are the 9 Kan. legisl. Reps. turned to Dems. really Dems?

[donsu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061102/pl_nm/usa_elections_kansas_dc


In Kansas, 9 former Republicans run as Democrats


Former Kansas legislator David Adkins may be a self-described "washed-up white male Republican politician," but come election night he and many others in the longtime Republican stronghold state of Kansas are placing their hopes, and votes, on Democrats.

-snip-

But this year President George W. Bush, the country's leading Republican, is making a last-minute campaign stop in Kansas, where at least nine candidates running on the November 7 ballot are Republicans-turned-Democrats. They include a veteran county prosecutor seeking to unseat the Republican attorney general and a former state Republican Party chairman running as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.

A cross-section of Democrats, moderate Republicans and independents are backing the party-switchers, saying a Republican obsession with expanded government and deficit spending, along with divisive social issues like abortion and gay marriage, has marred efforts to limit government, boost spending on education and ensure fiscal responsibility.

-snip-

Republican faithful discount the significance of the shifted loyalties as opportunistic political maneuvering.

-snip-

"This is a real groundswell," said Boo Tyson, a registered Republican and executive director of a 12-year-old nonpartisan organization called Mainstream Coalition.
---------------------------------


Boo???


do Kansans think this shift is for real?

[zbdent]

1. I view all recent "converts" with caution ... Hell, even that Ryan guy

in Ohio I didn't trust for the longest time ... I still don't totally trust him ... NRA funding in a battle to oust Tom Sawyer.

So, I wouldn't be too surprised if, SURPRISE, they switch back immediately after taking the oath of office ...

[longship]

6. What you describe is not happening in KS.

These folks have said that they've left the Republican Party *permanently*. One of them is the former state Republican chair!!

The Republican Party in KS has turned into a very theocratic organization. This cannot play well with main streamer, traditional Republicans. That's why Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and her Dems are doing so well this season. They've opened the doors and their arms and embraced the disaffected Republicans.

This is probably happening all over the place, but in KS they have seemingly gone out to actively recruit the disaffected. Good work, Kathleen!

[zbdent]

8. Oh, great ... they "say" they've left the Republican Party *permanently*

well, their "word" is good enough for me ... :sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm:

The "word" of a Republican isn't worth the paper it's written on ... and I do mean that literally (if you've gotten a "verbal" commitment)

[longship]

11. It's not the word of a Republican.

It's the word of a good Democrat and a governor of a state. I know Kathleen Sebelius. I worked with her on many occasions when I was a county Dem officer in Sedgwick County (most populous KS county). She was running for insurance commissioner then. She is one helluva smart and shrewd Democrat. I could tell that she was headed for great things. Her tenure as KS governor has been pretty damned sweet, which is why she is going to be easily elected next Tuesday.

Do not take the word of the party switchers. Take Kathleen's word. It's golden.

Important things are happening in KS.

[davidinalameda]

2. you have Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird

:shrug:

and if these people focus on real issues instead of wedge issues, who cares if they're "real"

[robinlynne]

3. doesn't matter. With a dem majority, we get conyers as head of the

judiciary committee. that's enough for me to vote for any D at all. There are plenty of bad dems out there. terrible dems. but right now we need to vote for anything which calls itself a dem.

[Bucky]

4. If you say you're a Democrat, you're a Democrat. It's not a private club.

There are conservative Democrats in the country and we'll never get to be a majority party without them. If Democratic party solutions for the country's problems are really more successful, then time and experience will teach them to be more liberal.

[chaumont58]

5. I hope so. If it involves money, I'm in big trouble.

*

[Mabus]

7. Yes we think it is for real, we got rid of the stealth candidate in Aug.

during the primary.

But thanks for asking, it just makes all the hard work we've been doing for the past few years seem like complete and utter shit. Thanks for congratulating us for all the hard work we've done.

How much of a change have you helped effect in your state?

[donsu]

9. don't know why you have your back up - my question didn't seem out

of the ordinary.

