Kansas Governor's Race Down to Wire

kansans will go to the polls to elect a new governor this week i'm kate for kcur and he thinks to casey pt for producing smoke and chaos news service you're mcintyre and today on k pr presents we look at the big three the third district congressional debate in two thousand four listening to my fellow kansans on kansas public radio so far contenders for kansas governor republican chris kovach democrat laurie and special thanks to new roof of this hour we've looked at the campaigns of republican chris kolb out an independent greg kelly an independent greg orman it's my fellow npr and the and here changing if you liked this episode leave orman coming up democrat laura kelly that's just ahead kansans a production of the kansas news service today on katie our prisons us a review on itunes it helps other people find our podcast you ask a pr prisons continues right after this support for my fellow kansans and the following message comes from the kansas can follow us on three leadership center offering leadership development training in wichita kansas city and online use promo code m f k for registration discount leadership for the common good kansas leadership center or in the states reform and concession speech in twenty fourteen when most raised unfortunately when you don't so much like a concession speech it was senator roberts once a night we didn't lose not only land again sen roberts we ran against the

washington establishment a ha i believe that what we did start a fuse that will allow other independents in other states to step forward and say i'm not with the partisanship and now if with the fighting and not with the gridlock we need to go there represent americans not one party or the other woman who's running for governor in between and that is michael keaton in the first four episodes we map kansas is politically in a recount of the summer of mercy abortion protests documented the rise and fall of sam brownback and the winner of the kansas republican party all the history that the librettist in this political moment start with this episode with a mix of the dive into the current campaign to get to know this year's candidates for governor says race military families moving constantly actually have a tv program for seven years called grace united written

tammy show i am trying to be a really representative of the average consummate to take will get their backs to hear about their visions for kansas court press them on the issues of the day we'll start with great warmth and i said to my dad and i might want to be a politician sunday and without missing a beat he said you know why you skipped the internship and go straight crime the polls show him in single digits well behind republican chris kolb walken democrat laurie kelly where virtually tied for many is the wildcard in the race the x factor a potential spoiler who probably can't win but you can still determine the ow ow who says well virtually everyone who watches politics for living or it hasn't it's a political scientist a former republican governor bill graves i don't where are going to be elected

governor and former democratic governor kathleen sebelius so one of the things that democrats can have to do is now a run against the republican but make sure that people now voting for greg orman a stern lawyer it is jill stein in the presidential race and ralph nader are routed major time we've seen me quixotic candidates before we ban only they can save the world greg norman cool it alleges the governor elect in south lebanon but then this should come as no surprise norman doesn't see it that way at least he didn't have the start of a campaign he got into the race believing that the conventional wisdom about independent candidates was wrong particularly at this moment in our political history i sort of think conventional wisdom needs to be thrown out the window and i mean if he if you look at the recent gallup poll and forty nine percent of republicans and fifty two percent of

democrats think we need a third party now think about the implications of that these are people who are members of the democratic party or the republican party so dislike their own party that they think we need an alternative and you also have a very high percentage of republicans who support president trump has not really a traditional republican that suggest some level of party loyalty regardless of the other actually i think what we're seeing in partisanship today is not necessarily loyalty to our own party so much as it is the hatred of the other party and i think that's what our candidacy is about were we were trying to appeal to a broad cross section of kansas democrats republicans and independents we want to give them an inspiring message and a vision for the future so that they can actually vote for a candidate they white instead of voting against a candidate that they hate my fear and i think that's what partisanship is giving people today in orbit isn't the only ones arguing that the current system is broken recluse was also running as an independent he calls herself a republican for strategic enough to have with his

wife and son forget of the thousands of signatures necessary to get on the ballot i'm yours jeff caldwell is also on the ballot as the nominee of the libertarian party i am the only candidate that brings forth across the table cut spending cut taxes legalize cannabis for the second prof caldwell and the clues will give some coveted neither has a prayer of winning that war they were excluded from most of the candidate debates but what was on stage every time his resources and his credible run for the senate four years ago made him a legitimate contender in the minds of many so at the first really big debate of the campaign theory was like a walk on stage here at the kansas state fair so inured to have proposed opening statement will come from the great william allen white the

