Kansas Megathread: Kobach and Kelly and Orman, Oh My!

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Two more strange things happened today in the weird world of Kansas politics!

1. Ron M. Estes has filed to run against Ron Estes in the KS-04 Republican primary. Yes, you read that correctly. Somebody with the same name as the incumbent Congressman is challenging him in the primary. He has a website, a Twitter (@RealRonEstes) and graphics that say "Vote for the Real Ron Estes". Comment from the Congressman's office was "This is clearly an attempt to deceive Kansas voters.”

I'm really curious to see how much of the vote Ron M. Estes can pull, and see whether or not this will make Congressman Estes waste his money in the primary. Knowing he's a bad fundraiser, this is even more comical.
https://twitter.com/RealRonEstes
http://www.realronestes.com/
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article212306569.html#storylink=latest_side

2. No Democratic candidate has as of now filed for AG. This means... VERMIN SUPREME HAS DECIDED TO FILE. He's ponied up the filing fee and is filing as a Democrat for Attorney General tomorrow. Every half-serious politico in the state is hoping some other Democrat gets their act together and also files, but we're quite close to having a joke as a statewide candidate at this point. Today, a court decision found that out-of-state candidates for governor were not eligible, but I don't think the ruling applies to other row offices... This should be interesting.

http://www.cjonline.com/news/20180531/vermin-supreme-dental-activist-horse-lover-to-file-as-candidate-for-kansas-attorney-general

Jesus Christ, someone file for AG please, sheesh.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Two more strange things happened today in the weird world of Kansas politics!

1. Ron M. Estes has filed to run against Ron Estes in the KS-04 Republican primary. Yes, you read that correctly. Somebody with the same name as the incumbent Congressman is challenging him in the primary. He has a website, a Twitter (@RealRonEstes) and graphics that say "Vote for the Real Ron Estes". Comment from the Congressman's office was "This is clearly an attempt to deceive Kansas voters.”

I'm really curious to see how much of the vote Ron M. Estes can pull, and see whether or not this will make Congressman Estes waste his money in the primary. Knowing he's a bad fundraiser, this is even more comical.
https://twitter.com/RealRonEstes
http://www.realronestes.com/
http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article212306569.html#storylink=latest_side

2. No Democratic candidate has as of now filed for AG. This means... VERMIN SUPREME HAS DECIDED TO FILE. He's ponied up the filing fee and is filing as a Democrat for Attorney General tomorrow. Every half-serious politico in the state is hoping some other Democrat gets their act together and also files, but we're quite close to having a joke as a statewide candidate at this point. Today, a court decision found that out-of-state candidates for governor were not eligible, but I don't think the ruling applies to other row offices... This should be interesting.

http://www.cjonline.com/news/20180531/vermin-supreme-dental-activist-horse-lover-to-file-as-candidate-for-kansas-attorney-general

Jesus Christ, someone file for AG please, sheesh.

Sarah Swain, a well-known Lawrence attorney, has now filed. Rest assured our nominee will probably not be Vermin Supreme.

Good to hear, thanks for the info.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

If I read the JoCo web site correctly, they haven't even reported all the early votes.  Obviously something actually has gone horribly wrong.

What about joco isnt horribly wrong?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

683 votes difference, wow. I'll laugh my *** off if Kobach wins by 537.

Kris Kobach hates us and if he had it his way we would be registered on a national registry like the jewish people before and during WW2 under Hitler. Even the two republican muslims I know would vote for the democrat over him.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

683 votes difference, wow. I'll laugh my *** off if Kobach wins by 537.

Kris Kobach hates us and if he had it his way we would be registered on a national registry like the jewish people before and during WW2 under Hitler. Even the two republican muslims I know would vote for the democrat over him.

I hope Colyer wins the primary and loses the general. This was just a reference to the "official" 537 votes that gave us W.

Oh I see.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

I stayed up to now to see how Kobach is faring and Johnson county is still being a pain in the rear, they are making Fulton look like gold standard, I guess we'll see what happens later, but if I had to guess, I think Colyer eeks it out, but that is a very unconfident prediction.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Also happy to see Welder looking like he'll lose.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

If Kobach gets the nom, could he help drag Yoder under, especially without Welder?

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

I can see that argument for Congress as majorities are at stake, but I don't see the obsession with "weakest possible nominee" argument for Gubernatorial races.

Generally speaking, I want each state in the union to be successful and hope that the best nominees are put forward. For almost all of you, whether or not Kobach or Colyer is the nominee and whether or not Kansas has a GOP or DEM governor will have almost no impact on your life, so why not want just each party to put their best possible candidate forward? Unless people are just hacks who only cares about your party winning as many elections as possible.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Svaty should run for Chair of the Kansas Democratic Party. He’s certainly showed that he can hold his own, despite not winning the primary.

Didn't closely follow the race, but I don't really get  Svaty's rural strategy.  What scenario could conceivably have created enough voters to make it work?  

Svaty is the archetypal example of a candidate that gets hyped up by Atlas/Election Twitter people despite never having a chance in the first place. Despite the fact that he was third in both the polls we got of the primary, so many people on Atlas were anticipating some "Svaty surge" that would carry him to the frontrunner position and lead the KS Dem party to some populist resurgence. Instead, he came in third with a pathetic high teens percentage of the vote, behind Carl Brewer, a man that is only marginally more charismatic than a loaf of bread. Svaty never had a chance. He has no base within the Democratic party, and despite being a good GE candidate in theory, he has little to offer the Democratic base. I would say I hope election nerds learned their lesson about hyping populist hero candidates from this, but we both know that'll never happen.

I mean Brewer must have had some decent amount of skill to be a black democratic mayor of freaking podunk Cletus Witchita Kansas lol.