Is something the matter with Kansas?
The problems that Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Gov. Sam Brownback face are as old as politics: Complacency in the former case, overreach in the latter.
Roberts has been in Washington, D.C., forever – as a congressman and senator since 1981, but even before that as a staffer for several beloved Kansas congressmen. One problem: The New York Times earlier this year reported he barely lives in the state – renting space in the home of a Dodge City couple as his formal residence.
Even worse: Reports emerged last week that Roberts attended only about a third of Senate Agriculture Committee meetings since 2000. It’s never good in politics to lose touch with the home folks; it’s even worse if you don’t do the job that took you away from home in the first place.
As for Brownback, well, here’s a little secret from a native: Kansas is not nearly as conservative as you think.
In Kansas there are three parties: Democrats, moderate Republicans and conservative Republicans. To accomplish anything lasting, you need two of the three groups on your side.
Brownback, though, treated Kansas like a laboratory in conservative governance, slashing taxes so deeply (mostly for the state’s rich) that the state’s coffers still haven’t recovered, and accompanying the revenue cuts with reductions in education, social services and even arts funding. Judging by the polls, it’s all been a lot more conservative purity than most Kansans want.
Joel Mathis, Philadelphia Magazine
Maybe a better question is: What’s the matter with Gov. Sam Brownback and Sen. Pat Roberts? If either or both of them lose, they’ll only have themselves to blame.
Brownback appears to have made a fatal political calculation. In 2012, he actively campaigned against moderate Republicans in the Legislature who opposed his tax reform bill. So it’s hardly a surprise that 100 moderates lined up behind his Democratic opponent.
Brownback forgot Ronald Reagan’s 80 percent rule: “My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy.”
The lesson: Don’t go out of your way to alienate a large swath of people who would otherwise support you.
Roberts has a different problem. After more than 31 years in Congress, Kansas voters view him as a creature of the Beltway. It also may not help that of the 466 bills Roberts sponsored since entering Congress in 1981, only eight have been signed into law.
The lesson: People really dislike incumbents who seem to take their constituents for granted.
If next month’s election is, as President Obama said, a referendum on his administration’s policies, then Brownback and Roberts might pull off victories. It would be a shame if their political ineptitude undermined the larger cause of constitutional-conservative government.
Ben Boychuk, Manhattan Institute’s City Journal
This story was originally published October 18, 2014 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Is something the matter with Kansas?."