famed him noriega senator was when anything's going to happen in america it happens first in kansas city is to be a leader a place that other states look to for inspiration now or cautionary tale we need to say that to begin bringing new leadership and new ideas that we want to create a state where our children and grandchildren are inspired to build their lives this means throwing out the old partisan labels and embracing new ideas i spent my life in the private sector creating jobs and opportunities and building businesses i know kansas economy create good paying jobs and broaden our tax base without raising taxes so we can invest in our future isn't as they say to live their own version of the american rate homeowners a guy who built several successful petitions that made a lot of money to run for governor and quit the hard way as an independent with no party infrastructure behind it or between his twenty fourteen sent one of his campaign governor or when it wrote a book

a declaration of independence and explaining his ideology and motivation we'll look back i can say that i finished it but they're there is a test i have i have dubbed it would've been in and read that your father was jewish baking disdainful politicians or just friday night i had to participate in the boys nation program i came home so excited after meeting ronald reagan in the rose garden and i said to my dad i might want to be a politician sunday all without missing a beat he said you know why its get the internship and go straight cry so he obviously as a small business owner he was somewhat disdainful but he had a real message there you know what my dad really said to me was look if you run for public office someday you should first go on to accomplish something with your life be in a position where you have some real experience to contribute and hopefully put yourself in a position financially to lose the election won't upend your life is concerned was the politicians who voted for whom it's the best job they're ever going to have they're going to do anything to keep that job even if it

means violating the trust of their constituents and my father was really dead and making sure that you know i knew that the two things most important in this life for health and integrity which are forbidden from my father were still owns and runs a furniture store in stanley kansas your mother was very active politically weakened liberalism or a reporter that the former labour party right now my my mother came by that honestly my mother's father was hubert humphrey's that top person for twenty five years in fact he held the bible and hubert humphrey was inaugurated vice president united states it was a member of the nurses union and very much a democrat how do you blend those two things together are because they're a nexus point there between your mother's liquid courage and her beliefs your father's well you know maybe maybe maybe i became an independent as a way of self preservation but i love and respect both my parents kept you know i think it makes me more able to really understand the positions on both sides of the aisle and i think that's part of what's missing in

politics today there seems to be such a trust gap between republicans and democrats that it reminds me and i've said this before of a married couple going through a bitter divorce you know they don't talk to each other anymore when they do they mistrust each other's intentions and putting that group of people together and saying solve our problems as a little bit like taking their married couple of putting him in a roman saying figure it out on your own it's really not going to happen without the intervention of a third force a force that is willing to listen to both sides maybe do a little bit of mediation in some cases maybe suggest solutions that neither side has thought of but ultimately i really do believe we need other force in our politics one has won a serious campaign he's put out a series of glossy issue papers that lay out plans for funding public education growing the kansas economy and increasing government transparency if elected he says udall regular town hall meetings scheduled weekly meetings with lawmakers regardless of their party affiliation i wanna make

it clear that we want a return kansas government to people we want to make sure that they have an opportunity to participate in helping to define the vision for where we want i have kansas go i want them to feel like the governor's office is open accessible you want a prohibited people who either or serving in elected office or the position in your camera or anybody else for that matter from them becoming a lobbyist for three years after they leave their job was out of the house of the man i called for in two thousand fourteen in my senate race i really believe that public service should be about public services should be a stepping stone to a lucrative career lobbying your former colleagues are members of the administration on behalf of special interests and so i just think creating that gap in time between your public service and when you can come back and act in the capacity of a lobbyist really is prudent and help so i'm sure that the government of kansas is working for the people of kansas based on his positions it's clear that mormonism are some might even call him a liberal

and expansion is kind of a dividing line issue an organ support for extending can care coverage to another one hundred and fifty thousand kansans poor been able bodied adults who now don't qualify for it we send our working poor in kansas a terrible message what we tell them as if you get sick and you need healthcare quit your job and i don't think that's the kind of message that we want us until you know there's the donut hole between thirty eight percent of the poverty line and a hundred and thirty eight percent of the poverty line people are getting care in the state because they can afford we need to drive down the cost of health care and then we need to expand medicaid so that we can not only provide services to those people but underpin the kirk to access our schools we have in the state that are so vital to rural kansas like all candidates went to remain viable in kansas politics a woman says he's all for the second amendment but he also says the state went too far easing restrictions on where people can and can't carry concealed weapons is against arming teachers support the second amendment but i don't

