Call to Action: “Kansas is the battlefield. Remember Mississippi.”
We spoke with Dr. Milton Wolf, candidate for U.S. Senate in Kansas. Here’s his take on the state of the race.
The Mississippi Senate Runoff election was viewed by the media as the last, best chance for a Tea Party inspired Republican primary challenger to unseat a Republican incumbent in a primary.
But there remains the Kansas primary in which Dr. Milton Wolf is challenging Pat Roberts on August 5.
Legal Insurrection supports Dr. Wolf as the type of inspirational next generation of conservative Republican we need to lead us, not merely go along to get along.
Can Dr. Wolf pull off the upset? The two races, several weeks out from the primary, appear to have similarities: An incumbent Senator who’s been in Washington, D.C., for over forty years, a seemingly unbreachable power machine with money to burn and years of experience winning, and all the makings of yet another Tea Party vs. Establishment showdown.
On the surface, Dr. Wolf would seem to have a difficult climb. A Survey USA poll released last week shows Wolf with 23% to Roberts 56% among likely GOP voters.
Unlike Mississippi though, Kansas has closed primaries, and Dr. Wolf’s main problem is lack of name recognition. According to his internal polling, among people who know of both candidates, the gap is much, much closer, with Dr. Wolf actually leading.
In Mississippi, early April polling showed Thad Cochran with at 17% lead for the June 3 original primary, but that gap closed quickly in the final weeks to a virtual dead heat on June 3. Could the gap close in Kansas if national attention focused on the race?
We sat down with Dr. Wolf to get his side of the story. Here’s what he had to say:
In your opinion, what is the state of the Kansas race?
“The Kansas Senate race is a choice between a constitutional conservative and moderate establishment Republican who poses as a conservative in election years. I’m a doctor, not a politician, and Pat Roberts is a career politician who’s been in Washington for 47 years. Our campaign has all the momentum.
Last quarter, I out-raised Pat Roberts among individual contributors. We’re the only campaign in America to achieve that against a sitting United States senator this cycle.
We’ve built a true grassroots statewide volunteer army, we call the Wolf Pack, that knocks doors and phone banks across Kansas. And our internal polls shows that, while Pat Roberts still clings to a rapidly closing name recognition advantage, among those who know us both, I’m beating him by 8 points, 51-43.”
Do you see any similarities to this race and the Mississippi Senate primary runoff?
“The similarities of Mississippi and Kansas are striking. Both races have incumbents who’ve been in Washington for decades (Cochran: 42 years; Roberts: 47 years) with lackluster records that all to often oppose the conservative movement (Cochran’s pre-election 2012 Club For Growth score: 48; Roberts: 55).
Both challengers are constitutional conservatives with nationwide conservative movement support. Both Mississippi and Kansas are bright red states where Democrats are not in contention (Mississippi’s 2012 margin for Romney 12 points; Kansas 22 points).
But unlike Mississippi, Kansas has a closed primary without a runoff, which means the GOP establishment’s strategy of joining league with liberal Democrats in Mississippi won’t work in Kansas but we should be prepared for everything.”
Have any primary challengers received any assistance from anyone in the grassroots establishment?
“I have been endorsed by grassroots conservative groups across Kansas including Kansans for Constitutional Government, Kansas Conservatives, Southeast Kansas Conservatives, Kansans for Constitutional Integrity, Republican Liberty Caucus of Kansas, We The People as well as the major Kansas tea parties including Flint Hills Tea Party, Osage City Tea Party and Big First Tea Party.
National endorsement include the Senate Conservatives Fund, Madison Project, Tea Party Express, Republican Liberty Caucus, National Association For Gun Rights, former Congressman Jim Ryun, RedState’s Erick Erickson and radio show host Mark Levin.”
What are your concerns, if any about this race?
“We just witnessed in Mississippi the unmistakable and unforgivable betrayal of conservative Republicans by our own GOP establishment.
GOP insiders actually joined league with liberal Democrats to defeat a fellow Republican for the offense of being conservative. The National Republican Senate Committee poured over $200 thousand into Mississippi as well as an army of staffers who knocked on 45,000 doors and made 18,000 phone calls… Kansas is the battlefield. Remember Mississippi.”
The Kansas primary is August 5, just over a month away.
You can make a difference. It will take all hands on deck to turn this ship around. Tweet this post, share it on Facebook and if you want to contribute to Dr. Wolf’s campaign, you can do so here.
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Comments
McDaniel is not finished yet. TCTH is reporting that he will file a legal challenge tomorrow. Mississippi has open primaries, but not open runoffs. If you voted for one party in the primary then you are not legally allowed to vote for the other in the runoff.
Typically states with open primaries have a system to ensure ineligible voters – those who voted in the other party’s first primary – cannot vote.
In South Carolina, for every election day the precinct workers are given a printout of all eligible voters. They record those who show up, and which primary they voted in. If runoffs are needed, each party runoff has a separate list of eligible voters, excluding those who voted in the other party primary.
If a person claims they are “lined out” by mistake, they may cast a provisional ballot, but it isn’t counted unless it is verified, and I recall no cases where it happened locally, or statewide that was reported.
“Battlefield Kansas”…
there’s term from the past with a whole boatload of freight.
someone might wanna pick a new term to describe their goals…
I think Kansas will be the bellwether for the future of the GOP.
If they pull anything LIKE Mississippi, there will be an enormous surge of outrage among reformers…whatever they call us.
On the other hand, the eGOP may have learned something while hauling old pork-hand Cochran over the (not quite) finish line.
Kansas has a closed primary, so MS type shenanigans are not an option for Roberts (plus the black population is much lower in KS).
Which is why all GOP state legislatures should move to enact a closed primary system.
Most Southern states do not register voters by party, so it is impossible to have “closed” primaries other than to ensure those who voted in one party primary cannot vote in the other party’s runoff.
We don’t really care how you do it up North, either.
That depends on whether Roberts buys votes like Cochran:
THAD COCHRAN CAMPAIGN MANAGER Busted in Vote Buying Scheme
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/06/thad-cochran-campaign-manager-busted-in-vote-buying-scheme/
We need to start a campaign to get Thad Cochran to concede the Mississippi primary race to Chris McDaniels. No votes for Cochran IF he refuses. Quite frankly, he should resign his position in the US Senate but I’ll take his conceding the nomination to run again. EVEN if Cochran claims he didn’t know or condone the action, his reputation is damaged in any event, there is no way anyone should or would vote for this guy.
It’s time for Thad Cochran to step down and spare the State of Mississippi the further embarrassment of a political corruption trial. Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant needs to appoint another person to assume the US Senate position, namely the rightful winner of the 2014 GOP primary, Chris McDaniels.