Kansas Republicans Reject Gov. Sam Brownback’s Conservatives in Primary
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Version 0 of 1. Republican voters in Kansas rebelled against the policies of Gov. Sam Brownback on Tuesday, ousting his fellow conservatives in at least 11 state legislative primary races amid widespread angst about Kansas’s financial situation. With some races still undetermined on Wednesday, but also leaning toward moderates, the primary was a tangible sign of the grumblings that have been going on under the surface in heavily Republican Kansas, as deep cuts to taxes, a centerpiece of the Brownback agenda, have left the state short on revenue and led to cuts to government services. “People, they were frustrated,” said Dinah Sykes, a moderate Republican from the Kansas City suburbs who defeated the conservative incumbent in her State Senate district. “They were ready for people to listen to them and be accountable to them.” The results promised to reshape the dynamics in the Legislature, which has been dominated in recent years by conservatives friendly to Mr. Brownback, and perhaps add pressure for the governor to reconsider some of his tax policies, which were predicated on a supply-side theory of economics and championed by conservatives nationally. Kansas has repeatedly missed revenue collection targets, has seen its credit rating slashed and has cut funding for some government services during Mr. Brownback’s tenure. “It was schools, it was roads, it was the fact that some communities were hoping for job growth that didn’t happen,” said Chapman Rackaway, a political science professor at Fort Hays State University who called Tuesday’s results a “repudiation” of Mr. Brownback’s policies. Kansas remains an overwhelmingly Republican state, and the party will almost certainly retain large legislative majorities after the general election in November. And Mr. Brownback himself was elected to a second four-year term in 2014. But Tuesday’s vote highlighted a longstanding split in the state party between conservatives and a moderate bloc that sometimes aligns with Democrats. Patrick R. Miller, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, said Tuesday’s results came from “Brownback’s unpopularity laid on top of that traditional divide.” At least six conservative senators lost their primaries, political scientists and local news media said, along with five conservative House members. Three more conservative House members were trailing moderates in close races. Other moderate candidates won primaries in districts where the conservative incumbent did not seek another term. In addition, Republicans in one congressional district voted out Representative Tim Huelskamp, a farmer who had become a Tea Party favorite in Washington but had annoyed party stalwarts and been removed from the Agriculture Committee. His opponent, Roger Marshall, had support from major farm groups in the state. State Senator Greg Smith, who lost to Ms. Sykes, said “discontent with the governor” and a lack of nuance in local news coverage contributed to the conservative losses. He said there seemed to be a “schism in the Republican Party” between conservatives who “support the party platform” and “folks who register as Republicans because they know that’s the only way they can win the office,” but who in fact have more in common with Democrats. On Wednesday, Mr. Brownback’s office sought to frame the vote as part of a broader disenchantment with current officeholders. “Kansas is not immune from the widespread anti-incumbency sentiment we have seen across the nation this election season,” Eileen Hawley, a spokeswoman for the governor, said in a statement. That position was partly echoed by Kelly Arnold, the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, who said Tuesday’s results probably indicated some level of disapproval of current leadership in the state, but also frustration with the status quo at all levels of government. “I think you saw a lot of people just kind of fed up with what’s going on, the current incumbency, and that’s on the federal level and state level,” Mr. Arnold said. In legislative races from suburbs to the state’s vast countryside, concerns about finances and tax policy repeatedly rose to the forefront. In central Kansas, Ed Berger, a former community college president, defeated the State Senate majority leader, Terry Bruce, a major ally of Mr. Brownback. On his campaign website, Mr. Berger warned that “our state is on the wrong track and our district’s current senator, in lock step with the governor, is the one leading it in the wrong direction.” Voters “had concerns about the fiscal viability of the state, I heard that quite frequently,” Mr. Berger said in an interview on Wednesday. “They know that the state can’t continue on the course that we’re on.” Many of Tuesday’s winners will still face general election opponents, but no matter who is elected in November, some have suggested that moderate Republicans and Democrats, if they band together, might be able to muster enough votes to block parts of Mr. Brownback’s agenda from becoming law. Kerry Gooch, the executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, said the results in the Republican primary showed widespread discontent and frustration among voters, and a desire for things to change. “I definitely think it shows that Kansans are paying attention,” Mr. Gooch said, “that Kansans are not happy with what Governor Brownback and extreme Republican legislators have been doing to our state for the last six years.” |