think that we americans say my arming teachers might like to say privacy right answer or more while form up his position on the old issue of abortion he stumbled a bit when asked about it during an interview with msnbc chuck todd early in the year colter issues are really fun center with her opponents abortion which a position where like i i i sort of religion illegal yes it should be legal but again i'm i'm not i understand the publicity of people who are in the pro life community my mother is very pro life i pressed him on the issue when we talked in august just as the battle over supreme court justice but catalans confirmation was beginning to heat up and raising the possibility that roe vs wade would be overturned but should you become governor perry on what happens at the federal level you may very well

be dealing with a legislature that passes a bill to make abortion illegal in kansas again if the supreme court allows states to do that again should that happen or what you do i don't want to go back to a time now when women had these procedures done an unsafe and unsanitary environments so that would be something that i'd be supportive of i think we've seen all sorts of evidence that suggests for places that have incredibly restrictive laws in that regard i'd been alternately that's what ends up happening and down i think that's bad for women i think that's bad for kansas one is a polished candidate in debates and forty holders all but he may have misread the political tea leaves it's not twenty fourteen anymore democrat dropped out of the senate race and the scenario captivated the national media york times to pbs to cnn so they were also watching kansas a pat roberts a bribe a tea party challenger by far that went ok and kansas's republican year he's going away by the democratic candidate dropped out of the race yesterday now greg orman the

independent campaign has a one on one charlotte pat robertson this up let's just say not run the abdullah campaign democrats were hoping you'd drop out of the governor's race if election as president in twenty sixteen and all of the stuff that followed what's deepen the already have orders divisions in america we voters a more partisan more committed to their products there just aren't that many truly independent voters can play says that finally she's the chair of the political science department university of missouri kansas city and she studies the psychology of voters we don't really talk about that being three types of independence so there's your week partisans who when you ask them they say independent but when you press them a little bit they say well i really only vote republican are really only the democrats that's a huge portion of people who actually identify as independent initially then there's europe the political folks people who are independent because they don't actually know anything about politics care anything about politics and then you have

your true independence and the reality is that maybe ten to fifteen percent of independents are really true independence in these are people who can't decide between democrats republicans they ceded them as exactly the same time or they see the process of politics as so fundamentally corrupt and partisan survey greg orman approach to that they can't abide with either of the two parties those are the and as we typically think about but they're certainly not the majority why now or men may understand that he is no clear path to victory he says he's going to continue campaigning right through election day that's a concern for democrat laurie kelly but it's good news for republican roscoe bach that of a third term full throttle conservative he's the aclu supports nightmares because he knows the constitution's ban applies to keep them from making any of this is still a state of this is that

this is business when life ok and you're listening to my fellow kansans on kansas public radio my fellow kansans is a production of the kansas news service a collaboration of public radio stations across the state oh i'm gonna get disturbed by this campaign season and you're bound to see a sign just inside the fence line of the field a large red white and blue sign that says <unk> consistent conservative the republican nominee for governor has earned that self assigned label by among other things taking a hard line stand on hot button issues like abortion taxes and an issue that he has a particular affinity for immigration we have to get serious about enforcing the law against those who come in illegally it's absolutely critical that we which returns will block integration i testified before the audio from this year's campaign but it isn't it from a debate back in two thousand for medical bach was running for congress he lost that election but

he didn't go away he became secretary of state in twenty ten an apple box one of the favorites in the governor's race that appears headed for a photo finish i'm going plane and this is my fellow kansan podcast with anthony service on this episode we'll turn the spotlight on the full throttle fincher another self assigned characterization whose goal was to keep kansas among the and let us of the nation's top of the results not what we will never do we will end illegal immigration we will protect unborn one in profit in the gulf we will stay in america america has changed forever and we can now say on a crisp about show president trump sounded as the trump i know some liberals listener just it's getting into this game already like trump come up the lights and confronting his political opponents sometimes going out of his way

