Countdown to Kansas Primary Elections

people arguing this is a referendum on the crisco bach slash donald trump national republicans are clearly watching this district closely i think the biggest question mark of this whole primary really is turnout has been about how many a lot of the candidates were sort of try to find their niche it's a crowded field and this year the kansas primary elections and j mcintyre and today on keep your presence will look at the aga seven primaries with keep your statehouse bureau chief stephen koranda and bob beatty of washburn university gentlemen thanks for coming in today a year before we delve into the individual races lets talk about kansas primaries more generally here in kansas we have a closed primary system what does that mean for voters well it means that unaffiliated says they like to call themselves independents can vote unless they're willing to change their party registration that's correct and we actually have tightened the rules in recent years so he wanted to switch parties you already missed that deadline you can switch from one party to the other but if you are

unaffiliated like bob mentioned even up to election day you can change registration you can go to the polls on election day and say i want to affiliate with either the republicans or the democrats thought informed them at the ballot you can vote you can do is go and stay on affiliated and vote in the primary how much of a problem is that in the stage where we have more and more an affiliated voters especially younger voters really good question because i looked up party registration and to your point in the year two thousand and forty five percent and kansas were registered republicans twenty percent democrat twenty six percent unaffiliated it's now up to a little over thirty percent unaffiliated at it the democrats' hardest so you weren't getting close to one third of all voters are unaffiliated your right and again the republicans are saying about the same and the democrats have to have really suffered so in terms of the primary is what's the turnout going to be and the democrats it's it's just a huge

mystery because the democratic primary turnout peaked in nineteen ninety four and it lets the role and nineties that's a long time ago and i've got my daughter behind jacket saying hey the nineties and going to retro parties that was a thirty six percent or so when i say a peak it's not that higher price but the last primary tourism fourteen for the democrats turnout was a fifteen and a half percent so that's that's another have been competitive primary is just going to say there hasn't been a democratic but they're not in the habit of voting so that's one of the interesting things this time around about this primary is that we had no idea and i i would argue the candidates own even though i gave the democrats will turn out and down i think that's a problem for democrats in the state editor paul davis when he ran for governor democrats are not used to voting like republicans are songs habit republicans republicans in nineteen ninety eight fifty percent turnout a primer which is huge now they've gone down as well but that's a

thirty four percent last time around but i think the vaguest question mark of this whole primary really is turnout who's going about how many units of the candidates are sort of trying to find their niche is one of stephen agrees well the only places democrats really have much thinking to do would be in the third district and the race for governor as well and then also some ousted governor and other governors kind of the thing with bob beatty of washburn university and stephen koranda k pr statehouse bureau chief i'm kate mcintyre today and keep your prisons were looking at that two thousand a teen primaries right around the corner let's start with the top of the ticket it's a pretty crowded field in the race for kansas governor image of call your ears hoping to hold onto his seat which he stepped into one former governor sam brownback took an ambassadorship with the trump administration it was an awkward start to his governorship he took over for an unpopular governor not quite at the beginning of the

session has been able to carve out his own identity and his six months on the job to me as someone who watches the job of governor very closely i think he has put the question is how does that resonate to the average voter because collier has change the way he interacts with lawmakers he's been really working to forge more agreements with them on some things on other things like the school funding issues he saw that day roundly rejected governor brownback proposal so he said ok here's some things i like to see you all work on it and now he's touting the funding increase they added even though the court said it was not enough they're going to have ads in more un so he's really selling himself as oh you came into this job he said change in the tone it i don't know how many times i've heard him say that to one where he's listening more are trying to accomplish things and get things done so i think from my perspective he has made a change the question is does the average voter feel that way death i think jeff collier did and has been trying to

run as himself and to show people what kind of governor is as he calls it serving and leading and listening i think or some of his catch phrases but i think one of the problem as we've been discussing this for a primary especially now a lot of people are paying attention so there was a poll in february in a poland man the governor's race by remington which is pretty good for a pure kansas city actually got the fourteen race almost spot on and what's interesting article was not not so much the horse races they asked their opinions of color and it there is no opinion in february of fifty percent so that means that means people really are now in and in may it was forty nine percent so here he was doing all things david is talking about signing millions of bills press press conferences during the state and with it in these loopholes it was assumed having a big impact and what that could signal as a switch and strategy where he made if he hasn't already decided yeah i want to present myself as a

leader and an accomplished but he may have to bring cult chris go by down a bit there was some negative ads and things of that nature and i think that's happened in debates in forums more recently i think his original idea was that all although jeff collier all impress you you're tired of all the controversy over from a and i think he probably i'm not i have no idea that you talk to on the prom was a little bit disappointed but that incident involving the numbers much and it's not surprising in american politics that one tactic is to if you're down ten points with yourself up five and bring other guy down five men and maybe you can get over the hump collier really did make a switch it happened at the gubernatorial debate in i believe it was saliva several weeks ago he started attacking secretary of state kris kovach on several issues that has continued robots been firing back saying collier is attacking because he's desperate and his co about the front runner so there definitely has been a shift where at these latest events collier's kind of been doing both he closed out i'm

