The 2014 Kansas Elections
- Transcript
as sam brownback begins his second term as governor and pat roberts returns to washington dc for his fourth term in the us senate we looked that and the surprisingly close two thousand fourteen elections i'm kate mcintyre today on k pr percent we'll hear from a panel of political analysts and insiders from the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas if they're fed post election conference sponsored by the dole institute a two day event looking at the national and state elections will be focusing on the kansas elections on today's program where races for governor and us senate we're closer than you might expect in republican kansas this event was held december eleventh two thousand but if i feel that for let's start with an assessment of the political environment that existed in kansas where these two very competitive statewide elections in a year ok in a year when nationally the republican party was exceptionally schaal why was such a republican state
like kansas are also competitive wanted to govern sen roberts plays such a big challenges and i think the tax plan that the governor past created a sense of concern about where we were going to go and that became one of the early overriding issues although not the only one john weidman is chair of the kansas democratic party welcome leah moves senatorial race i think well most effective tv ads of student kansas history which have featured three from a visceral although the howard cosell like reporter out with a factor that from a distance at least with the lucky that roberts in a field on the lounge chair ran in the summer and was just a devastating dad bob beatty teaches political science at washburn university in topeka i'm sure we'll talk about later white great ormond didn't just re create that entire abdomen around it
in the fall i don't know that the servant and it was what you have that really caught the attention inmate that are primarily built a relatively complete i think yet to put it in context i think them if you consider the four point victory the governor and eleven point victory by the senator and you compare that with the level of media editorial boards and political science class focus on the race because of the goal for mark gagan served as campaign manager for governor sam brownback but from abdominal we're all like twirl standpoint wall competitive more interesting and i don't think that the races were were pretty solid because the republicans which which really matched the national mood the governor's race came down to about thirty three thousand people brian lowry is a reporter with the wichita eagle was about fifteen the sense of all registered voters
so it would have been more people out there this way either way either further in the governor's favor or maybe over two hundred meter davis' family i think the fact is you saw that there was a segment of the republican party that was dissatisfied go now people may have exaggerated how they that's it was what was clearly a sizeable enough to make it the other thing thats true though i think though your original question is what about mr miller year ago that may have led us to understand that this might be a competitive iraq i think we end our peril we overlook the anti incumbent mood that applies to both parties in this cafe telling is a reporter for the kansas city star and tom i think a year ago while we would not have ejected that both of these races would turn out to be as competitive as they were we could have projected that voters are deeply skeptical about their government particularly at the statewide level and so they are willing at least to take a critical look at incumbents and then reap some
sort of judgments based on their performance versus what the opponents are saying sam brownback and pat roberts are two of the best known politicians in kansas history and they have records extensive records and in an anti incumbent environment at least to some degree that guaranteed elections that would be at least more competitive than we're used to seeing in kansas in my view and i think that's exactly how it played out a particularly in the early and middle stages of the primary in the senate race which had a strong anti incumbent component art and then as john suggests the governor had a record that he had to defend most reelection campaigns for governors are referenda on the incumbent so i think that was the dynamic that made the most sense to me that in a republican state and a republican year kansas voters were still willing to take a look at her the campaigns for both offices
because of their deep distrust of income when i say that you know i think flying in the face of the narrative of a guy comes easy for the court and the government and people are fed up with the government if everybody thinks is broken son fitzpatrick is press secretary for senator pat roberts and i think the challenges all the campaigns had one of them was saying why why is that i think our campaign and in the governor's campaign to look at all our campaign with what we're redressing the senate look at the way the president trying to do that is the reason a broken i think that kansas voters heard that message in that we see in the results that have the swing not by a nearly one hundred reich trumpet but the reality is that the biggest problem you guys face for year was the residency and that to me was always a subset of the incumbency criticism that that he had been there too long that was the gritty an op
ed in a normal year that would have less resonance that i think it did in twenty fourteen in kansas because kansas are typically particularly the senate level familiar with the fact that senators don't spend a lot of time in their own space they just don't nobody thought bob dole actually lived and ross tom so to happen but it had resonance in your race right because of the ambient anti incumbent mood in mind that that that that and for whatever reason republicans and democrats are seen as dysfunctional and so that particular approach had some resonance in mind the bacterium if the question again one year out are and i think that for the end were going to inflate the other one race related to the other to the other and for debt limits teaches political science at the university of kansas i think a year ago that robert was not on any rate i mean theoretically may be because in the incumbency anti government whatever but
