2014 Senate Projections

[shockmonster]

It interesting - it was Bob Dole who first realized that Roberts was in trouble as he was doing his own tour of Kansas and alerted the Republican Party they might have a problem. In 2013 the NRSC met with Roberts and Roberts told them "he knew Kansas better than anyone and would not be taking advice from the party’s whippersnappers."



You got to love Dole - he's old school, but he's still got it at 91

Of course he's still got it. He takes Viagra.

[Aargh]

Dole is, was, and will always be the man!

An historically moderate Republican will always "be the man"?

[Shock Top]

An historically moderate Republican will always "be the man"?

A war hero, who always did what what he felt was in the best interest of his people.

[CBB_Fan]

I don't like either party, but the Republicans have made a mess of this state and will continue to make a mess here and elsewhere. Not that the Democrats are much better. Neither party has a good record on personal freedoms, neither party is fiscally responsible, both are war happy. However the Republicans have an added layer of hypocrisy that goes beyond what I've seen from the more liberal party. They promise fiscal responsibility, but their actions are anything but responsible.

Kansas will be bankrupt in two years, because of Brownback's policies. There is no partisanship in that, it is just a self-evident fact. Those policies do not work. Cutting spending is fine, but worthless if you just cut taxes even more. All we've done is dramatically underfund education and other critical aspects of state governance. Primary schools are already forcing older teachers into retirement to save costs, and Wichita State's tuition is almost certainly going to steeply rise because of the lowered state funding.

That all said, Republicans are going to get two years to wreck the country pretty badly. No doubts about it in my mind, a Republican majority in the senate is more powerful than a Democrat supermajority. Democrats in office, for whatever reason seem to be spineless pushovers compared to the Republicans that controlled Congress even as the minority party. With a landslide like this, the only opposition will be Presidential vetos. Hopefully they either screw up badly enough that a 3rd party can finally come into the picture or they actually succeed, against all logic and history,

[SB Shock]

+12 House
+7 Senate (with possibility of 2 more)
Won 24 out 36 Governor races

Roberts (53%) wins by 10%
Brownback (50%) wins by 4%


Wichita sales tax defeated (62% to 37%)
Other sales taxes defeated (Valley Center, Bel Aire

Supreme Court justices both retained (they lost in Sedgwick county though by 53% and 54%)

[_kai_]

Looks like Brownback was digging that big grave for all the Dems to fit in together. Interesting night of politics all around. Very early on, only around 80k votes in on guber race and Davis and Brownback were apart 100 or so votes.

[RoyalShock]

I can't ever envision myself voting for a Democrat, but I will admit that Brownback and the state legislature are on the clock once the new revenue projections come out.

One thing I've noticed about Kansas is how good our roads are (highways and county), and how many of them we have, at least compared to most of the surrounding states. I've always thought that was an area that could absorb some cuts. For example, something needed to be done with the old K-61 between Hutch and McPherson. I love the four-lane but was it necessary? Yes, I get all the reasons for it, but believe the pros are over-stated. I think a super-two would have sufficed. If it's good enough for US-50, it would have been fine for 20-25 miles of K-61.

[ShockTalk]

With a landslide like this, the only opposition will be Presidential vetos. Hopefully they either screw up badly enough that a 3rd party can finally come into the picture or they actually succeed, against all logic and history,

And this is the real problem, whether it comes from the populace or politicians. They'd rather have 2 more years of "screw up badly" than actually get something positive accomplished. Forget the 3rd party. It won't happen unless it comes from the middle. The strong majority of people are in the middle, some call themselves Democrats, others Republicans (being an Independent may have become nothing more than a smoke screen for something he's not IMO). The problems generally lie in the far left or far right and no compromise. Pandering to these groups only cause the pendulum to swing too far left or right and then it corrects too far the other way.

Obama misusing executive power or vetoing everything coming out of Congress is not the answer. The people have spoken and he needs to listen. The Republican led Congress needs to not abuse the power that has been handed them. That's not why they got elected. I'm glad that those I align more with now have more negotiation power. I hope that's what they do with it.

[Kung Wu]

Kansas will be bankrupt in two years, because of Brownback's policies. There is no partisanship in that, it is just a self-evident fact.

Were you just spouting off because your guy lost, or do you truly believe this? I will assume you meant "will be insolvent in two years" (not the same thing, but close enough for this discussion). So let me rephrase the question I have for you:

Do you truly believe that Kansas will become insolvent within two years, and that is "a self-evident fact"?

[shocka khan]

Brownback's re-election by Kansas voters:
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result."

Not that this is the case here, but I have to laugh at all the republican voters who keep doing the same thing over and over. This one's not on the voters of Kansas, but the voters in Georgia who voted for Nathan Deal, it looks like he's involved in the middle of an FBI investigation.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/23477929/gov-deal-no-tampering-in-ethics-probe

So tell me philosophically, what's the difference between voting for Marion Berry after the FBI crack video and voting for Nathan Deal when he has tried to kill investigations of this incident (or business, if you will) at least twice - once by resigning from Congress and the other time by firing everyone at the state regulatory authority.

[shocka khan]

One last word:

I hope Obama's not obstructionist.

I hope Ted Cruz or some other loon doesn't try to shut the government down.

I hope that the ACA remains intact. I think it is the responsibility of the republicans to improve it by tweaking it, not throwing it out.

Whether the republicans or democrats do any of the three things listed here will, in my mind, set the stage for 2016. Either republicans will offer us alternatives and good government (which they haven't for the last 6 years) or the democrats will do what we send them to Washington for, namely respect the will of the voters and show a willingness to compromise on some issues.

[MoValley John]

what's the difference between voting for Marion Berry after the FBI crack video and voting for Nathan Deal

One is in DC and one is in Georgia. You would commit election fraud voting for both. And I don't care how people in Georgia vote. DC voters can vote for whomever they want, too, I don't care. There are water moccasins and rattlesnakes in Georgia, not so many in DC. Georgia has peach trees, DC has Crack addicted mayors. One played football, the other looks like a football. One is handsome, the other isn't very good looking.

And more people have been married to Kim Kardashian than died from Ebola in the US.

[MoValley John]

Ted Cruz doesn't have the power to shut the government down unless Obama becomes an obstructionist.

The ACA will remain the law of the land, the genie is out of the bottle. Obama already has been tweaking it with executive order, sidestepping Congress. The Republicans will be unable to improve it by tweaking it, as Obama has veto power and Republicans don't have a supermajority. The Republicans will once again get blamed for nothing happening, even though they will present many bills to Obama's desk, all of which will be vetoed without compromise.

This will set the stage for 2016. Republicans will be labeled obstructionist, anti-woman, racist elitists.

And Shocka will buy into it all being the fault of Ted Cruz. He will then toss off to a poster of Rachel Maddow.

[Kung Wu]

Ted Cruz doesn't have the power to shut the government down unless Obama becomes an obstructionist.

The ACA will remain the law of the land, the genie is out of the bottle. Obama already has been tweaking it with executive order, sidestepping Congress. The Republicans will be unable to improve it by tweaking it, as Obama has veto power and Republicans don't have a supermajority. The Republicans will once again get blamed for nothing happening, even though they will present many bills to Obama's desk, all of which will be vetoed without compromise.

This will set the stage for 2016. Republicans will be labeled obstructionist, anti-woman, racist elitists.

And Shocka will buy into it all being the fault of Ted Cruz. He will then toss off to a poster of Rachel Maddow.

You don't know that. It might be Chris Matthews.

[RoyalShock]

This will set the stage for 2016. Republicans will be labeled obstructionist, anti-woman, racist elitists.

How is that different from any other election year in recent memory?