[Mabus]

15. Because we've have worked so hard

and we keep getting criticized by people who have absolutely no idea what's going on here in Kansas. And, it isn't the first time this question has been asked. The very same story was posted several times yesterday. I know, I posted it in the Kansas forum and minutes later it was posted in LBN and was on the "Greatest Page" were it remains http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2555065 It just gets fucking old. We've been working our asses off and we keep getting kicked in the teeth and told that we don't know what's going on in our own backyards. Do you think our party is so fucking stupid that we are just running candidates because they have a "D" behind their names. No way. This guy tried that in August and was roundly defeated by the incumbenet Democrat in the primary.

I just drove to KC (thirty miles away) to pick up and take other Democrats to their early voting spot in Johnson County. How many other people are willing to do that? How many other people are going to take time off from work (with no compensation) and put over 50 miles on their car to take three people to go vote? I did it because I believe we need to get people involved to make a difference. I did it because those votes are important and I told those people (when I registered them) that if they ever had any questions or needed to help to call me. How many times have you put yourself on the line like that? This is Kansas, we do things differently.

The congressional race in the 2nd Congressional (I live in the 3rd) has gone from a sure-thing for the GOP to a toss-up. Charlie Cook says this will be the story of the 2006 election if Boyda beats out incumbent Jim Ryun. It has taken a lot of door knocking, phone calls, and traveling to other communities. I worked my ass off to help get support for Boyda in a very red county. There are Democratic signs in a Republican district and people are changing their minds.

Not only that but we had a bit of a purge with the local committee people. We elected people who will actually do their jobs. My husband is one of those new precinct committeemen and he walked our precinct. I helped him. In fact, this year alone I've canvassing in a number of precincts most of which weren't even in my county or voting district. We're working hard here to make a change and constantly being second-guessed by people who don't live here, by people aren't walking the districts and trying to make a difference about whether or not this change is real gets pretty insulting after a while.

[donsu]

18. sorry, I hadn't seen the other posts.

didn't mean to insult anybody.

now I know.

[Mabus]

27. It's fatigue

I've got a bad back - arthritis in the spine, hips and knees. I don't sleep well a night and even as I sit here typing this out, I am in a lot of pain. I can only walk a few blocks before my legs go numb and I'm in constant pain but I've been out walking the streets (thanks to my trusty cane). I registered people and now I'm making sure they will vote. I'm nearly broke because I'm self-employed and taking time off from work to get the vote out but I keep fighting.

I know there are a number of other DU'ers around this area that are working hard too. Proud2Blib and kiteinthewind came down and helped us do signs for Boyda. Homemade signs. We paid to make the signs, we paid for the paint, we pay for the gas to drive the signs in parades and take to them strategic fields along major arteries for visibility. Here we are making the signs http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=153x5264

I stood outside the post office on tax day to hand out voter registration forms to people paying their taxes. I stood outside the post office and gathered signatures on nominating ballots. I've canvassed in the rain, the heat and now the cold (21 degrees this morning). I've canvassed for people who not represent my district becasue I believe.

I'm not working my ass off to get a bunch of DINOs in office. I'm working my ass off to get Democrats elected. I work for Democrats that have been vetted by our state and local parties. I have met and worked with every single Kansas Democrat that I go out and work for but, apparently, there are a lot of DU'ers who think I am totally stupid. They think we're getting the wool pulled over our eyes, well, we're not as naive as you think.

fwiw, my husband went to school with Mark Parkinson the former chair of the Kansas GOP. People were always surprised that Mark became a Republican. Mark was asked to leave the GOP earlier this year because of his support for the Demcratic nominee for AG. Since he left the GOP, Markhas been welcomed to the Democratic party, so much so, that in a show of bipartisianship and the want to work to make Kansas better, he is our Lt. Gov. candidate, on the same ticket with our beloved Democratic Governor, Kathleen Sebelius.

[donsu]

41. sorry you are hurting , I understand

nt

[MuseRider]

20. Although we are working on

different things I think I have gone through a pair of shoes and my ear is permanently red. It takes all of us doing our part no matter what that part is. We have endorsements up at the KEC site, those came with a lot of work and evaluation.

It has taken an inordinate amount of time and sacrifice from all of us to bring this state back to its senses.