paul davis great credit i think he saw the numbers early on he and he inferred where the numbers were going to go i think it was probably contributed to worry where the numbers actually went through and i think he realizes that having even being a liberal warrants warrior and you would hear the having the not having to require nomination was going to be valuable and he went out and won the air force everyone out oh a prepared everybody else and then a year of a year ago thought was ready to run a really a really strong campaign albeit in a very republican state what effects on race but that point and what the senate race to become about was was watching again bryan lowry of the wichita eagle obviously great ormond would be an apparent robert reich him as a senator your pitch was
dysfunctional because of very broad obama and then breaks that was as dysfunctional because of very broad obama and mitch mcconnell an op ed so at a lot of voters who decided to stay with senator roberts to get harry reid that was i think the appeal of this alternative to this school gym jonas with campaign manager for greg orman for senate yeah i would i would add that i agree with joe where most people were operating again what we are running against the system it worked really well but as soon as you guys were able to deter us a part of that system it down really icky uphill climb let's move on our focus for a moment on the senate race and sean out when i ask you a question did your team anticipated tough primary or a tough general election old when you began to calm way out initial planning for the campaign i think actually i think
no center arts always says it doesn't take anything for granted and i we'd actually didn't know it was a difficult primary for the full year will find that iowa for the general though there was a it was a very small to us steel we have some definite shenanigans going on i would say i would and this to you a lot about i think that was the moment our book without money really nationalize the race that was a tipping point in the race to the worst degree you a brothel attention abroad money into the race and also i think it will go up in the city this is their they're trying to swindle you know i think rand i don't come to this side of the river a story of three put up a lot of i think initially they're very common thing there was a conversation within the democratic party in years and nationally moved definitely same jones into may have a different comet but i've talked to many democrats to win the all to give some some battle
right after taylor had dropped off about more so in the midst of this legal battle with the satirical walk up there we're getting some democrats who are thinking that the modern sections of the city all the us rate for men and then you have you know judge jean jean shorts in the secretary's this recently for more moderate republicans and that was the appeal to that area up backfiring and there are people like anthony hensley is going to be out there on the women say that he was vocally advocate that's actually just about that this was going to backfire that this was going to have a ripple effect on the governor's race but i can't say for sure that that's what lost the governor's race but clearly it did actually help reinvigorate your campaign because it brought in this national money it brought in maybe a renewed sense of purpose for why center roberts was running i'd be interested in journalism
do know from several democratic officials i talk to that there was this battle and if i had had a would say well where you actually lined up wow oh oh the kansas democratic party recruited track to run for the united states senate we didn't reprint an independent to run and not even though i like greg orman we we were supportive of chad taylor there was no one more surprised that i that he pulled off pulled out of the race at a candidate of the act on labor day night and chad was there campaigning in the next day he called our executive director and said i'm thinking about dropping out of the race so that's how much advance notice we have on there we made a decision and the at the executive committee level or the vote officer level to support us
decision and for whatever reason he was doing that we decided to support i did not ask him to get off the ballot now one army officer level or the executive committee as far as i know asked him to get off the ballot where there are democrats out there who were speculating about whether or not we would have a chance to defeat pat roberts if he were not on the ballot absolutely there were was that the leadership of the democratic party not it was it was a decision made in kansas i think there were people as i can read from articles in your newspaper's that some of the people in washington and claire mccaskill and others they've been involved in some of those calls but what many of our show well there were no there were people though in kansas i mean including out front you imagine cheryl the congressional candidate endorsed great warm soul and a message into the state
park there were you know there were people both within the state party sen levin i'm willing to go on the record about the national party you know claire mccaskill yourself on the record about you guys are birds over you you're ahead of the right now on average they only set up of the campaign because i think that's a critical issue and i have them i was the question but it was notable that the show that you love with your assessment when you guys started putting the campaign here you know you said that so robert's always runs it affected by more common way and made by roberts can find an expectation of a tough election what makes sense in the other hand for the primaries we're in a great primaries we obviously have a lot to run on there and got the job done and i think in terms of
planning we were planning for a race against a strong and independent and a strong democrat with the support of the conservative party and then i didn't have the university amber that immediately changed and then so that you know the best laid plans have added be pretty nimble and so we made some adjustments than an hour we'll we immediately went to eight one a one b strategy of nationalizing either general race and then i convincing informant cases voters i then arm hole it was in fact a democrat and who is calling himself glenn and i think you know the results proving that would that strategy play out very well we work with national republican we work with people across the spectrum i have to say you know they'll looking to two tribute concerts and there they're trying to do for you what was happening and i think that message to resolve that jim are the storm unscathed by jim crow i want what the gregg decided he would get into
