately died as a prisoner of war in North Korea.”

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Other Interests

NATIONAL HEADLINES

Opinion

Key bills still have a chance to pass

RYCKMAN RECAP, Ron Ryckman, 38th District Senator

 

This last, Week 11, for most committees to meet in the Legislature was kind of different from past years, in that there didn’t seem to be any big “crunch” to get everything done. 

We did work a fair number of bills — particularly in Ag and Fed and State, but used our full hour of meeting time only once — and that without even approving the bill which consumed most of it (SB 446, seeking to limit foreign property ownership) because it had simply become too cumbersome. 

The big news, I suppose, was that both houses held hearings on Medicaid expansion for the first time in four years, yet without moving it out of committee. The House provided some hope that tax relief might have another shot; however, with a two-tier instead of single rate like that adopted by the Senate, there is still a lot of “negotiating” to do to get a finished product that is “veto proof.” We’ll know more after their formal Floor consideration next week, but right now I’m optimistic we can come up with something taxpayers have been waiting on far too long.

Three totally unrelated measures that have generated a lot of constituent interest and do have a good chance of making it through are S Sub HB 2124, dealing with operational enhancement for “little guy” microbreweries; HB 2783, prohibiting government agencies from restricting the sale of motor vehicles based on energy source; and SB 527/HB 2813, making it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion. 

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