paraphrasing here is saying that he was a workhorse and koba quizzes show pony and that hasn't he was selling both that i'm not a lot i'm different but i've been getting things done again how that resonated the average primary voter because as i'm sure bob knows better than me usually people were the primary our candidate died in the wall of each party so we see those people come in and i think there's going to be a lot of coal walk supporters in there and i think what's especially tough years we haven't even mentioned a barely jim barnett who ran for governor before and also can selzer the insurance commissioner who's running for governor those two have even if they just you know siphon off a few percent of the vote each in a race like this you know i could really tip the balance one where the others i think if this was a head to head coach bach collier i think we would have a really interesting race but i'm really seen a path for co bought the pull out here if it the not co bought a boat gets split it hit his

is the iron man of about fema you're listening to is you you're hearing us read that book as you listening that open ears a little bit think about this one people arguing this is a referendum on chris cole bach slash donald trump go back as openly associate himself with donald trump and that's a streisand and maybe a very good one but it's a referendum on the mood of kansas the mood of the american people or the trend extrapolate from us are people happy with trump that style call blockers associate with here is the great irony of this election it's the answer that question could be a resoundingly know sixty percent some odd of kansas republican voters could say no thanks and to stevens point koba could be the nominee that is exactly right so we can have this incredible message on august eighth kansas rejects kovach he's ready to be the nominee and so that's the american voting system i think seems exactly right to present so one and

seltzer really sells a really makes it problematic in it and that the interesting thing is that same dynamics will appear in the general election because of a third party candidate or independent candidate greg orman sword assuming he gets the signature that we will if he does we will be done with this sell this possible possibility of minority winners and i'm a minority vote winners and of course ironically donald trump won the presidency with fewer but then his opponent so august eighth could be really interesting for people like steve and i who have people call from i just got a call from the wall street journal the national people say what what happened here and will say well do you have a forty five minute also lived collier is not criticizing the president he is making it clear that he is also in support of the president and pushing hard on issues like immigration at the last debate collier said he would be willing to send kansas national guard troops to help secure the border if that'll president trump wants so it's not like collier selling himself as an anti trust

candidate know it's it's a primary i think that really no matter what you can alienate the sitting president in your own party are appropriate will to the point the kansas new service recently ran a story that the real difference between collier income by is far more about style than substance oh yeah having watched out kovach is coming into this with the trump angle as bob was sane as a rabble rouser and were doing things we need to do things differently collier's coming in the same as we mentioned before we need to get things done we need to work to accomplish things so yeah i think there's definitely a a tonal difference between them stephanie tonal difference jeff collier hasn't substantively changed sam brownback policies and sam brownback was quite in line with trump's policy one example was seven not wanting any

refugees settled in the state of kansas strongly opposing a policy that was in places wasn't stopping people the border in on and that's what you like it or not that it's pj at the trump the anti policy and up so brownback did those sorts of things and this does nothing i've seen yet where collier is as different from brownback i would say with kovach well those were probably not the types of issues that helped brownback reach low approval ratings i think it was probably more budget intact and i think oh bucket employer or fascinate you and we'll never know i could do get the feeling that the va curl walk you know if you have a m policy policy number one that there's a common carrier might be similar on it but you do get the feeling an accuser alluded to this that coal what might take it one step farther whatever that policy may be coherent say okay here's were doing as critical work as a governor would say and we're going to add this to make it more stringent recently an ankle but campaigning that way

he's sort of saying that he's a rabble rouser he wants to stir things up in a stir things up is take things a little bit or you take things farther than most people expected one example of that would be the school funding issue as we were talking about before collier ultimately endorsed and signed a plan to add hundreds of millions of dollars for k twelve education to comply with this us supreme court ruling or a state supreme court ruling i should say the justices that wasn't enough but it actually win a lot of the way toward solving their concern so colley has been coming out to say yes we need it low taxes we need to control spending but education is something we should really invest in because it's something that we get a lot of dividends out of kotok spin coming out there saying these justices can tell us what to do lawmakers should be doing this i've heard him or is the lieutenant governor candidate wink harmony use the phrase that schools are building ties mahal buildings and railing against administrative spending in districts coming out this ad more of we're spending too much on the wrong things in

education the courts are wrong to tell us what to do so that's an example where you we have two conservative republican candidates that's a big issue that they're approaching in very different ways before we move on to some of the other republicans in the field when they've you've touch on briefly we talked a lot about coal by his brash style it gets him into trouble great example is the case of the parade and the jeep the city found themselves having to kind of apologize and and step back and distanced themselves and all the various controversies the complex had along the way how is that not hurting him well depends what you're you're talking about it out in about eight a voter who likes trump likes this outsider rabble rousing angle i don't think those things are and i know it again this is the primaries and all the research has shown again that stephen pointed this out to democrats and republicans you get more committed voters in primaries you don't get a lot of those little the rotors so that means fewer moderates fewer people that want to necessarily