this race and color what was the basic theory of how you were when this goes though it was late for it could be even consider it would still he's clearly been thinking about this for a long long time but it was not until may that he really make a final decision to get in and it was always going to be about the three way race that dull we figured that their tails stay in that we would have to fire wade through that and that we were going to have to somehow try you might be in a position to do and i would love to re run the race within a minute that those guys would have a much more difficult time to turn us into a wild eyed liberals certainly i don't think you can but i don't think we can understand what happened in the general in the senate race unless we pay attention to the primary again dave helling of the kansas city star and the dynamics of the primary because you know again though you started a year ago i
think all of us are on the reporter's side i did not anticipate that senator roberts would face legitimate primary opposition by we were attuned to the possibility of such a thing because of it happen in other states in earlier cycles dick lugar and some other places where incumbents were knocked off by insurgent tea party candidates which defines the wall and you know shun says they were ready but the fact is he was a you know the senator was in the times making light of where he lived and all those things that became issues and they you know milton wolf who was a very flawed candidate was able to achieve i think forty three percent of the vote in in the primary keep senator robert under forty under fifty percent in the primary which is astonishing for an incumbent in a republican state like pat roberts and for all that the idea would put together a good team we would
count was fired a couple weeks later mean i think there was a general understanding in the roberts campaign that they needed to operate very different general than they anticipated getting and that's why the chad taylor dynamic and what you guys decided in my view ghazal reaction to a perceived vulnerability that we saw in the days ran out there to support those as soon as they had the roberts campaign had that reshuffling it was a it was a brand new mp the strategy was completely different aisle that dealt with media was different and the message was much pass stronger and i would say that it was during the primary when there really wasn't necessarily in the newly arrested of the fact that you pat roberts is the guy who right and i guess the argument i was trying to make is what we saw in chad taylor greg orman is your host the primaries was informed by what happened in that crime although you know i don't think chuck taylor would be in a normal year had pat got
seventy percent of the primary at chad taylor space in that race because i think after the primary people thought that pat roberts was particularly one i think that in reality a little bit more he wants the corps week we did make some changes we had a very different race in front of us when we have a ritual when i think we were a counselor that message out in the primary and it was very typical primary at the primaries are always difficult their inner family battles in which you say roberts have a conservative record he is a conservative and you have to go out and defend that when he's also you know he has served kansas for a parental mccammon then that is you know a perceived perceived head on and i would say it's a huge advantage to being a senator and to be a statesmen and that's one reason why he did so well in a general but you know i think at the end of the day the race i'm really changed us is shut her up
ballet became a national race and so we brought in on some experts with a national plan it's back to animal is the most obvious chad taylor got off the ballot in part in my view because of what happened in the time of non saw happen in the primer i'm convinced him that senator roberts was particularly violent and it would be vulnerable in a one on one race now your challenge always was it b a tea party of lobbying tea party which was you know that really you know through the eye of a needle but but so i think if you're going to understand the senate race in kansas you have to pay attention to what happened in the primary and how milton wolf was able to get you know pat robertson never had a primary ms long time you know ever in his long career of a maybe nineteen eighty one but so and the fact that the play a novice non incumbent unknown person who was deeply flawed as a candidate to get forty three percent of the vote in a primary i think informed chad
taylor which the generals allen ok it's only us what reports are roberts was held under eight percent so that's what i saw was a scary thing for the center was not just what forty three or whatever but that so well they're under eight percent that was your reaction when that some of the event when that in kansas we always have very contested primaries in and that were used in the most loving elections are one of the primaries because they can't really arnold is chair of the republican party of kansas and so we're used to a few years ago you had a us senate race between grants the heart and as a party it's how to bring up maybe bring our party back together after primers of rostov gather and voting precinct candidate going into the general and so that was our focus in and you look at the numbers that people the sported as senator rob puerto rico has supported senate robert it was lower i am but i do time i think two weeks out from the election i think we had over eighty percent plus of
more republicans back to supporting an area recover mean are there their support for senator roberts the turning point that we was when that about unity he got up about because he could no longer surf what a reasonable estimate reason we were trying to find out just as republicans is they can serve in a senator huckabee served a maniac district attorney i am but that is what brought in a lot of national money to the republican party for hanson and that was that we change for us because before nationally we only got it no we maybe make us seventy five phones to use but we ended up getting close to a million dollars we don't change our camp tang clan a whole lot because we were for over year we've already been doing voter ids contacting voters were able to expand that into a much a bigger operation where we need to act individually contacted by phone over