Thank you Mabus for all you are doing. Nancy got in with a good group.

One other thing, she has done all of this without help from anyone but us little folks here on the ground. We are doing very well.

[DURHAM D]

10. How is the 2nd Cong. race going -

Is Boyda still gaining on Ryun?

[longship]

12. The last thing I saw: KS-2 is a toss-up.

It's not likely to change dramatically before Tuesday.

[MuseRider]

14. Internal polls just released

from the Boyda campaign show her up about 9 points.

Edit with part of the report

On Thursday, Boyda said an internal poll last weekend of 1,000 likely voters in the 2nd District indicated she was favored by 47.7 percent of respondents and Ryun was the choice of 38.5 percent. That is the widest lead for Boyda among four polls released by her campaign since September.

[Mabus]

16. OMFSM

:woohoo:

We can't stop working now.

:woohoo:

[MuseRider]

17. Made me dance until

I read our paper endorsing Ryun :cry:

I should not be surprised and most people around here think it is a piece of crap anyway (and it is).

I heard from a friend in Baldwin that all the people have her signs and a lot in the very rural farm areas too.

[Mabus]

22. I've been hitting Jefferson County

and the fact that her signs are up is a miracle. Not to mention that there are so many of them both in town and out in the more rural areas.

LOL, this morning I got a call from a friend up in McLouth, there is some woman going around telling people that they have to take down their signs before the election. My friend owns a store in downtown McLouth and the woman told her that political advertising was forbidden so close to the polls. I went on "the google" and found out the nearest polling place is several blocks away. The signs at my friend's store will stay and the woman is being reported.

Good to hear about Baldwin. I used to live there (up until about six years ago) and it was pretty red. My Dennis Moore sign kept disappearing.

[MuseRider]

24. It has changed rapidly

and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Nancy decided to hit it hard out there.

We did some work up there too and the Indian Reservation in Jackson County was walked in a cold rain one Saturday morning.

I wish I had done more but there is only so much time :crazy:.

[Mabus]

33. There was a basketball game last night

and you know how I feel about my basketball team. I missed that tidbit altogether.

Thanks. I've already passed the good news along.

[greenbriar]

38. yea, and bush is going to stink up our state

this weekend to try and help

[DURHAM D]

25. WOW - that is fantastic. Can't wait to chat with my relatives in

Kansas (if she wins) after Tuesday.

[MuseRider]

13. Mabus

:hug: :hug:

We are truly exhausted.

Success will be our reward, even if others don't see it. Change comes slowly here and that is for the best because it will be a longer lasting change than a quick, reactive change.

One more :hug: for someone who has worked tirelessly.

[Mabus]

21. I know, I know

and I am. I just drove to KC to pick up some people and take to their early voting place in JoCo and the place was packed!

I just am really starting to resent people who don't live here second-guessing what we're doing. They don't realize that Sebelius won because of the crossover vote. They don't understand how things work out here. I did find a good write-up by Charlie Cook:

Some 40% of Kansas's votes in 2004 were cast in the mostly suburban counties from Kansas City west to Topeka, and another 15% in Wichita's Sedgwick County. If rural Kansas once produced farm rebellions, these urban and suburban Kansans have produced their own kind of rebellion. Since the mid-1990s Kansas has had a kind of three-party politics--conservative Republicans versus moderate Republicans versus Democrats. Republican Governor Bill Graves, elected in 1994 and 1998, favored abortion rights and gun control; he was fiercely opposed by conservative Republicans in the legislature. Graves beat back a conservative challenge in the 1998 Republican primary by nearly 3-1, but conservatives won a majority on the state school board and in 1999 issued guidelines that treated evolution as a theory. That aroused a national uproar and was reversed in 2001, and in 2003 moderate Republicans took leadership posts in the legislature. The Republican split opened the way for Democrats, who captured the 3d Congressional District seat in 1998 by beating a conservative who was hated by suburban moderates and the governorship in 2002 when Democrat Kathleen Sebelius beat conservative Treasurer Tim Shallenburger. Conservatives won victories in the August 2004 legislative primaries and gained a 6-4 majority over moderate Republicans and Democrats on the state school board, where the board planned to revisit the science guidelines in May 2005.

