Who do you think is more strongly disliked in Kansas?

[Badger]

According to recent polling, Obama and Brownback have near identically poor approval/disapproval ratings. Obama is surely more intensely disliked because in almost any state voters care more (whether positively or negatively) about their president than their governor. While that dynamic will certainly help Roberts's re-election to the Senate, it won't have as much impact on the governor's race. Simply put, voters' disapproval of their governor matters more than their disapproval of the president while casting their ballots for governor.

One other point I noticed: Among the near quarter of KS voters who are very or somewhat liberal, over a fifth disapprove of Obama. Davis, meanwhile, doesn't have nearly the same disapproval rating among that contingent (particularly among the more numerous "somewhat liberals"). I know Democrats like to claim that a notable share of Obama's disapproval comes from voters who feel he hasn't been liberal enough, but in KS that actually may be case to the tune of about 4-5% points. Conversely, it's difficult to envision many, if any, conservative Kansans (outside some rare Phelps family-like extremists) who seriously believe Brownback isn't conservative enough.

KS's strong conservative Republican lean still gives Brownback a chance with Obama in the White House, but he's still got quite the hole to dig himself out of.