a million voters who were able to work with the financial resources from the rnc it was given to us use that email and use it for mailing go back and dance touch each of our primary voters to make sure that our core base that with us was it was anybody surprised that doesn't robert only got thousand victims of the summer at a deeply involved in politics again we were the rules again jim jonas campaign manager for greg orman no way it really did establish that as a you know as a race and eight hundred and that's when i believed her to do a national race was not getting about fifty percent of the primary that is simply gave us attraction to be able to go raise money in and raise awareness and talk about what we want to talk about on a target and eight we got a damaged incumbent who's up volatile and we have a candidate greg orman who
are dynamic fresh face that clearly outside the system in exactly what people were saying that they want to so that will be we got that james roberts with campaign manager for our neighbors forgotten are the things give back with the question that temperament is that the landscape year out and that's i think the point and a couple times but it's important to keep both races separate i think the policies news making decisions the governor put him in a position where the electorate a pretty moderate electorate was highly skeptical of the results and you saw that i think in the primaries all of the governor's race for the senate race and what they remember we've got a pretty late primary in august so you get a really long runway as a voter especially the primary voters your primary voter than you are paying attention other primaries so you've got the mississippi primary and you've got good can't erase and you know a lot of races that are informing your irritation as they that anti incumbent
federal voter but i think that seem to conflate the two in that same day have to conflate two i think is misleading because you you have two candidates in similar positions where their opponent in a primary draws forty percent or more for very different reasons or i would say you have to get to a similar point is again i think you know electric and the country is this actually fed up with the way water works and they're actually set up with the whitney proceed broken system and so it is hard as uncommon especially the primary and as a company would serve steak for for a number of years to say i'm not part of problem on time yet they're fixing and that was a child about the time and i think i mean it's a chance that we we only met but i think that was it was a day with a difficult climb well but the other thing is and again you know i think the context is so important to
study all this about that that one of the reasons that people the national money start coming in after the primary was not just that some fifty percent performance by that robert when an understanding in the national picture that the fate of the senate at least that point might hang on campus and that pat roberts was the only real republican opportunity for a boy to war the only opportunity to oust if you will a republican incumbent in a nationwide and so at that point i think the republican party said they would go to spend some money in kansas to their frustration to some degree and we need to send in some new troops to sort of review that race all know so so i think that it wasn't just them pat roberts for performance member talk really where the night of the primary who we were forty eight percent at all we'll be fine we'll be fine apparently that the whole other republicans didn't think that and so that's why the money came in not only because of the poor performance but because an understanding that the senate race might be palatable have that going for me it's
important no one to look at when all these events happen i think we saw a national attention when you saw the national money coming in it wasn't obvious that it was september sixth and that is when taylor trouble but you know i think that maybe that is a really critical time when all these changes happen it wasn't any longer pouring at the time was very much well you know bobby roberts an obvious splits in the entire approach though having an ethical so that noted forty nine point seven fifteen robert warren taylor pat taylor remain on the ballot so there wasn't a lot of national money or national interest because they there was a feeling that a vote for you again bryan lowry of the wichita eagle to be honest on august fifth when all the republicans are gathered in johnson county it was a the senate race going on longer but i think the thing that really surprised people was jennifer wins performance in the governor's
primary he gave him i'm jennifer wing about fourteen but also was able to do was a thirty six or thirty seven and that was the anti incumbent spirit and so i think that was something that really rattled some people that are not well you guys recover are you an image of the primary and there's a fascinating premiere was perplexing is how senator roberts got himself in the position to receive phone calls saying is you know why a rent a house one out have up to buy a small house in kansas city so you can pop in there quite often like joke about this you know to the first article after the milton wolf pat roberts said i'm not vulnerable but all run a stronger if not vulnerable so that was perplexing from the get go is that this was a nobody in his office is willing to say listen the last ten
years are you know were saying as a factor was this anti incumbency so the actions of senator roberts are completely unfashionable to be honest and in his comments as well so that you say was a difficult primary was difficult because of a candidate so the candidate put his own team in this incredibly difficult position to the point where you know they're quite wary of even having india but on a radio show and those effect of ads against roberts were using his own words so we sought write off about that the attempt to get wolf out of the race immediately with the at the first cat out of the roberts campaign was the x ray with the hope that this cat as analogies and two he never planned on that scene is very uncomfortable interaction carpenters guys sweating let's get him out right off the bat in and be done with this and he pieced back he stayed towards credit as a kid as a candidate but i guess that we have the one and one here's what they have you know milton wolf was a again northwestern on wolf was a