to rile them up his penchant for writing into rage in a jeep mounted with a replica machine gun is just one example i think a conservative writer in the office you won't back down when the liberals in the media or snowflakes parade routes are attacking conservatives are doing what we do with a standby american traditional values we need a governor when the levee that he gets right back and so i didn't back down they complained about that keep a double down and that we're taking it to every parade we can go bucks confrontational style was also front and center at the kansas state fair to make it always a lot this event because each candidate has user cheering section added to that by taking on the crowd in addition to his opponents he got into it with a crowd responding to a question about whether to legalize medical marijuana and i'm steve inskeep yes you

heard that right quote but weeks and to read those isolated today i admire enjoyed debating in high school and college you know part of the fun of debating is having a witty retorts and if i join you demonizing the other side know they were ever remember was happening at the state fair as at one point the cheering section for the democrats was so agitated about things i've been saying things he'd been saying about medical marijuana and about school spending namely that lavish spending on buildings and administration are having in the classroom resources and shortchanging students let's just listen that's great

i think i do enjoy the intellectual so much has been made of our tribal politics this country these days and how mean and bitter and parsons is gone and so we know what would accuse you of shrinking every position you know nobody aggressive but you don't seem to do it with criminality exactly see it you can be set an aggressive defender of your position without being mean without using ad hominem attacks against the other person i think that was one of the wonderful things about a high school debating kansas for me an interim broader sense of the wonderful things about the way politics used to be when you could have a robust disagreement and then can come together after che cancer to have dinner together and you know i think that's important we need to treat each other with respect to be

friendly as we disagree and it's just the way i am i would never attack someone personally or try to assassinate an opponent's character it's just wrong to people to respect but there are plenty of people who say that cobalt habit of referring to political rivals as lefty snowflakes is in fact militias and he's been dogged by charges about racist overtones in his claims about immigration and voter fraud claim he used to propel his political career wire kansas turning from chris could not look who's supporting him people and groups trying to white supremacists you could drop thousands more and even higher kotok it's true and extremist group hired could rub against the state the data from the two thousand or congressional campaign touched off a testy exchange between called bach in his opponent in the race democratic congressman densmore with this character assassination attempt and only hurts my

reputation your family and this is something that the third district voters did not deserve to politics of personal destruction second the so called frivolous lawsuit that i got was to block implementation of kansas killed twenty one forty five which gives in state tuition to illegal aliens that was a direct violation of a nineteen ninety six that because you may not know about it because you're in congress yet but that act for goods a state from getting in state tuition to illegal aliens that left the state institution for us it is since your chest respond congressman arrangement as the stars and apple reportedly has received support from certain groups like in america which says on its website the united states opens its borders the productivity prosperity will soon disappear before the current world's while mr kovach sign that that's not an agreement and sign a pledge that says this i will support a timeout on immigration enforcer his reforms can be enacted there are people in this country would have you believe that every immigrant visitors it's just not the case just not the case that about obama remains opposed to reading in state tuition to undocumented students

who graduate from kansas high schools even though university more of the same all pending situation for illegal aliens will use that money to help kansans certainly is consistent attention because i'm happy to his argument so often so many years it's like there's no interest he says non citizens are waiting he's persuaded small towns far from topeka fremont nebraska valley park missouri in hazleton pennsylvania to hire him to defend anti immigration ordinance laufer arizona that makes it a crime to be in that state without papers and consulted with joe arpaio the controversial former sheriff on how to enforce it i'd like to start by recognizing our distinguished vice chair the kansas secretary state crystal by twenty seventeen go walk was an obvious help lead a presidential

commission on voter fraud indeed a great honor to serve as vice chairman us commission on the charges the commissioners a significant one as the president outlined to study the threats to the integrity of our elections to qualify those threats of possible and it is the will of the commission to offer recommendations to the president to help ensure the integrity of future elections in this country well the commission was dismantled before producing any findings or recommendations and then just escobar was getting his campaign for governor off the ground the aclu hauled him into federal court the lawsuit challenged a law that called bach said was needed to stop what he and a few others insist is rampant voter fraud in kansas law that required voters to show proof of citizenship to register your state chris kolb aka tongue lashing today from the judge will decide whether he can block of voters lacked documentation such as passports proving their citizenship member station kcur so yo yo piece jepsen has more judge julie robinson two second to make a lot of gamesmanship in the nearly two years since she ordered him

