U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts held off a primary challenge from Milton Wolf, a Leawood radiologist, after months of squabbling over whether Roberts was truly a Kansan.
Roberts, 78, who declared victory in a speech at 10:30 p.m., will face two opponents in the general election: Democrat Chad Taylor, who is the Shawnee County district attorney, and Greg Orman, a Johnson County businessman who is running as an independent.
“This was a Kansas election decided by Kansas Republicans,” Roberts told a crowd of supporters holding up signs at the Overland Park Marriott.
He thanked his campaign staff and acknowledged that he had missteps on the campaign trail. “My posse did not flinch even though there were times when their candidate, me, stepped on their message,” Roberts joked.
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He said that Kansas Republicans could no longer afford “intraparty fratricide.”
“We cannot afford a fractured party. The stakes are just too high,” said Roberts, promising that Republicans can take over the U.S. Senate if they come together.
The Republican primary featured a public hearing on whether U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who was first elected to Congress in 1980, is a Kansas resident; news of an investigation by the Board of Healing Arts into Wolf; and a dramatic confrontation between the two candidates at a campaign stop in Emporia.
In the primary – the toughest race of Robert’s political career – there was relatively little discussion about policy.
“You’re not seeing a terrible difference in ideologies. It’s been a race where sideline issues have really ended up kind of controlling,” said Chapman Rackaway, a professor of political science at Fort Hays State University.
The Board of Healing Arts investigated Wolf over Facebook posts in which he paired X-ray scans of dead and injured people, including gun shot victims, with morbid commentary in an apparent attempt at humor.
Leroy Towns, Roberts’ campaign manager, said the Facebook posts should make Kansans pause before supporting Wolf.
“I wouldn’t call the serious character problems and serious ethics problems that Wolf has, I would not call those side issues,” said Leroy Towns, Roberts’ campaign manager. “I think those are extremely important issues that voters need to know about.”
Wolf and Roberts did not debate despite Wolf’s repeated challenges. Towns said the controversy over the Facebook posts contributed to the decision against a debate with Wolf, claiming that it would be damaging to the Republican Party.
“We decided it was going to do nothing but turn it into a circus,” Towns said. “And so we said, why do that?”
“The other reason there has not been as much discussion of issues is this guy, Wolf, has not articulated issues,” Towns said.
Ben Hartman, Wolf’s campaign manager, said that Wolf would have highlighted his plan for an alternative to the Affordable Care Act during a debate. Wolf also would have criticized Roberts for voting to raise the debt ceiling, Hartman said.
Wolf confronted Roberts at a campaign stop in Emporia on a street corner and challenged him to a debate in front of reporters. Roberts told him it was not the time and walked away.
“I think people found that pretty juvenile,” Towns said. “Kansans still have a very long streak of decency in them and they don’t like that.”
Wolf frequently criticized Roberts, who has been in Congress since 1981, for living most of the year in Washington’s suburbs in northern Virginia and returning to Kansas infrequently.
Several Wolf supporters filed objections to Roberts’ candidacy, claiming he is not a resident of the state and should be disqualified from the ballot. The State Objections Board rejected the complaints in May.
“He doesn’t even come here when the Senate’s not in session,” Hartman said.
The issue dogged Roberts on the campaign trail. Roberts made a gaffe in a radio interview in July, saying he returns home whenever he has an opponent, which the Wolf team seized on.
Towns said the Roberts campaign was prepared to deal with the issue going to the race.
“The people elected the senator to go back to Washington to work for them in Congress. And most of the time he’s back in Washington working for them in the U.S. Senate. It’s pretty hard to live in two places. So he does live in Virginia during that time, but he’s still a Kansan,” Towns said.
Still the issue appeared to stick with some voters, including in Sedgwick County, where Roberts received only about 600 more votes than Wolf.
In addition to Roberts and Wolf, two other candidates appeared on the ballet in the GOP primary.
Alvin Zahnter, a Vietnam veteran, ran on a platform of supporting marijuana legalization as a way to help Kansas farmers, as well as strong opposition to gun control.
D.J. Smith garnered less attention than Wolf, but also courted tea party conservatives, claiming on her campaign website that an “un-American socialistic agenda” had taken root in Washington.
Democrats’ race
On the Democratic side, Chad Taylor led Patrick Wiesner, an attorney from Lawrence, as of 10:30 p.m.
Both ran as moderates.
Taylor calls himself a “fiscal conservative,” and Wiesner calls himself the “get-out-of-debt candidate.”
Independent candidate Greg Orman also has collected enough signatures for a spot on the November ballot.
“This election will present Kansans with a clear choice between more of the tired, partisan nonsense that’s led us to where we are now, or a fresh, common-sense, independent leader committed to reforming Congress and the way it operates who will make a real difference for Kansas and the United States of America,” Orman said in a statement.
Roberts accused Orman of being a Democrat masquerading as an independent.
Orman has already outraised Taylor with more than $670,000 in total contributions as of July 16, according to the Federal Election Commission, compared to Taylor who had about $130,000.
If conservative Republicans who backed Wolf during the primary will likely return to supporting Roberts, he’ll be the heavy favorite going into November. Kansans have elected a Republican to the U.S. Senate in every race since the late 1930s, the longest GOP winning streak in the nation.
But Rackaway said that Orman’s deeper pockets could give him the ability to challenge Roberts in the general election.
Democratic donors have focused resources on the governor’s race in hopes that Paul Davis can unseat Gov. Sam Brownback leaving less for Taylor and other statewide candidates, in Rackaway’s opinion.
“I don’t see Chad Taylor at this stage as a viable threat, but I certainly do see Orman, who’s got deep pockets, as someone who may make a run,” Rackaway said.
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