really good candidate who didn't and poked fun at people's x rays boy i think that the question that forty percent i think pat roberts probably of very unlikely he would've lost he just could not overcome oh the situation he put his own team in going into that primer that's what made it so fascinating that any other thoughts on the subject like that yeah i guess i really do think that someone who is as in a cup of that rubs a lot of the years and liked them very well but i do think that he's always trusted this homespun humor to it to be very effective at content into the technical or pat robertson's money to anyone but he's older i think i don't think if it worked as one that he'd make it a glib remarks and he wasn't used to that being reported and being reported and then used in a political way it's i don't think he ever really regained
here's his footing on that basis i do think the campaign regained its footing tremendously well and did what it needed to do but i think that it apple box point that whereas with the governor's race republican policies in the end we're talking about a referendum on an incumbent and one that looked somewhat shaky and i think you know why are seeing all points of a begin the day you pat roberts in the latino and i think mostly duty doesn't get to be more gritty and i'm pat roberts and i think it's as you understand it yes i think there was some intimate steps here and there but my larger people can the snow that they trust the center and i think that is why you know all the what ifs are what it's because he won the primary by six percent and then the jail violence and i think that those are the numbers that matter at the end of the day you're listening to k pr presents on kansas public radio i'm kate mcintyre on today's program as the new political year began we look back at the november elections if the
dog institute of politics post election conference a two day event featuring political analysts and campaign insiders this panel focusing on the kansas elections includes dave helling of the kansas city star bryan lowry of the witch duh ego sean fitzpatrick press secretary for senator pat roberts professor bob beatty of washburn university professor burdette loomis of the university of kansas jim jonas with praise or men's campaign for the us senate mark dubin with governor brown bats reelection campaign james robbers with paul davis is campaign for governor john white men of a kansas democratic party and kelly arnold of the kansas republican party this event was recorded on december eleventh two thousand fourteen and was moderated by dole institute director bill lacy will come back to the senate race a little bit where roma worked together for a race and so will call mark
in and then james harvey martin hugh connell way out from the governorships team's perspective oh i thought you were going to be up against and callous and the initial planning that you did in the basic strategy that you laid out for the campaign and take a few minutes to do that well i think we always we always anticipated a tough primary for governor than leave the senate not to run for governor for the sake of taking a pitcher's mound he ran for cover to accomplish things that he knew the light curve of the state but certainly that was a change impact a policy passed papers reform passed a medicaid reform wooded lots of big things all of which have constituencies and i think what you've seen over the last four years is a relatively aggressive i'm going to make a distinction between the reporters in the adult world class of the state on the ovary
and the commish later but i think there's been a pretty aggressive strategy a lab report on the academic class on an interstate do to really make this a referendum and so i think we knew certainly going into the election rather couple at an old avis we always felt like was the governor and paul on a warm relationship and the like that but the other very good team and expected on them to run a very good race and they get a market so putting together that team and we always felt like we were going to have to have a very good ground game and we've invested a lot of personal time and effort in the state republican party which is a vehicle just as the democratic party is primarily for a statewide candidates and in particular for a given the porous and all we've got a great state party telling our was a great
job of our current the cold war in the room also very good job of the state party so we've we've we invest a lot of time and effort and development infrastructure but also was a lot of time on funders and i think to bryant's point on the primary results jennifer when didn't raise very much money we spend is essentially zero dollars any advertising free time so i think jennifer when spent about five thousand dollars on tv so i think just that that's in the primary and we knew that we had to do several things one we had to make this say with the governor decided early on that he was going to embrace his record as he ran for reelection and he believes in the policies he ran on and embrace the record around so we ran a race based on those on those things we've developed a very detail went for a second term following up on road map for the first term on roadmap to for no we're very
aggressive about putting out those policies are for folks i think an instant james perspective on this pound which we felt like it was important for us as a different world and to walk our plan one run on record to tell people what you're going to do and when we feel like in the end over four week roll out a roadmap to point out on the palace where will receive and will serve as a governing document for the governor moving into a second term and overall we felt like we need to tell hopes the store about the governor's record were needed to make the choice to make this election a choice between two candidates with very divergent plans for instance on their music and towards in the campaign we need to make people understand the vast array of things the government does including appointment of judges including tom