to register tens of thousands of voters who signed up through the dmv robinson said she's had to repeatedly monitor his actions to try to get him to comply the eighth it proved to be an interesting few weeks ago that was me a federal judge has struck down a kansas law that required proof of us citizenship in order to register to vote the ruling is a blow to the secretary of state the judge held him in contempt for not following earlier quarters like president trump so often does go block went on the offensive turning what could have been a body blow into a political now the aclu is attacking me in a lawsuit seeking to weaken our legislature literally he researches voter fraud at rutgers university and she was an expert witness for the aclu at the trial

over that time she's felt the actual voter fraud particularly non citizens voting is rare but allegations continued to gain currency leading lady to ask why why do people want that relationship between allegations our political strategies do you care and it gives politicians like <unk> were fighting for those laws a potent wedge issue all of the voter fraud tough talk on immigration his promise to cut taxes and protect gun rights all of that has created a sort of kinship between called walk in closet in trouble election day

he is extremely narrow win over coverage of college presidents and subsequent victories is to deliver his endorsement in person could also be a factor in what is shaping up to be a very close general election political shows democrats wore italian republican chris kovach since essentially a dead heat race for governor cuomo's schilling <unk> laura kelly tied at about forty percent have also indicated that the democrat would have about a four point lead if independent greg orman wasn't in the race not surprisingly a big part of coming strategy has been to convince swing voters mainly moderate republicans to vote for a mormon is really a vote for cobalt and convince them that he's more in step with average kansans that her combative and polarizing rival most of them are very common sense they're pragmatic and they just want good stewardship good leadership and they're really not looking for the explains i think there's a lot of motivation it now and we're going to see a lot of moderates coming out

to vote in this election and voting for me because they want to get back to that common sense you know because all two years to their approach to politics kelly likes a psycho bloch is sam brownback on steroids and even more extreme version of the former republican governor who's drastic income tax cuts sent the state really would go mock says he's the salt of the earth candidate the one who's focused on improving the lives of everyday kansas and he says he's a different kind of conservative than brownback who he considers part of the republican establishment i believe in him or principled conservativism and it might be a little more populist in nature in the sense that if you are concerned about protecting american workers against illegal competition that's a popular sport being bad at the country club republican does not like that because the country club republican wants his yard for and buy cheap labor and wants his factory staffed by cheap labor so it's more of a populist

conservatism i think another area where disagreed with the brown but collier administration has been are no working for people in the labor community for example i work on i've been working very hard to improve our work comp system which is unconstitutional right now according to the kansas court of appeals and it press for legislation to fix this anti social problem were some injured workers get absolutely no recovery whatsoever for their permanent impairment so i i i think a populist conservative brand like you to write a point there where where you have a conservative who fights for the working man and woman and that might be the right label but again it depends on how you use the terms that gets us back to the conversation we had with author thomas frank in our first episode he's the kansas native who wrote the book what's the matter with kansas in the early two thousands of a book in which he described how in his view conservatives had appropriated populism from progressives interest there to serve their own political ends

i mean it's it's a tough call cheryl formula where you speak to people's class based grievances and that's an important part of it that is class based grievances is the average people blue collar working people the producer class versus this kind of parasite elite and that is extremely powerful stuff now it also happens to be as i've said so many times and self damaging and the conservatives have figured out a way to harness that anger without really doing anything about the opposite that you know the economic basis grievance about what happened with actually going to make that much worse it gets worse all the time i don't agree with frank ago but isn't sure but he thinks that he and frank lee of once mixed it up on the kansas high school debate circuit and he's ready to take him on again here he is he says as i understand it is that people are voting against their economic interests i'm you know that's a