compromise now in kansas history know the modern history when you look at kansas governor's they're not railroads rouser is their facilitators from a bill graves to obviously by a kathleen sebelius who had to be because you know the legislature majority but that event graves says the greatest example graves also at the largest reelection margin in kansas history so he was very popular so either i wrote a calm while about number of months ago where i said this election for governor is going to be based on the ideas it isn't the new normal which was brownback which was so the constant controversy or the return to normalcy which the normal for kansas was people willing to compromise governors i should say with the legislature and often was the legislature that was stirring things up but their crisp kovach is openly campaigning as a as we said rabble rouser someone wants to stir things up and in the trunk there there may be enough voters

and animal type candidate field to elect him and then again i am a general with of greg norman's there or that he does have a path this myth or men's votes come from the democrats that it couldn't work in a primary could the short answer is yes there are of course other candidates running for governor in the republican primary we've mentioned a couple of them briefly ken selzer who is currently the insurance commissioner for kansas and jim barnett and topeka a physician and former state senator who was the republican nominee for governor in two thousand six clearly damage of collier and secretary of state kris co bike and gotten most of the attention in this race where other candidates fit in barnett is very much of a moderate in the race interested in medicaid expansion and those types of things so he is also income at this even though he was the party's nominee in two thousand six he declined to sign the republican party debate rules so he has not been in the official republican party debates we kind of come at this

as an outsider i guess campaigning as it in a different way than the you know big names i don't know if that ultimately can be a winning strategy selzer is a conservative and actually on the same page in many ways as kovach and how if you look at second amendment abortion issues they all pretty much agree on those things so in another years sells a could be a really solid strong candidate for the republican nomination the problem is he's coming up insurance commissioners i'm not very well known so he's coming up against a serving governor i'll be a short term and a secretary of state who's very well now and he just has a name recognition issue and not much that really differentiate himself from the other two on policies does as selzer and barnett clearly based their candidacies on a two pronged idea how one prong was that voters were tired of of the brown bag era there's jeff collier and the voters

also really are not enamored with where we're going to be enamored with chris go back and then so when they do they look somewhere else and i think with barnett especially if moderate republicans up especially in johnson county actually voted you know got up after catching voted that he could be in middle and double digits but certainly as in a strong position the biggest prom for barnett especially is allowed or republicans might just say you know i think kansas primaries of gotten too conservative and wait for the general and see you see what happens so i think he has learned as a little bit of potential if that this that to really battle it out if that those moderates appear a seltzer i think is trying to appeal to establishment conservative republicans who don't like collier and co bought it looks likes they're staying with co barkan collier but i think he's he's hoping that they'll say a pox on both your houses and they start attacking each other and look to him that i would guess it's a strategy at the

last formal republican party debate a week or two ago there was this back and forth between kovach in collier i remember which criticism it was they were firing back and forth and then sell their stands up and says i hope all of you recognize that i'm kind of the call the businessmen here on the stage and he got a big laugh and applause for matt so he's been selling i'm his time in the insurance commission is anxious time as the state's insurance commissioner his business background saying he could help balance the budget by attacking the cost side of things so again in a different year really solid candidate who could maybe pull out a republican nomination here this year much harder for him do you think there's been pressure on him to drop out of the race but i know there has been mr khan who is a former republican state lawmaker who was in the race and dropped out a while ago came out and said it selzer should drop out and i think he put it as a vote for selzer is a vote for cold opposite splitting that

anti kolata says some even know pretty well known republican has has called on him at this point i don't see any indication he'll do that and he'd still be on the ballot because of the rules i mean is an opportunity to really drop out would've been before the primary filing deadline stephen you mentioned that john burnett has not participated in any of the republican party debates because he wouldn't sign the paperwork that he would stick to the questions the party questions has that hurt him in terms of his disability archer as those were well watched by the media and i think a lot of republicans are the official party debates one of the reasons he said he wouldn't is because there are other candidates we haven't talked about including for example a team candidates so there are others you also weren't invited to the debates wanna patrick to chair has been in the other is her self described i think he says evangelical entrepreneur so you know it has the question is how many people watched the debates are really interested in it and the

people who are watching them ideally more conservatives who might not have been that interested him by to begin with so the long and short answer is i don't know how he actually has participated in a few and one time he did purchase pay just emailed him and i said i thought you weren't in these debates and he said i haven't broken my pledge i just got invited so there is little caught a souls to that agreement where if singing give the other candidates decided they really wanted to be in a debate and the host said well we're letting everybody this and i'll pay for this one we'll do it have the rules governing the official for state republican party that there were only supposed to be for kids it's all very very squishy little bit bizarre to be at their other and other debates where some candidates may or may not show up in an open avenue i think yet stevens correctly official debates were four i would argue and and pretty conservative audiences are weak and not most of them people have to buy tickets now we tell the primaries that just simply voting makes you probably more conservative or