changing of welfare policies and i think for my permit kansans perspective on a lot of very robust and aggressive campaign for governor like this campaign was very pale and was a very i was there was a referendum on the governor and his policies which folks endorsed and the selections it was also a very clear choice paul davis sam brownback people in kansas didn't have any wonder or sam brownback was on taxes mr mike what's more texas pulled it was a different planet texts sam brownback wanted less spending although this would spend more although this would spend more on schools and sam brownback want all davis would expand medicaid under obamacare sam brownback of kansas perspective people have a choice a torturous be what were surely divergent views of the future of our state so from electorate or political science perspective i think he was very good very good robust campaign that folks have a choice to make and so on that we really felt like we were able to
lay out those choices on use of government abuse of social policies that we would be successful i think there's a strategy borne out but i do when i reiterate michael davis run a very good campaign jan twenty sixteen i did a very good job on that raised a lot of money may be utilized a lot of the infrastructure the third parties disguised as spent millions and millions of dollars on his behalf i think that in a very good job let's go james can you talk a little bit about all the timing and when representative davis decide to get in the race and how what your thoughts were on the campaign strategy in it intended to win this election and the timing of it i'd say coming out of it twenty thirteen legislative session that probably when anybody a statewide level or lose sight of what was looking to see where candidates stood from our perspective you know
any in any race against incumbents are referendums we've said repeatedly here so i always look for that the fundamentals you look for in that race are do the voters and electric feel that the incumbent who has a job shouldn't have the job anymore i once that that winds up with your internal timing that's when you start race and what we saw was deep deep dissatisfaction and with the policies that have been put in place with the result of the policies of the unborn over the third two years three years of the administration and for us what we looked that was on a series of benchmarks paul entered the race with about seven percent from being generous seven percent name id statewide so in that rounding up so what we knew was we were going to spend
significant resources in the early stages of the campaign driving the name id up putting him and from people all we knew was we had to build the resources to be able to do about a stretch artist that follows is a tremendous candidate the hardest worker i've ever been around and so we were able to spend somewhat to time year olds from the firstborn a half months while people are still trying to figure out if he was the guy on the restoration company argues with a legislator we were able to build significant resources and raise money we knew that if we did that we were going to have a second leg of the race in a position to build the obama we had a little bit of a wrinkle russians the ripple will a bit of a you know the fact that all that had to go into the legislative session so there was a period time yet navigate their state governments face the same challenge as far from a campaign speech side but we knew that if we turn the new year and we build resources we were able to communicate with football on the map and we were in a basically an eight month raised the primary we felt the government but it
was gonna face a difficult legislative session was going to face a difficult early summer period heading into the primaries certainly didn't think that jennifer when you would take so much of the pope but we knew that the electorate's mood was pretty sour on policies and i think it was always saw under the hood was was it was more than just anti incumbency i don't think you know absent senators race we didn't see any other statewide incumbents face the same challenge so i would stop short of saying it was it was just the anti incumbency mother drove i think what you saw was a referendum on the policies for us and i think martin and reported that they were in a really great ground and i think that for four republican candidate and republican state not take that registration advantage for granted is a smart thing i do think that as we turn the corner and i think the note was
made that there was no money spent on august six we saw a significant amount of money spent against us on august sixteenth fed and know that sarah cascaded from the us reported as the half million that was spent by their party in july so it cascaded into what we saw and you know our introduction of the national narrative began a little earlier we saw it you know day after the primary sought with the rga introducing the reason that i think that what we saw as far as we would call the downhill period from the primary to election day was we needed to be in a competitive race with the resources to continue to drive our message home and continued to educate voters on the policies that the governor put in place that they clearly felt uncomfortable with what we saw was really up a battle in a struggle over the moderate
sentiment of the state and the electorate again this is a pretty moderate elected and you know we can slice and there's a lot of ways but that the reality is it's pretty moderate electorate that said we got of her campaign that was an inverted troubled mortgage was trying to push the other one farther away from the middle and we did it by displaying the policies and the the sort of divergent roadmap for path from what we're used to as ken since the tax policy or education cuts are policies having to do with spending and we saw that as a divergence from what kansans are used and kansans felt that way we saw the inverted to war push us towards the liberal lawrence lawyer business obama we saw that on august sixth and then you know the role in the room as there were five and a half million dollar spent on stilettos and no neon lights about a strip club