sort of bizarre statement to make the best measure of a person's economic interest is done by the person himself or you know some pointy headed intellectual things considered chair someone say no that's not your true interest you don't know what's good for you i think that's ridiculous economically speaking you would always say that be the buyer the person in the marketplace in this case the marketplace of politics and voting would know which person which candidate serves his interests tickets a classic elite her a conceit that the you know the alice the author from outside can look at what those people really should be doing and tell them what their true interest is and so bottom line if you're a moderate republican or independent voter intent is not part of your famous obama base was your message to voters like that who think somehow they have something to fear from you is going to look at my record the things that i've been promised before i think the vast majority

of voters who are in the middle would agree with things like follow it proof of citizenship or people registering those issues paul very well with kansans we're talking seventy five eighty eighty five percent supporting that if you look at what i'm talking about doing as governor were talking about things that the vast majority of cancers agree with for example cutting are very high sales taxes we have these high sales tax in america and sales taxes are aggressively crescent they have a greater impact on the border on the wealthy and the vast majority of kansans see god and the greater sales taxes are too high but having recorded committee votes or you know how your legislator votes of democrats agree with me on that one as well as people illegal immigration stopping getting welfare benefits to illegal aliens the specifics decent ideas i agree with obama there and lately stimulus

bill but he's not some really lousy politician who says one thing one day and says the opposite the next day and tries to make everybody happy we'll call was brand of populist conservatism when the day or well kelly's auriemma that can just need a steady consensus builder after a tumultuous year prevail risk of our lives by only making things worse the case for leniency my fellow kansans as the production of the kansas news service a collaboration of public radio stations across the state the podcast has written and reported by jim mclean edited by amy jeffries and mixed by matthew long middleton the production team includes a death girl led nadia fall scott cannon and he raised lots of primary colors music composed our theme reporter celia get this dressing contributed to this episode this credit is her reward for we are

covering a trial over kansas is voter registration drives you're listening to hear the operas

kansas public radio career and nine he won five more and eighty nine seven and find out who will serve as the next governor of kansas a pr is why the election day conflict kansas public radio news director jay shafer and jim mclean from the kansas new service will co anchor our coverage and bring you the latest results from around the state join us for a live election coverage that npr and kbr this tuesday night beginning at seven o'clock and kansas public radio support for kbr hotel located seventy one massachusetts know the newly renovated low volume restaurants including the all american boy in a new report from new menus more information you know who took over support for my fellow kansans and the following message comes from the kansas leadership center offering leadership development training in wichita kansas city and online

use promo code m f k for registration discount leadership for the common good kansas leadership center dot org let's just say democrat laurie kelly didn't get off to a stellar start at one of the first big events in her campaign for dove yeah i am i'm mark kelly i'm a state senator tim also a wife a mother and a proud daughter born into a military family a democratic debate last spring he stumbled through her explanation of the very reason she's running to fix the damage he says was done by former governor sam brownback tax cuts that damage to the public schools and communities that brewer kansas knows things are at risk because of the rigid ideology of sam brownback and jeff collier they have used them or sharpshooters and they'd be done that figure breaks to those who least need them they treated kansans like guinea pigs and their failed experiment has resulted in larger classes

crumbling highways including is stagnant economy kansas city star columnists went ahead and wrote that kerry's performance alarmed some democrats worry whether she was ready to take on the secretary's day crespo by the firebrand conservative with a big personality who republicans picked as their nominee for governor there we heard the whispers and appear determined to silence them with her opening statement on a very hot might here writing about that debate in a column headline is that you laura kelly had another noted the kelly's new found energy and crisp combative and loud performance had fired up democrats we try and get clean and this is my fellow kansan and it took

awhile but laura kelly found her footing and now she's battling principal walked down to the water covers race that will determine whether this continues its sharp right turn back to its traditional show we share a joint responsibility versus those quality services tradition embodied by a long line of moderate republicans and some middle of the road democrat former governor bob thoughts on this episode we get acquainted with mortality in the docking more when i got into the center at most i've had nine other senate democratic colleagues he's the top democrat on the state senate budget riding in filth has a tendency to get into the weeds of policy and she sees herself as a consensus between twenty one votes to pass anything so it was clearly view across the aisle whatever he is at home in the statehouse where we met up to talk if not yet in the governor's mansion but would it be fair to say that you're a bit of a reluctant candidate at least at first yeah