We've taken the political scene that was given to us and instead of giving up we fought back. We are fighting back and winning supporters. We've got a wildly popular Democratic Governor who has helped show the Kansas Republicans that our party cares about people and the issues that affect us day-to-day. We've got a party machine that brings people in and listens to them. We're winning and we're winning in the way that works out here. We've got converts who believe.

:hugs: to you and all you've done. Thanks for bringing people to the Boyda meetup way back when. Thanks for all your hard work. You're making a difference in your way and I'm doing it my way and together the political landscape of Kansas is changing for the better.

[MuseRider]

23. Hell I am not even a Democrat

but I know what my state needs and it ain't what the Republicans are putting out. Thank goodness for the moderate R's who we still manage to have.

Ya know, we need to have a big party. Win or lose because even if we lose we have done most of the job already and building on it will be easier than this first part has. Next elections will be major, Brownback (I think he will run again if he does not do well running for president :rofl:) and Roberts. There are still way too many supporters out there but we have momentum. Goooooo BABY!

If I never hear another angry fundie in my ear again it will be too soon.

[DURHAM D]

28. Thank you from a native.

I was born in Kansas
I was bred in Kansas
and
When I get married
I'll be wed in Kansas.
There is a true blue gal who promised she would wait -
she's a sunflower from the sunflower state.

Bet you haven't heard that song for awhile (perhaps never).

[Mabus]

30. LOL

Frank Sinatra comes to mind. It has been a long, long, long time. My dad used to sing it.

Personally, I was born a Jayhawk and I'll die a Jayhawk. My family came here to Lawrence in the mid-1800's as part of the Massachusetts Emmigration Society to keep slavery out of Kansas. My ancestors came out here to make America better and I'm just continuing their good works. I was born in Lawrence and I will probably die here.

[DURHAM D]

36. My peeps migrated to central Kansas in mid to late 1800s.

Came from Illinois by boxcar. They had the family (7), the farm animals, the plows, a wagon, the furniture, etc all in the boxcar. They unloaded at Ellsworth. Hitched up the team and drove straight to their land in Rice County. Family still owns the land. Fortunately by 1939 we had producing oil wells. Otherwise, they would have had to move on.

[Mabus]

37. My dad's family married into another family from Indiana

They came from the Alsace-Lorraine area in France (although they spoke German) ended up in South Bend, IN and then they moved to Lawrence in 1860. We're still here. The rest of the family (that is, the portion that I got my surname from) came from England in the 1600's and ended up in either Maine or Massachusetts.

I love Lawrence and I'm proud to be a Kansan.

[DURHAM D]

39. That is a really interesting family tree.

Where I come from the majority of settlers were German or German-Russian.

[Mabus]

40. I'm a Heinz 47

From mom I have an American Indian (I'm enrolled) and black heritage. From dad I'm German & French (Alsace-Lorraine), English, Danish and Welsh. The big mishmash in my dad's family happened here in Lawrence because there there were so many ethnic communities represented here. I grew up feeling closer to my Indian heritage and I still do.

My mom went to Haskell Indian Nations University here in Lawrence back when it was like a high school. After graduation she joined the Women's Army Corps and met my dad, who was a Marine & who happened to be from Lawrence. They got married here in Lawrence in my grandparent's parlor. My family has a saying, "all roads lead to Lawrence" )which came from Roger Zelazny's Amber sci-fi novels that several of us got hooked for a while).

[DURHAM D]

26. Thank you from a native Kansan.

[MuseRider]

29. You are welcome.

Keep your fingers crossed. If we lose it won't be for lack of trying.

[Tom Rinaldo]

19. I'll Thank Kansas Democrats. You are doing the work that will save our nation

Democrats in Kansas have my deep gratitude for working to convert Republicans to Democrats. There are reasonable people and unreasonable people in the world. There are people with open minds and people with closed minds. If someone I would describe as closed minded and unreasonable suddenly said "I'm a Democrat now" they would have to be watched very carefully, and it would take a long time for me to trust them.