so that didn't have anything to do with anything and so we looked at was that that was going to be the right to question the timing of the drug war was going to be making sure that candidate to get across the finish line was able to establish their policies as less extreme than you and that was the heart of what we saw the labor market is it fair to say that a critical element of the campaign was to define representative davis essentially before the spill sure and i think you know from a candidate recruitment perspective will have a lot of respect for a president of avis personally and in terms of a choice election on your right if the candidate is director raman all as a several years and so the opportunities to i liked that record just like governor has a record he'd run on canned
representative davis all we sought the middle on you and we had a record that was representative of his lawrence district and he will receive the sierra club endorsed a more time voted against the coal plant voted for several tax increases and i'm not being held so those those are kinds of things that made it easier for us to do what she discussed in terms of armed make a case that the governor certainly embraced his conservatism and so we made the case that only this was a slightly left of center and that was made basically out by his record they get it to get a comment from your perspective you can accommodate already on that albert worked on if he gets thought that one of the central elements of the campaign issues are going to be defined before you could that are attempting
to find hall in a different way than you thought was what are you guys trying to do early on they get that deposition more out there what we're running against an incumbent who had been elected to the us senate has run for president has been a state agency head in europe not any of those things you're defined sort of in a century but the point you're defined by not being on and we knew that the resources we were going to be able to amass or the period of thirteen months we're still not going to be the resources that we're honestly spent against us and i dont mean just dollar is your name id and starting from the grounds that what we did was frankly we rebuilt a ground operation from labor day of twenty thirteen through the end of the legislative session that allowed our network to build an enlarged call the travel
extensively with them on the ground a lot and that was because we knew that if this election were you know in our clock we we were going to start spending about you know we were going to be able to define bought eleven fifteen and so what we had to look at was getting on the ground meeting those people that were dissatisfied with the governor's record and begin having those people build networks in the communities and we saw done in a pretty acceptable level and that that was one of things were really proud of and i think it's one of the things that led us to outperform democrats nationwide and certainly it was a big part of course the other thing we did that we we knew we needed to was being named lieutenant governor candidate earlier than anybody expected and we did that so that frankly we had two candidates the building at the same time and so that was a part of what we'll we knew we needed to go defining us no eye and i think mark they've done a nice job of explaining to the policies in the things we
knew walking into it we had a record that i was going to pick apart the time get twelve years in any body of government data records in part that said i don't think we've faced anything that we couldn't have written two days before we got into the election we knew what was coming we know we're going to hear i think that was part of it you know i mean when it's a again that this sort of drumbeat of though warren's liberal the obama coming from a press secretary living lawrence was you know that this is what we knew was coming so we just had to keep building our organization on the ground i want to get the rest of you could just to get your thoughts on what you heard ban in terms about kind of the anticipation of the intensity of the race in an inbox that that mark i think the debt and this is in the most popular exotic once again bryan lowry of the wichita eagle but i think the davis campaign left itself vulnerable to a lot of these attacks by the brown campaign easy but has is a collection of mailers here
is a child wiccan have a topless bar so there were these very aggressive attacks obama campaign by the rga people underestimate the impact of the car brothers that's when the wichita area that had a big impact but there are a lot of moments where things you could've done for free to define what whole davis wanted to do as god i would go to people talk about events they weren't necessarily cleared even people who are supporting him what he wanted to accomplish as job and there were i think there were people who would have been on the fence there are you could have done if you gave them something a little bit clearer the instance that best to find this for me was we had this press conference raul call to the statehouse reporters that school in topeka and they handed us at that she had all these articles say that the article
said written by all the people in the room so we are you all this stuff and paul repeated something that big speech that we've heard before and then when we were asking questions and you can find this on a couple that's a support our devising the couple travels a website with jon hamm on from the ap eventually getting frustrated and yelling and also what is a tangible go and we didn't get a clear answer but i think it all has really i think that the vulnerability was it would've allowed the primary campaign to attack that but i think if you get offered people this is what i want to accomplish as governor really off of them as they get it might have ok well that the tax issue is always a great issue in kansas again professor bob beatty of washburn university immigrants it is it effectively going back to bob docking defeating lamb every ended john keilman looking into cameron holding a utility bill and i had to know my students and sheldon that added never seen it before
and they said let's you do that that's an ad that could be used in two thousand fourteen says coleman was so affected because he looked a little angry and he had a specific issue in the camera zoomed in and they said your utility bills are going up so that was able to tangibly tie a voter into up into an issue i think with the education issue it's important a lot of moderate republicans say education is important but use that back in kansas our schools overall are pretty darn good and i have two kids and high schoolers issues but if it is it's a little tougher sell them holding a utility belt a little bit of an existential issues i think that was tough though to really make educate and no education education education education verses john carlin or the utility bill my students the utility bills was pretty effective i think the republican