i mean i've been asked to run for governor a few times and this time around i really felt that the state's been through some trials and tribulations of the past eight years that i just could not sit back and stay out of the race that i really felt that i had sort of a portfolio of experience and the relationships to when speaking of relationships which promotes you in different what role she played in convincing you to jump in you know i did have conversations with promotional use apps and no doubt about that as i did with a number of other people in deciding whether or not to get into this race beat back that decision making process just a little and i think he told me a story was we were just chatting during the legislative session in your ruminating on this and he would take long walks up on what the trial publicity aggressive

just think about this is with the party or a year process yeah that's that you know i think things through and it's a big leap from the state senate to the governor's office in and i had to convince myself that it was a little i could play in a job that i could do and walking around sucrose which says governors oh evil allowed me to put myself in that place in a visualizing the life i came to the conclusion that yeah i could do this and i have to do this kelly canal pictures of letting it sink but standing under way is the scope of the conservative republican who says the killing is far too liberal kansas that has for decades been moving steadily to the right yes jesus is actually a worthy opponent she's articulate stay fairly extreme left point of view in kansas city especially for kansas out but she doesn't well you know i think she's a

misrepresenting my record when she has an ad running where she says that he actually set our schools are over funding and sam brownback slash cool runnings texas he attacked the exchanges special chris kovach supported that when they actually says there's concern over funding for me even though he did say that he would have vetoed a bill signed by the verge of collyer that increases public school funding by more than five hundred million dollars i did not say we should be cutting funding for schools i said that the number of the five hundred plus billion dollar increase was too much but and this is key to go about has probably been cut taxes he will say that he never said or schools or overfunded but the very act of returning to the brownback tax experiment will result in serious cuts all across the board about specifically for education because that's where the bulk of our state funding cuts because you don't

promote bristle at the charts you say he has said that kansas schools you are doing to extrapolate or jam i have fourteen years waste means committee the budget committee i know the budget i know that if you're talking about cuts to make up for the brownback tax experiment that you have got to be talking about cutting education that's where so much of our state general fund money goes church or local reporters that for your generation christian culture should probably fold because every chapter there's a good shoe off i could have written the republican governors association etcetera

first he was quote unquote liberal color kelly opposes requiring work for welfare benefits and she supports illegal immigrants getting tax lawyer kelly likes to hike taxes government liberal mark kelly you're strong support abortion rights you for medicaid expansion you're ok with repealing tax cuts like raising taxes we call it which will to increase funding for public education you'd like them rollback state laws that permit people to carry concealed handguns on college campuses so in the context of kansas politics wise that for calling i don't think that it is fair to put that kind of label or any kind of label on me i'm really just to survive no nonsense very pragmatic problem solver idea with a shiite issue and i really don't have an ideological bomb maybe not but what she does have is a keen political instincts time in

the state senate kelly has voted for tax cuts and against that and she did in fact while with almost every other member of the legislature voted for the walker scott walker pushed to require proof of citizenship to register and photo id to vote he now says that was a mistake finally she voted to keep guns out of schools and hospitals but also supported a bill that allows kansans to carry concealed weapons without a permit and turns of the constitutional carry bill and i was passed actually did not long after that though i realize that that had gone way to talk and we will craft a gun sense policy for the state of kansas and i will use the governor's office during the primary campaign the sheer josh swat valley on the carpets are hedging on gun control we lost common sense with gun laws when constitutional carry that we should have stopped this when we have the chance of twenty fifteen and we needed democrats knew that then and know enough to stand

up and say no well kelly's have it both ways position on guns gave her a bit of trouble during the primaries but in the general election her middle of the road this could be part of a winning formula just ask kelly's friend and supporter kathleen sebelius i am my approach always progress said democrats i don't like to four times statewide end i had very clear voting records i had very clear positions on issues so there were a lot of kansas voters who might not have agreed with each one of my positions but they weren't willing to cross a party line or cross even a philosophical line oregon or a position or two because they like the bulk of the work that i did in her initial run for congress to do is faced former kansas house speaker tim shellenberger the first social conservative to win the gop nomination and she got plenty of crossover support from kansas voters who were worried last about same

