Kansas court says Democrats need not provide nominee for U.S. Senate race

[Jim Lane]

7. There've been multiple decisions by different courts in this saga.

The key earlier decision was that, contrary to the Republican Secretary of State's decision, the official Democratic nominee's letter of withdrawal was adequate. By that ruling the court compelled the SoS to print the military and overseas ballots without the Democrat.

The Republicans kept trying, however, urging that the Democratic Party be compelled to name a new candidate. This latest decision rejects that ploy.

I saw one interesting analysis about what would have happened if the Democrats had lost this decision. The author (at electoral-vote.com) suggested that they could find someone in Kansas named S. Brownback who'd agree to be on the ballot. That candidate might draw off votes from Roberts by appealing to low-information Republican voters who like former Senator Sam Brownback better than current Senator Pat Roberts. The only downside of the latest court decision is that we won't get to see whether the Democrats would try that maneuver.