governors association ads were really he played a key role there were very well done and there were there is over five million dollars of them and they really are very consistent and of course one of them was at the strip club bad mom and it ran right after you know a strip club that was reported in the key was governor brownback didn't have to do it he was able to run a relatively the seventy thirty positive campaign through his that seventy percent overall thing positive words from the katy i and i play any and eminem republican governors association those over ninety percent negative and that's an interesting dynamic in the modern campaign we don't see back in the seventies is back in the old days the candidate had to say here how negative should i be and how positive or might look people might not be happy of the blame if a negative you have to do that anymore you pick the candidate can be positive and then
allow the third party group a common with jack more money than the candidate himself a spending and just bring up the howitzers and these are howitzers and there i'm arguing there very effectively and obviously having a kid look over into the topless in and we also saw them at the state level the ones in my district we go hemsley race or actually they haven't seen anything like it in over kansas can be relatively tame so interesting dynamic was the dynamic of the third parties sort of in many ways being the negative voice allowing governor brownback who is often viewed you interact with them very positive guy so allowed him to be more natural in his ads and how we came across and then still go after poll that was the most important part of that and so one question and maybe when he went to you know personally about the strip clubs or it was reported when i saw it on tv and
that's what that was my age than that i just quickly you know what the strip of stuff was a dynamic of the race i don't think that's the i think one of things we need to keep in mind is this true across the country but certainly kansas is the baroque obama is deeply unpopular deeply again dave helling with the kansas city star and for all the discussion about the governor's record and tax cuts and all the reality is that most people will tell you probably today that the one thing they know about paul davis is he was an obama girl which in a lot that when at that sort of one for surfers by think most of us amid reported maybe scoffed you know it was a obama delegate like it was a commissar spoke to me but the reality is the reality is that both paul davis and greg orman face the same a campaign tactic davis with a record warm and completely without a record and that was that their opponents both laid him the great norman paul davis
directly with the deeply unpopular incumbent present and and its stock third party heads you know debate appearance is on edge and and i'm not sure there was ever an effective counter to that argument by either campaign maybe jim you would know or you know it that was i think that was predictable you're out that that in essence both republicans incumbents would need to nationalize this race and make their opponents about you've been listening to the dole institute of politics post election conference held december eleventh two thousand fourteen if the dog institute's fifth such panel featuring political analysts and insiders looking at the national and state elections we've been focusing on the kansas elections on today's program you can hear analysis of the national
elections on the dorm institute's website daddy daddy daddy died dole institute dot org there you can also find a calendar of upcoming dole institute activities and events today as kbr present featured dave helling with the kansas city star bryan lowry with the wichita eagle professor burdett loomis with the university of kansas political science department and professor bob beatty with washburn university's political science department the panel also featured on mark dubin campaign manager for governor sam brownback james roberts campaign manager for challenger paul davis sean fitzpatrick press secretary for us sen pat roberts and jim jonas campaign manager for greg orman and finally kelly arnold chair of the republican party of kansas and joan white men chair of the democratic party of kansas john weidman announced this week that she will not seek a third term as state democratic party chair her replacement will be chosen by the party's state committee during their march seventh meeting in topeka
this event was moderated by bill lacy director of keys dole institute of politics and recorded by chubby smith i'm j mcintyre kbr present is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas
- Program
- The 2014 Kansas Elections
- Producing Organization
- KPR
- Contributing Organization
- KPR (Lawrence, Kansas)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip-5e57847013c
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip-5e57847013c).
- Description
- Program Description
- As Governor Brownback returns for a second term, Senator Pat Roberts is sworn in for another term, and the Kansas legislature gears up for the 2015 session, we look back at the 2014 elections with a panel of political analysts and insiders. The Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas hosted two days of post-election analysis in December 2014, featuring political scientists, reporters from the Kansas City Star and the Wichita Eagle, the Kansas Republican and Democratic Party chairs, and campaign operatives.
- Broadcast Date
- 2015-01-04
- Created Date
- 2014-12-11
- Asset type
- Program
- Subjects
- 2014 Post Election Panel
- Media type
- Sound
- Duration
- 00:59:00.114
- Credits
-
-
Producing Organization: KPR
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Kansas Public Radio
Identifier: cpb-aacip-430993c16ba (Filename)
Format: Zip drive
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- Citations
- Chicago: “The 2014 Kansas Elections,” 2015-01-04, KPR, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-5e57847013c.
- MLA: “The 2014 Kansas Elections.” 2015-01-04. KPR, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-5e57847013c>.
- APA: The 2014 Kansas Elections. Boston, MA: KPR, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-5e57847013c