sex marriage or even abortion and they were about jobs the economy and especially schools it's the issue that in two thousand and two was the biggest dividing line between tim shellenberger and me i said we will fund schools i will not i cut school funding in fact we need to increase it tim schonberger said add one thing this point i would entertain a more cuts in schools we knew at the point that that sentence came out of his mouth that that could be the end of the race because there weren't enough kansas voters republicans independents and democrats who felt that school funding was near absolute number one issue republicans elsewhere if the us and what he wants the government to do that was number one right by twenty eighteen laura kelly is banking on funding for public schools once

again being a top issue because democrats are still outnumbered by both republicans and unaffiliated voters in kansas city has to have crossover support and a lot of it to win what amounts to a three way race with an independent greg orman who despite his local has rejected calls to stop campaigning some big name republicans are doing what they can to help deliver those crossover votes i've been a republican my entire life in iraq from my father and my mother laura kelly is the only democrat iowa caucus she was running a call the sunflower state games in the mid eighties which was essentially sort of a state olympic competition type thing and i was so common in offices as a separate state and through her work with parks and recreation sheehan i got acquainted and i was able over many many years to see her often on

people living in topeka and believe i have a pretty good grasp on that the type of course of years and then you know having been governor for eight years and knowing what the job entails a skill set that i think is required we look at the individual case so you're sending a signal i think to other moderate republicans searching for a place to go on the sergeant maybe maybe kind of wrestling with the kelley former question in here pouring them toward kelly you think though he's a while i certainly hope it encourages people to stop and think about what they're planning to do with something that seems more more precious every day in their vote election outcomes as we're seeing

firsthand rather than actual to state level election outcomes madder they matter in terms of public policies that given that did they matter in terms of our public policies are administered i mean this really matters to everyone was a tribal parties notion and say to themselves as an individual listeners of working mother father as a college student as a retiree what are your station in life and what what sort of individual should i be looking for weakness it's choice in my recommendation kelly says she's gotten ravens and tortured along with those of former governor mike hayden former republican senators nancy kassebaum and sheila from who are

encouraging followers to vote for the democrat in this governor's race we had a lot of those moderates already supporting me before but for those who weren't paying as close attention i think it gets ended very very loud message as a voter do you vote a party line you know or spouses must be secret so i shouldn't kill you but now i've i built for the person you know i am i grew up in a republican family and i was actually registered as an independent for a lot large part of my adult life and didn't become a democrat really until the early nineties i don't have a political party preference a really good look for the person who will represent the values issues that are important to me you know i think that's enough evidence by the relationships that i had in the endorsements that are not seen as partisan return

true i really don't see myself but everybody doesn't support gun rights duties or expanding medicaid that's important is we're seeing the small rural hospitals businesses here depend on immigrant is christian with conan reporter right now people are considering very good i go right with the right to life i'm more moderate

on abortion issues and more moderate on women's rights issues and obviously the state but it has been quite a disaster political side eliot as well and just understand we're going to see that we're going down the path again is actually have a lot to say in how the meeting goes sometimes senators this year's election and its consequences my fellow kansans is a production of the kansas news service a collaboration with public radio stations in kansas podcast is written and recorded by jim mclean edited by amy

jeffries and mixed by mathew arnold's and production team includes best ole nadia fall scott can't stand me race last primary color music composer of the jordan currently designed our logo several kansas new service reporters stephen this aha madeline fox no means of geordi and steal your piece jepsen contributed a little something to this episode special thanks to new careers of npr and the and your training if you liked this episode leave us a review it only takes a minute and helps other people discover a podcast you can follow us on facebook and twitter ks news service is big if you've been listening to my fellow kansans on k pr prisons find out who will serve as the next governor of kansas and who's heading to washington to represent kansas in congress kansas public radio brings you live election

coverage tuesday night beginning at seven pm k pr news director j schafer am jim mclean of the kansas new service will co anchor our election night coverage and bring you the latest results from around the state join us for a live election coverage from npr and k pr tuesday night beginning at seven on kansas public radio i'm kate mcintyre kbr present as a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas it's been