Pat Roberts’ Senate campaign changing leadership

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts’ campaign reshuffled itself this week, changing leadership and adding a slew of new consultants after polling showed the three-term senator with weak support.

Roberts’ surprisingly rocky bid for a fourth term has garnered national attention in a year that Republicans hope to take control of the Senate.

After a week in which the Democratic candidate tried to get off the ballot, clearing the way for a surging independent candidate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee began working with the Roberts campaign Thursday.

“Some things being said about Senator Roberts’ demise are premature,” said Chris LaCivita, a veteran party consultant chosen by the committee to advise the campaign. “Things generally are never as bad as they’re portrayed.”

Republicans need a net gain of six seats in the midterm election to take the majority in the Senate, and they’ve always counted on holding Roberts’ seat.

“If we don’t do what we need to do in Kansas, that is just stupid,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., chair of the national committee.

Corry Bliss will take over as campaign manager. Bliss has run GOP campaigns in Connecticut, Georgia and Vermont, including an unsuccessful Senate campaign in 2012 for Republican Linda McMahon, wife of professional wrestling magnate Vince McMahon.

Bliss and LaCivita have worked together before, according to a 2012 article by the Hartford Courant that described Bliss as a practitioner of an “aggressive, hard-hitting brand of politics that critics say is ripped from the playbook of Karl Rove.”

LaCivita served as a consultant and media adviser to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an independent group that ran ads against John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election.

“I’m in charge of my campaign,” Roberts said at an event in Wichita. “There’s a difference between aggressive and ugly. We’ll run an aggressive campaign.”

Leroy Towns, who has worked with Roberts since his 1980 congressional campaign, stepped down as campaign manager but remains an adviser to the campaign.

“There is no way we could run a campaign without Leroy,” Roberts said. “He’ll be involved strategy, a consultant. We’re bringing on a whole new team. That means we’re going have a very robust and a positive campaign, and focusing on the issues that Kansans are really interested in.”

A spokeswoman for the Roberts confirmed that the campaign also has brought on Alan Cobb, the former state director of Americans For Prosperity, as a grassroots organizer.

Cobb previously served as a lobbyist for Wichita-based Koch Industries and worked as a consultant for U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo’s campaign during his primary battle with former U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt.

State Fair debate

A chaotic week in the Senate race means Roberts will take the stage with only independent candidate Greg Orman at the Kansas State Fair debate in Hutchinson on Saturday. Orman is an Olathe businessman with deep pockets and a message tailor-made for moderates.

One candidate remains on the ballot against his will. Democrat Chad Taylor’s attempt to drop out of the race was denied by the Secretary of State’s Office this week. Taylor announced Thursday that he planned to challenge the decision but had not filed anything by Friday evening.

Roberts remains the favorite to retain his seat, but his victory is not certain. The senator won 48 percent of the vote in the August Republican primary, and although he has led in polls, the numbers have been low.

An August poll from Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm, showed Roberts with 32 percent of the vote. Another poll by Survey USA, paid for by KSN-TV in Wichita, showed Roberts with 37 percent.

Orman led Roberts in a head-to-head matchup, according to the PPP poll, so many political onlookers saw Taylor dropping out as a boost to Orman’s campaign.

Even though Taylor remains on the ballot, pending a possible court challenge, national Republicans are taking the threat from Orman seriously.

Roberts accused Orman of “political opportunism” and repeated his claim that Orman is a Democrat “masquerading as an independent.”

“I think once that becomes very clear to the Kansas voter that we won’t have a problem,” Roberts said.

Orman considered a run as a Democrat in 2008, but has been a member of both political parties before becoming an independent. He calls himself a centrist.

“I don’t know many liberals who are talking about balancing our budget. I don’t know many liberals who are talking about reforming entitlements and healthcare affordability,” Orman said Wednesday. “I think if you look at a wide range of my positions from immigration to foreign affairs, you’ll see some very strong influences from both parties.”

Candidates’ challenges

Bob Beatty, a professor of political science at Washburn University, said that Orman’s challenge in the debates will be how he frames this centrist philosophy for voters.

“It’s a question of if he’s able to articulate that centrist position without seeming wishy-washy,” Beatty said. “And that’s always hard for moderates and centrists.”

“It’s difficult to take strong policy positions because the nature of his candidacy is ‘I’m going to work with both sides to solve a problem,’” he added.

Beatty pointed to Orman’s position on immigration as a “best of both worlds” because he calls for more secure borders but also supports a pathway to citizenship.

Beatty said that Roberts needs to be careful not to make gaffes during the debate, following some during the primary.

Roberts, who was accused of living in Virginia by primary opponent Milton Wolf, said in a radio interview that he returns to Kansas any time he gets an opponent. He also told a reporter that he has full access to the recliner at the home of a constituent in Dodge City, where he is registered.

Towns had verbal stumbles on the issue, too. After the senator’s primary victory, Towns told The Eagle that Roberts “went back home for two days or three to rest” – meaning to Virginia.

Towns caught himself and tried to correct.

“Home is probably not the right word in terms of the way the campaign’s been. But anyway he went back there. It’s where his family is at the moment. But he does intend to spend every moment between now and the election in Kansas, I think, that he can,” Towns said in August.

Beatty said that even if Orman does not attack Roberts on the residency issue, it will continue to plague him on the campaign trail.

“I think the residency will haunt him all the way up through election day and literally it’s just like a ghost that won’t go way,” Beatty said.

Contributing: Rick Plumlee of The Eagle; Associated Press

This story was originally published September 5, 2014 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Pat Roberts’ Senate campaign changing leadership."