But I do not believe that anyone who at one point considers him or her self to be a Republican is, by definition, unreasonable and closed minded. Senator Jim Jeffords in Vermont came from a very long time Republican family and he ran and won in Vermont as a very moderate Republican. It pained him deeply to have to break his ties to the Republican Party and become an Independent who caucused with Democrats, but he did it for all of the right reasons, and he did so with his honor and integrity not only intact, but enhanced.

A long time affiliation with a political party is like a gravitational field, it is very hard to break free of, social ties and long held loyalties to friends and co-workers in the Party one is part of bind you to an extent to an identity. But once someone breaks free of those ties they become increasingly free to evolve and change. There have been many former Republicans who did just that, and some who settled for stretching the boundaries of their Party to hold positions that many of us can respect.

There have always been decent Republicans in America. John Lindsy was first elected Mayor of New York City as a Republican Congressman, and he became the most progressive Mayor New York City has seen in my lifetime. Pete McCloskey ran against Richard Nixon the New Hampshire Primary to protest his Viet Nam War policies, and Pete, though remaining a Republican, is backing the Democratic candidate for Congress in his district now. Wayne Morse, who first was elected to the United States Senate from Oregon as a Republican, became one of only two Senators (both Democrats), to vote against LBJ's Bay of Tonkin resolution. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren had been a Republican Governor of California. Current Supreme Court Justice David Souter was a registered Republican when appointed to that Bench. Gerald Ford is a decent man and was a decent President. Howard Baker had personal integrity as the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate during the Nixon Impeachment hearings. Arianna Huffington ran her then husbands Republican campaign for the U.S. Senate from California in the 1990's.

I am just naming names that most people might recognize, but there are tens of thousands of decent Republicans, even today, for every person whose name I can list, and many of them are now realizing that today's National Republican Party does not reflect their personal values, or America's priorities. These are the people we need to reach to prevent Republicans from controlling our National Government in Washington one day longer than is absolutely necessary.

Thank you good Democrats in Kansas, for doing the hard work of conversion, and sometimes even deprogramming, to rescue good people from a Party gone bad. You are leading the way for all of us.

[Mabus]

31. Thank you

and you are quite correct. We've had some high profile defections (like Mark Parkinson, former KS GOP chair) around here. We've had two former Republican AGs come out and endorse our Democratic AG candidate (also a former Republican) over the incumbent GOP AG.

What is making them change, as you so astutely point out, is because their party no longer represents them. And rather than give up on politics they have come to realize that we want basically the same things they do. We want good schools & educational programs, fiscal responsibility, fair taxation, etc., and so do they. We haven't changed, their party changed and they don't want to be a part of it any more.

As for how hard it is to change parties, there was an editorial from a Republican-oriented paper recently that explains why things are changing here.

As we prepare ourselves to make political endorsements in subsequent issues, I can tell you unequivocally that this newspaper has never endorsed so many Democrats. Not even close.

In the 56 years we have been publishing in Johnson County, this basically has been a Republican newspaper. In the old days, before the Republican civil war that fractured the party, we were traditional Republicans....

The point is, I can name on two hands over a half century the number of Democrats we have endorsed for public office.

This year, we will do something different. You will read why we are endorsing Kathleen Sebelius for governor and Mark Parkinson for lieutenant governor; Dennis Moore to be re-elected to the U.S. Congress; Paul Morrison for Kansas attorney general; and a slew of local Democratic state legislative candidates. These are not liberal Democrats. They are what fairly can be described as conservative Democrats, and we can prove that in our forthcoming endorsements.

But I could not help but put in perspective a more global phenomenon that has led us to re-evaluate our traditional support for Republicans....

The Republican Party has changed, and it has changed monumentally.

You almost cannot be a victorious traditional Republican candidate with mainstream values in Johnson County or in Kansas anymore, because these candidates never get on the ballot in the general election. They lose in low turnout primaries, where the far right shows up to vote in disproportionate numbers.

To win a Republican primary, the candidate must move to the right.

What does to-the-right mean?