liberal maj nevin to pay fifteen bucks think how committed those people are so is pretty conservative audiences that it's very funny in one of those early debate forums are such things they had a straw poll and uncle buck accused collier of them some semi old voter fraud involving a straw poll at one of these very selective there were there was a marine corps county republican party meeting so it's been fun before we flip over to the democratic candidates for governor just one last time and about jim barnett how one distinguishing factor about his candidacy is his choice of running mate say yes i went to his announcement of his lieutenant governor candidate bob was a deal and so before i just introduce myself as i don't think i've met him at an event i haven't covered his campaign image introduced me to his wife and then when he called her up i thought wait a minute my confused the night is me a minute ago his wife ann yeah he named his wife as his running mate tom bleile i know i taught you

about this at the very least it's highly unusual it's at as it's ever happened to first timer lieutenant governor announcements are usually pretty mild affairs mr leno the platonic governors except when kathleen's of those pick mark parkinson says for assad the new attorney are asking whether gasps from the crowd because he kept it quiet even his out the gas for from his own supporters many of them had shown up for the announcement and didn't know they but they knew his wife's alike one and thats rosie hansen and that is she's eminently qualified served in the foreign service and there's a number of very prestigious degrees she's just we just never seen a somebody spouse the lieutenant governor i think it does fit in part it's not in the debate was the debates he's picked his wife he's trying to position himself that's way outside that establishment what it's going to do it i don't know but your church lieutenant governor is

off then i'll way to draw in supporters maybe who represented different field of interests are different geography what this naming your spouse bring other then as puzzlement that ultimately attention and so barnett what i think we work and this can help arnett as his country spanning he's been spending a lot of time in johnson county has through the republican moderates are so i get one idea is you know come to see jim barnett and his agenda governor intrigue people hope to get some attention get people to show up and then hopefully they'll have a snowball effect she's also featured in he's just started advertising she's prominently featured in both of his tv ads as well i'm j mcintyre visiting with bob beatty of washburn university and k pr zone stephen koranda we're looking at the august seventh primary elections coming up the democrats running for governor right after this you're listening to katie our prisons on kansas public radio

we're ninety one point five lawrence and eighty nine seven and korea were unaware that kansas public radio dot org support for kbr comes from bricks improve lawrence featuring a full lineup of all wheel drive subaru is new and so gruesome provide pre a look at the twenty nine july when the warrants auto plaza or bricks or root dot com even when a new store is changing really fast morning edition is taking the time to collect the dots and we're careful about how we connect them just takes a lot of patience covering news honestly means that we're all figuring out the story together in real time listen every weekday it's morning edition from npr's weekday mornings from five to nine on kansas public radio today and take your presents the august seventh primary elections we've looked at the republicans running for governor with keep your statehouse bureau chief stephen koranda and western university's bob beatty let's

take a look at the democrats this is the first contested democratic primary for governor in twenty years since ninety four when i was going to say the last one was kind of fred phelps was in the race and another democrat jumping basically just to prevent phelps from getting at ninety four was the last component so why now why not right i mean it's it ironically as the democrats but its part of that trump idea we're going back to two dozen sixteen for the republican presidential race with seventeen candidates and obviously not just trump the number of people saying hey why not make it and that is not a time for the democrats that we are getting this rebel rebellion against anyone being anointed ended it normal in the democratic side that's how it works in part that is very practical and i have a deep bench of candidates are a lot of ice is exactly a week and that they are democrats argue we can't be raising money in july a that we

have to spend in july we need to raise money in july that we spend in october so right now all this all three of the major candidates on the democratic side and others who have seen all three of them to raising money and as for the primary that's unusual i don't like to do that if they wanted to call davis and the second district i know is also raising money but he gets to sit back in his chair and so you know another donation for october all while the democrats in their duet or a primary are frantically raising money and we talked about low information boy from what i've seen a lot of democrats in kansas still don't know who their three gubernatorial candidates are hopefully in the next couple weeks settled change in terms of democracy but boyd admits it's tough cause there's not a lot of democrats in the state to begin with how to reach them i think another reason there's so much democratic interesting is if you look at the office of president or the office of governor when you're ending two

