What's going on in Kansas?

[BOSSHOG]

The former Chair of the State Republican Party switching to the democratic side to possibly run for LT Governor? The Johnson County District Attorney switches from republican to democrat to run for State Attorney General?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060530/ap_on_el_ge/kansas_governor_s_race;_ylt=Ahwj89Uyg7bZds6IIs2VzQSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-

Of course the current head of the state gop is disgusted at the disloyalty. He just can't understand why someone would not want to wear a hood to work everyday.

Feedback from Kansans on the good news or bad news of this story would be greatly appreciated.

[Jazzgirl]

1. Bosshog, I got a bad feeling....

about all this party-switching. You know, the repukes have every intention of staying in power any way they can. If they have to, I think they plan to "infiltrate" the Democratic party to gain control. I know it sounds pretty off the hook but the way these guys operate, I don't put anything past them.

[sutz12]

2. Hmmmmm.....could he do a double switch?

You know, get elected as a D, then have one of those "What was I thinking?" moments and switch back?

I can't trust anyone with an R behind their name, even an old, canceled R. Once a prick, always a prick. Right?

[zbdent]

6. Wouldn't doubt it . . .

[Sadie5]

3. Not off the hook

I too had noticed this trend. Once they place enough of the Repukes in Dem races by switching parties the take over will be complete and it will happen before our very eyes, too late to do anything about it. They refuse to give up power and besides that we already have the DLC Repuke lites.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Apparently it's been done before

I'm not in Kansas but have a friend who is active in Dem politics there. She emailed me yesterday --

"As for the Republican changing to a Democrat to be a running mate for Kathleen , her first running mate, Lt. Gov. John Moore, did the same thing. At first it pissed me off that she chose a Republican, but he turned out to be a pretty good Democrat. The man who's running for attorney general against Phill Kline did the same thing. The good Republicans know their party is screwed up."




Tansy Gold

[hatrack]

5. There are three parties in KS - Democrats, Republicans, Thumpers

The Thumpers, in combination with the Republicans, basically control the whole thing (the Senate is 30-10 R to D, can't remember the numbers for the House). However, the centrist GOPers have been known to make common cause with the Democrats to get things like school funding and budget bills passed, while generally holding the most insane antics of their right-wing colleagues in check.

The problem for the Thumpers is that every time they try and run one of their candidates for the top job, he invariably loses - a la Tim Shallenburger, former State Treasurer who lost to Sebelius in 2002. The highest they've gotten to date is Phill Kline as A.G., and he's pretty much disgusted everybody BUT the hard-core Thumpers.

FWIW, Sebelius is a Democrat, but in many states she'd be considered a moderate Republican - that's just the nature of Kansas.

[MuseRider]

7. Couple of articles

from the paper this morning might help.

http://cjonline.com/stories/060106/kan_betrayal.shtml

http://cjonline.com/stories/060106/kan_parkpol.shtml

I agree with hatrack. We have been very lucky here to have enough "real" Republicans to stop the Thumpers and lucky enough that the Thumpers have not figured out how to disguise themselves enough to get elected. You think it is bad here now? Shallenburger would have been a disaster and thankfully he now heads the R party and has scared many fence sitters over to our side.

I am not all that comfortable with all the R's becoming D's. We will see how it works out.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. they think they can fool the people? ....:shurg