It means anti-public education, though claiming to support it.

It means weak support of our universities, while praising them.

It means anti-stem cell research.

It means ridiculing global warming.

It means gay bashing. Not so much gay marriage, but just bashing gays.

It means immigrant bashing. I'm talking about the viciousness.

It means putting religion in public schools. Not just prayer.

It means mocking evolution and claiming it is not science.

It means denigrating even abstinence-based sex education....

But everything else adds up to priorities that have nothing to do with the Republican Party I once knew.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=153x5829

[bluedogyellowdog]

44. I welcome ALL former Republicans

and former Libertarians, former Greens, and former apathetic non-voters, who have seen the light and switched to the Democratic Party -- which in most cases is where they always belonged in the first place.

Kansas Dems deserve a hearty congratulations for setting the record for getting so many ex-Republicans to realize that party is a loony-right dead end and joining the one political party that truly represents the broad spectrum of mainstream thought.

We had to deal with the same thing in Virginia with far too many people expressing, um, "concern" about Jim Webb - and in Arizona with "concern" about center-left former Republicans Slade Mead and John Verkamp - and in New York with "concern" about Jack Davis - and "concern" about Tim Mahoney in Florida, Brent Benedict in Tennessee, and (yes, he's a recently converted former Republican) Ned Lamont in Connecticut. I was personally sickened back in 1994 when a local county chair of the United We Stand America organization (Ross Perot's group, forerunner to the Reform Party) ran for County Commission as a Democrat and was ostracized by the county Democratic Party, who went so far as to refuse to include him on the Democratic sample ballot and refuse to allow his campaign to use the Democratic HQ that the other candidates used, forcing him to rent his own office space. I'm glad to see we have come a long way from those dark days, and people like Jim Webb and Jack Davis and Slade Mead can get national party support. And frankly I'm sick of all the "concern" - let me lay it out plain and simple, we become the majority party by rolling out the welcome mat for honest and decent former Republicans (and former members of other parties) who have seen the light and come to understand why the Republicans have become a dead-end and a cancer on the body politic. We WILL NOT become the majority party by treating those people with suspicion and distrust. It's that simple.

Congratulations, Kansas. Here's hoping they are all elected and help usher in a historic shift in Kansas from red to blue. :toast:

[Infinite Hope]

32. Any upheavel among Kansas GOPers is good for me...

they're running against their own GOP incumbents and shaking up the framework. That's always good.

[Freddie Stubbs]

34. Is VA Seneate candidate Jim Webb really a Democrat?

He is a former Republican who actually served in the Reagan administration.

[bluedogyellowdog]

43. Yes he is

I hope you're just being sarcastic or making a point here. Webb's political world view is informed by working class consciousness more than anything, which makes him a better Democrat than about 90% of Democrats in office right now. And I don't question the Democratic credentials of those 90% - just saying that they're great people, and Webb is even better.

[fedupwithbush]

35. I've lived here most of my life.

Kansas is a moderate state to say the least, but these people who've crossed over are Democrats from everything I've read and heard about them. We'll never be a state with someone like Wellstone as a representative for us. I wished it were possible, but it's not.

That said, there are a ton of good people who are Republicans and know when they've been taken, even though it took them a long time to figure it out. I've never seen so many signs for Democrats on lawns as I've seen this election cycle. I'm extremely hopeful we'll see a sea change in Kansas.

My only regret is that Thiarts opponent hasn't been very visible. I can't stand the man and yet I'm afraid he's going to be re-elected. I met him the first time he ran for office and couldn't stand him then, but I just recently found out he even has a challenger or that Thiart was up for re-election. He started running ads in our area just recently. My fondest wish is that Republicans are fed up and will just vote anti-incumbent. We'll see on Wednesday.

As a side note, I'm a 3rd generation moderate Democrat. I've voted on both sides in my life, but I've voted straight Democratic ticket the last 6 years and it'll be a LONG time before I vote for anyone with an R after their name.

[DuaneBidoux]

42. Most would have been moderate Republicans when there was such a party

Now they feel like they have to become Democrats just to keep from not driving off a right wing cliff.