terms of a party that's a good chance for the other party to get a seat at the dynamic is a little different but i think what democrats are hoping for is you to have eight years of sam brownback lagging popularity here towards the end that be a good opportunity for democratic pickups i think a lot of democrats were really looking at that seat the dynamics of change a little of collier in here but i think that's part of the reason we have multiple credible democrats in this race for governor agree and obama's gone about a minute amaker that we may still see campaigning against obama but said that the republicans last ten years have been incredibly effective that nationalizing state elections we all remember all the tv ads that linked paul davis who's the democrat running as brownback with nancy pelosi in an old brock a bomb so obama is gone i think that plays into it as well he can be used though watch out for those scary national democrats but i always say obamacare yeah but as i think they'll hold from the democrats is we can keep this a state election assess their hope

and i think several as you said several democrats said well if that's the case i can win and all three think you know argue they have a path to to winning the whole thing so let's talk about the people running for cover on the democratic side starting way as a state senator laura kelly of topeka what that markel aid is backed by kathleen sebelius and so in it in a number and a low turnout to twenty years for kansas democrats that right now they may be looking for some cubans and that's a very strong one in early the idea a lot of a democrats saying i love kathleen sebelius i voted for her four times twice is insurance commissioner twice as governor and that's a very important q that could help laura kelly get the nomination it's also very helpful to laura kelly for fundraising anytime you see an endorsement the hope would be for the candidate that it comes with names of the people who donated to that other candidate that allows somebody to call and say i know you

supported this person so that that gives her an advantage she's also of course the only woman in the entire race both sides and some people arguing that women female candidates or maybe having a moment in this election cycle so certainly she sees that in a strong position the challenge with any state senator running is a state senator is well known to political narratives like baba neither to the average voter autonomy state senators you know but you could say the same thing about all the democratic candidates carl brewer former wichita mayor probably well known around wichita but outside there are no josh why a former state legislator as well as former state agriculture secretary another couple jobs that matter to a lot of people do it also are people who may not know who they are so we don't have someone come in with a huge amount of additional name recognition and that's why things like this site kathleen sebelius endorsement of laura kelly out maybe

important i think all three of them actually have some very good sale selling points they're all three good candidates in their own ways center kelly is very tough very smart very big on policy anyone has been following budget and policy issues knows she's been involved in all of that brewer someone who is probably well known on the witch tyrant a lot about his accomplishments in which it doesn't i've never lived their arm but i think it's pretty well known on this windy is interesting because he is a little younger and that is a really dynamic if you like let's say you were a voter knew nothing about eighties people you're gonna pick one by going to a debate it might come up against whitey because on the stage is really personable and dynamic and down like i said a little bit younger than some of the other candidates as well swat is also a very funny he's got a great sense of humor about this as a witch in which she uses the peace forum so the problem for the all three democrats to be honest is there as a nevada tv forums that has been won and that's how you reached a lot of

voters cause it's freaking out before and the second guy the tv air it's and in all three of them again they want a raise money they know in new to win but they get their eye on november two and i qualify i enter august eighth with no money in the bank customer very discouraging but i know there's they're doing their best to raise money the tv ads are really expensive there's open the kansas city area they're super expensive that so many voters up there and so they're in a bit of a quandary that i think that's why carl brewer picked his lieutenant governor chris morrow somebody from the johnson county area hoping it didn't some inroads in that area where he knows are so many voters of wind it one of the things about josh wice campaign is unlike most of the other democrats he's really spent a lot of time in rural kansas and in western kansas waged a good strategy bad strategy a waste time but the problem is big and turnout turnout turnout

swanee insult jokes that girl you know you can count the democrats in some of these counties and you're on one hand on the one hand he's saying i know these people i'm a democrat from republican area on the other hand it's a primary then it doesn't help anyone is no voters or so that strategy has to be a building block i don't think he can win the primary and rural kansas but it can be a selling point when he hits the much bigger areas eleven or it's a manhattan speak and obviously they're good johnson wind up counties but it's gotta happen soon he's connected to time is running out he's gonna have to get on tv now maybe thinks maybe it's possible to win without doing that did you carl brewer is on television and people said it has the least amount of money but he's he's get non they're now as well so swanee probably needs to make his movie you know like a race that we watch in the olympics are primaries to make that move from him for those bigger

population areas pretty quickly that's also what the waitress wanted to differentiate himself tallies from topeka brewers from wichita swanee can sell this more rural angle which may be more appealing in places like manhattan as was mentioned the kansas city star characterize this race this way the two thousand at new election may decide whether the old guard still rules the democratic party or youth is taking over swanee has been purposely making it a campaign idea that he's part of a different new generation of democrats brewer which kelly and brewer really are not italian brewer are arguing that true blue democrat but the swat is owning that space of conservative new era of john f kennedy type thing a new generation so i think the stars correct that's when it will indicate for the for the democratic party it's what he were to win

