What is the political mood of Kansas?

That remains an open question after Tuesday’s election, in which voters sent mixed messages when they went to the polls.

Indeed, a review of election results shows that in this primary season there was no overarching theme.

Kansans, for example, don’t appear to be particularly hostile to Legislative incumbents, despite a 2008 session that was at best messy. And, in the ongoing battle between conservative and liberal Republicans, both sides claimed a few victories. While liberals won some key races, neither side seemed to emerge a clear winner.

Take Johnson County Senate races as a case in point.

Former Rep. Mary Pilcher Cook, a conservative, withstood attacks from Kansans for a Traditional Republican Majority, a group that supports liberal Republicans, and cruised to an easy victory over Republican Sue Gamble in the Tenth Senate District.

KTRM had distributed flyers claiming Pilcher Cook wanted to arrest parents who sought medical care for sick children and was indifferent to the suffering of cancer patients. No evidence was offered to support the claims, however.

Pilcher-Cook will now square off against Pete Roman, who won the Democratic primary, to determine who succeeds conservative Nick Jordan as Tenth District Senator. Jordan, in the meantime, handily defeated his challenger in a Republican primary and will face off against incumbent Congressman Dennis Moore in November.

 But, just a few miles away, in the Eighth Senate District, liberal Republican Tim Owens soundly defeated conservative Ben Hodge, who also was the victim of negative attacks by KTRM. They were vying for the Senate seat held by retiring Sen. Barbara Allen, a liberal.

In other Senate primaries in Johnson County, incumbent Sen. John Vratil, a KTRM darling and a leading Senate liberal, trounced conservative Jerry Clinton in Leawood's Eighth Senate District, despite Vratil's poor rating by taxpayer and pro-life groups.

However, former Rep. Jeff Colyer, a conservative, defeated former Democrat and longtime Sierra Club member Steve Baru in the Thirty-seventh District, a seat formerly held by Sen. Dennis Wilson, who did not seek re-election.

The same pattern was repeated throughout the state. In fact, of the 14 Senate candidates endorsed by the Kansas Republican Assembly, a conservative group, seven candidates lost and seven won.

Conservatives fared better in Kansas House races. Eight candidates endorsed by the KRA defeated their opponents; only one lost.

Party infighting wasn’t confined to the Republican Party.

In Kansas City, three-term Democratic Sen. Mark Gilstrap, who faced a primary challenge from Kelly Kultala, was targeted by his own Senate Leader, Anthony Hensley, and by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who not only endorsed Kultala but also raised money on her behalf. Their support was instrumental in the defeat of Gilstrap, a pro-life Catholic.

Another Democratic candidate, Inga Taylor, was defeated by Gail Finney, vice chair of the Sedgwick County Democratic Party, in a campaign for the Eighty-fourth District seat in the Kansas House.

Following that defeat, the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which had openly supported Taylor, complained that Finney had “made a campaign issue of Taylor’s sexuality.”

In a statement issued after the primary, Victory Fund president and CEO Chuck Wolfe asked, "What's the matter with Kansas Democrats? We plan for and expect [that] openly gay candidates will face attacks from right-wing bigots, not Democratic Party officials. This is divisive, gutter politics at its worst, and Gail Finney should be ashamed of herself."

The state GOP also issued a post-primary letter decrying KTRM's negative mailers and statements, especially those claiming that Johnson County DA Phill Kline and former Congressman Jim Ryun had ties to the KKK. Both candidates lost.

The letter was signed by state party leaders, including Rep. Jerry Moran, whose former press secretary, Ryan Wright, led the KTRM effort, and Lynn Jenkins, a liberal who was heavily supported by KTRM in her narrow primary victory over Ryun in the Second Congressional district.

Only the state party chairman, Kris Kobach, denounced the KTRM campaign before the election, however.

- Phil LaCerte

for KansasLiberty.com

The Week in Review