i think would be a bit of an upset that people be surprised to have to open up a lot of eyes because certain there he is relatively unknown he hasn't been in kansas politics for a long you know and the number of jobs for many many years and he is quite dynamic and on the campaign trail and we've seen so much fighting back and forth in the debates over some issues amongst the democrats won specifically being abortions wadi in the past was more of a democrat on the pro life side then the pro choice side and so i think specifically kelly has hit him on that he said he would not if you were governor would not sign any additional abortion restrictions kelley points out we've had so many approving recent years there's not really a name the signs say that doesn't mean much on gun issues kelly actually has voted for things that some gun legislation expanding gun rights in the legislatures so some of the other candidates have had her on that issues of his is not been a kind of a hands off race there's definitely

been some gems back and forth and ironically what could hurt a candidate in a primary could help them in a general kelly's latinos gun votes and says why he's selling those abortion both they could help and the general in a general they could argue they can't be too far a liberal you know he could you know he or she could argue you know is what i've done with guns or a portion there right now in a primary oh my goodness it's it's very dangerous because again in primaries you get more liberal voters there for the democrats and more conservative voters who republicans and mitt romney famous one of his mitt romney's a republican presidential candidate won his advisors famously said it's like an etch a sketch you start over for the general because that primary you've got to win at first but it can be like a minefield in terms of severe previous vote i'm j mcintyre today on k pr presents we're looking at the august seventh kansas primary elections with bobby the chair of the political science department at washburn university in topeka and stephen koranda k pr statehouse

bureau chief let's turn our attention to the races for congress there are primaries in all for the congressional districts some more credible than others let's start with a big first district where roger marshall is finishing up his first term in office stephen so marshall defeated a republican last time around tim hills can't and some of the things that ultimately led to heels can't losing is that he didn't have the backing of the agriculture interests in the area this time around marshall while not super enthusiastically he does have the backing of those groups for example at first he didn't give conte farm bureau endorsement but now martial is on the conference committee for the farm bill in congress and now he has the endorsement of the kansas farm bureau so marshall as a conservative i don't really see him be in trouble in this primary there kansas's second district income elaine jenkins stepping down from her seat and we've got a crowded field of republicans i'm with what looks to

me like no clear favorite i love the second is very excited about that area just abbott on the republican side i think it's the most number of candidates others in the modern era and i can go back to the teaching hundreds of but certainly it's the most stephen i and i have seen an hour stir in kansas politics seven candidates on the republican side the democrat paul davis just said that it has there's no opponent and i'm also lynn jenkins as retired and what's interesting is maybe one of the reasons that they're so many candidates is is a huge name didn't join in for example attorney general derek schmidt or not that is for example a millionaire republican who lived in the district that kids could basically sent to spend three million scary but a way that didn't happen so we had a number of candidates join in at the last minute and paul political terms to candidates were pretty well known in the district jumped in when people said i don't know about this

field of people in the party and i was dubbed mays and anna's piled literally just a couple weeks before the filing to know i've never seen that happen and i with big you know big name candidates essentially so now we have seven and dominated by current or former state legislators and not to carry off your bob but i'm going to we have cited at this we have three state senator steve fitzgerald i care and tyson and there's piles you mentioned we have the former speaker of the house dubbed amazing we have a current state representative kevin jones and we have burning fields who is a city council member of honoring directly from bass or are we have of who else would amazon listing what concerns he's selling himself actually in the race as the political outsider and away we're looking at fault most of these candidates are looking at that kevin yoder who came out of the state legislature to be a congressperson now there is this so many machinations rumors from republicans some

republican insiders are saying that someone maybe not very many that they don't really care about this race this year because in and two years it'll be a presidential year and a big name could step in and defeat paul davis that's an anti boredom model and z boy at a one in two thousand six when jenkins doctor often two thousand eight when the electorate was different but some republicans think this isn't a great year run in that and that that context you get more candidates because then a number of candidates to do you are to part of at that establishment so called my wanna jump in bailout of legislators and steve what what's really interesting about this is these kids are very similar on a lot of issues there's no strong moderate year they're all conservatives a couple things that jumped out at me so i often think of endorsements in these kind of raises as not having that much value but when you have a race like this with some relatively not well known

candidates i think an endorsement might play a part so we have state senator karen tyson has been endorsed by the farm bureau i think that something she can tout and you mentioned dennis piled up in it the end of pie ale challenge jenkins is several years ago in the primary got a good chunk of the vote and after pile jumping he's raise the most from individual contributions of any of the candidates some of the others have given themselves loans about money from other places but pyle as actually raised a good bit of money right out of the gate so there are some little things that can differentiate some of these candidates but if you just take on the issues they almost all agree on everything i went to a candidate former leavenworth a while ago and on nine out of the ten questions they all basically agreed with some little variation there's only one way was alone with a variation on that was on the use of military force by the us so if you thought about second amendment abortion cut in the budget they're all largely on the same page on issues like that there were seeing at some different differentiation is again the trump factor so i would most of these

candidates are going to say yes i agree us donald trump on this or that that we look at their tv ads dentist cause undue and audis on a tractor and he's talking about issues but the pac that's supporting see what ken's and see what comes on ads now the new ones our of the newest advice he watkins is a picture of him and trump so he's got all of this is this a difference so maybe he's reading the tea leaves and saying they called bach is going to have a strong turnout he could draft would call it and a race draft behind hobart and so someone who's running for ca box sees a lot can ziad sees watkins with trump a man says oh yeah he's ago a truck will we see that from the other candidates i don't know that that's gonna be a big question fitzgerald early on was the most strongly trump associate a candidate but people in a bill to find that out if he if he doesn't run a tv ad so right now watkins says as time self firmly

to the trump train whether trump jeep that coe park was driving so multiple of these people at this candidate forum i went to were saying that they would help president trump so there's again it was another issue they agree on they'll support president trump there saying things like you know i think there's piles and one of his exile help build the wall that was one of trump's priorities it hasn't been done about something that was echoed by multiple these candidates fitzgerald see fitzgerald is also say i wanna go to help support trump's policies that the american people elected him to do these policies i want to go and help him get those accomplished so that's another thing where they've kind of a lot of them are on the same page singing from the same hymnal you could say that in in the big issue in the second district is that the possible trade wars and that that i think will come up more controversial in the general election where paul davis already has been touring farms

and what he's can argue he's a democrat please can argue that he'll stand up for the farmers and you know whoever wins is this nomination i think that as we're you this person's just going to go along with trump and that could hurt the farmers at pimco or sudan in the general but normally if you do it before election if us there's a multicandidate field is us to stephen and i ok you know you sink visits is this election between one and a couple candidates say well maybe a little bit of a battle this one is very difficult to now down even that too because as he mentioned so many candidates have their own base even dug mays is pretty well known in topeka has been corrupt many years but when i talk to these candidates or pretty positive about their home base and no they can eat a lot of voters in expanding outward so think of it sort of as the district is is all circles where each candidate dan tries to expand their base pilot think is a very sort of excited that he's got the basin is can expand out to the rural areas so one it doesn't

ms watkins and he's the one most prominently blasting tv ads out throughout the district i think the others are really hoping to build off their legislative days i've heard what can say that he's the only candidate not just trying to go another round in their political career selling himself as the only candidate who has no elected office experience and assist there's been so much controversy around watkins because it with the democrats have argued that that he loses democrats let me that watkins was fishing before he entered this race is republican to see if possibly the democrats would support him as a democrat that's what the democrats are doing so watkins isn't night at the court has this year camp and he's a political outsider who just really didn't mean that that's still the only fact we can seem to ascertain unlike trump and as lawyer there's no tape recordings of this so we just have to let it swirl so that's what's been a

pretty exciting race for uk and the thing with bob beatty of washburn university and stephen koranda k pr statehouse bureau chief we're looking at the upcoming kansas primary elections are the seven let's turn our attention to the third district republican kevin yoder was elected in two thousand and there's a pretty crowded field of democrats hoping to challenge him this fall the third district this is really interesting and it's i call it the ian bizzaro second district bizarre of course meetings from the seinfeld in and superman which means the opposite essentially but in the second district we have well one candidate sitting there raising money for the general oates in the second district as paul davis the democrat in the third district where one candidate essentially raising money for the general that's kevin yoder republican so this wedge that we have numerous candidates trend and sea to this sort of you know there's this one person from the third district it's turning into the battle over for

progressive center we've seen this nationally it's a pitch that's appeared in a few primaries and most recently with some upset victories and what we have is sort of a battle over who best represents this progressive idea to sneak this this idea of the new democrat so a brat welder has the support of the bernie sanders pack our revolution and bernie sanders himself in dissent and about that is the pack and sanders do not have a good track record in congressional races some people say oh we have a really good record but if you take away state races and local races go to the congressional races it's not that great it's ok so that doesn't guarantee anything for brandt well they're a new hampshire is david's who is a she says what she promotes itself she is an indigenous lesbian mm a fire so again an outsider or somebody really different if you look up her

or her youtube ad says she's in a m m a ring of mixed martial arts martial arts and she has the us support of emily's list and a number of lgbt q t groups so that's interesting then you have tom mere men who receive the support of a state senator but a republican recently barber a bow yet because she likes the democrat in this race again a republican liking a democrat you had chase it who was then the democratic nominee two years ago which you'd think he'd be the front runner but he's been overshadowed by these new sort of new progressive so that race is actually fascinating as fascinating as the second against the democrats this time this is one where a national republicans are clearly watching this district closely i think barker talk about this better than me but i think the some of the suburban areas are especially where republicans are

we begin a little bit worried it's not a hundred percent clear how a tight this is going to be for yoder so for example we had the vice president come to casey mo a week or two ago and he held a fundraiser for yoder in his speech he endorsed yoder until people to support him it also did that for some candidates on the missouri side our wells and have national money coming in the backyard or so once we get out of his primary isn't going to be i think a really tough fight and part of the reason the kc area is gonna be so expensive for me it is you have to have basic yoder versus when he's democrat races that you're going to have on the missouri side also a senate race claire mccaskill versus likely josh hawley so that is going to be a packed media my soul is they get exactly is the key statistic was in the second district donald trump easily defeated hillary clinton almost twenty point in the third district hillary clinton defeated donald trump

says think about that one the other aspect is in the second district paul davis until fourteen defeated sam brownback but in the third district brownback defeated paul davis so again because the opposite a second and third i think i think there's a much higher chance of democrats actually win the second district i'm not saying it's impossible in the third if there is a way of a national wave for the democrats they do damage when the second district probably relatively easily yet have a national wave and then the third is a real humdinger i think the democrats are gonna need a bit of a national push to get these voters out but there's a potential for a real surprise in the third district of david's word away in sherry's david's were to win and she would daschle have national attention because again the example for national democrats that boy something's really in the wind in these primaries that the republicans may prefer it because they want to label her too far left whichever candidate a welder is well i

think near men and probably it's more the establishment choice for moderate republicans out in another district but again that one we have no idea who's gonna who's going to emerge the victor and just a quick glance at the fourth congressional district that the wichita airlines had to run as the service the court you're talking about is someone named ron estis filed to run against congressman ron este es so it's obviously something we'd into voter confusion potentially all be really interesting is of broadcasters had a stronger primary challenge and then you add in the other honest as then you have the potential to sway the race ultimately but so now i had this state objections board decided that he's going to be referred to as representative ron asked is on the ballot but it gives them a big leg up the limits the confusion i mean that raises over run isis is probably in a cruise to the republican nomination again i should say representative ron if

it for them if it had been run as both as this is just to put their middle names oh my now we would have a free for all in essence went ahead to spend a fair amount of money though teaching everybody his middle name to this stephen mentioned that didn't happen don't know from the rap on about any other races he says will have your eyes on august seventh well this next a state race ok now everyone's asleep which india's slave because we know from chris kyle block that it didn't used to be this way i made you remember builders and ron former district is that celtic we associate with controversy that and it used to be you knew the secretary of state was doing a good job if you never heard anything about the secretary is that because they handle voter registration business filings of time you're in a national news for selection realities you so it all the way through november the secure state racing kansas to me is can be actually fascinating because there's going to be a viable democrat that which has not

been the case obviously it's republican state to use it pretty easy for republican to win because i'm a man and brian mcclendon who goes by the name bam and he's a former vice president of google earth and wilbur so is touting his expertise in and computers which now we know elections are bubbles but the key point in terms of politics is that means he'll have some money but the so the republicans now are having a primary to see who can face off against bam and talk about low information most people are you know these gentlemen and yet it's quite a list and then we talk about a qualified democratic gubernatorial program looking at this republican secretary of state list of five candidates all of them was very qualified and i would argue capable and have a lot of experience as it's an impressive list how voters are going to react to that list so this is a race where voters really should be doing a hallmark of cars all five of these are rococo and gentlemen are

qualified and i don't know how they got to get their name out dentist taylor has been the most active in terms of her party the administration secretary he's the first candidate so far to run tv ads and is also on billboards and the care at least so he's he's sort of making the campaign are you that this can be a low information race way down ballot he's right now saying i get my name out there and he's the first one i think with this a big part of his race is how much do these candidates support all the policies secretary of state kris kobak push for when he was in office on a new voter registration rules those sorts of things now some of them have now been knocked down by the courts at least for the moment we have to say lawmakers keith esau and scott schwab both members of the kansas house they're both basically in favor of the rules i schwab told me they need and not push for more changes just had a work on things for a while he saw as in favor of the policies we have a dentist taylor is coming out with a little more from that i don't know how i how

great these rules are militia look at in force in and if we're making some other changes craig mccall working co box office but he from my chats with him and he said it's wrong to think he's just a cole boch jr so it ever was and differences there for a sad reason a lot of people probably know scott schwab because his son died in a terrible accident on the water slide in the end of the kansas city area so you know some people come in at this all republicans but they differ on some of the little issues in the office and it's possible that he saw and schwab art are going to be huge super competitive here simply because they had their legislative districts will be recognizable that can read the challenge from a caller taylor and randy duncan's the fifth candidate your tailor hat somewhat you know important state audit he was an elected official so analog and out down ballot race strawberries i have people that are used to seeing their name on the ballot and might just vote that way so they have a base which is probably why they're feeling relatively or confident

taylor i think understands that and that's why he's got none airwaves very quickly to get his name out there haven't seen anything yet from mcallen and duncan in terms of getting their name out which they will need to do produce and don't forget about august seventh we've been talking about the upcoming kansas primary elections with k pr statehouse bureau chief stephen koranda anne washburn university is bob beatty ok mcintyre k pr present is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas is it