Trump's Crazy Extremist Candidate Loses In Kansas GOP Contest For Open House Seat

Estes

With Koch Bros. Congressman Mike Pompeo now ensconced at the CIA, there's an April 11th special election to fill his KS-04 seat, a blood red (R+14) district that takes up the south-central part of the state and is centered on Sedgwick County (Wichita). In 2008, McCain won the district with 59% and 4 years later Romney won it with 62%. This past November, Trump beat Hillary in the district, 60.2% to 33.0%. And Pompeo was reelected 166,998 (60.7%) to 81,495 (29.6%), beating Democrat Dan Giroux who spent $262,986 to Pompeo's $1,447,958.

For a Democrat to win this special election, the revulsion with Trump and Ryan would have to be far greater than it is today. Maybe by 2018... but not likely now. But a Democrat could run now as a prelude to a 2018 campaign. The party will pick their nominee Saturday and there are already 5 Democrats who have declared, including Robert Tillman who ran against Pompeo in 2012-- raising just $22,044 to Pompeo's $1,915,080 and losing 62-31%-- and was beaten by Giroux in the 2016 primary when he tried to run again. Another well-known candidate is Dennis McKinney, former state Treasurer and former Minority Leader of the Kansas House of Representatives. The Berniecrat in the race is Charlie Walker, a police officer. (Some in the party are still trying to draft popular 2-term former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, the city's first elected African-American mayor, 2007-15.)

The Republicans picked their nominee this evening and it was neither of the supposed frontrunner. Two-term Kansas state Treasurer Ron Estes won the nomination over Trump Regime pick and Tea Party-endorsed Alan Cobb Sarah and former Congressman Todd Tiahrt. Palin had been running her mouth for deranged Trumpist and former Koch Brothers lobbyist, Alan Cobb but he lost anyone. Even further right than him on the political spectrum is ex-Congressman Todd Tiahrt, who represented the district before he ran an unsuccessful primary campaign for the Senate against Jerry Moran, which opened the House seat to Pompeo. In 2014 Tiahart primaried Pompeo and got killed-- 42,877 (63%) to 25,501 (37%). Many hoped they'd never hear from this whack-job extremist again. But, no... he tried making another comeback-- and was already fighting with Paul Ryan. Tiahrt told the 126 KS-04 district delegates that Ryan promised him his old seat on the House Appropriations Committee and Ryan said Tiahrt is a liar. Aside from Estes, Cobb and Tiahrt, the other candidates tonight were former Hate Talk Radio host Joseph Ashby, Wichita city council member Pete Meitzner (who suddenly withdrew yesterday, and local lawyer George Bruce. Although Trump hadn't personally gotten overtly involved, his political agents had been actively pushing Cobb.

In the first ballot Ashby and Bruce were eliminated and after the second ballot was in, it was clear Estes won. He took 66 votes to 43 for Cobb and just 17 for Tiahrt.

Republicans know Trump could be a problem for them in April any they say they're not taking the district for granted even though they've held it-- basically effortlessly-- since 1994 when Tiahrt beat Democratic Congressman Dan Glickman. Kerry Gooch, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party, says that the "special election gives people that have been so angry and frustrated with what the Trump administration has been doing since they have taken over, it gives them their first chance to fight back."

Snatching Defeat Out Of The Jaws Of Victory-- Republican vs Republican

Will Bloody Kansas be the next battlefield in the GOP civil war?

NY-23, up near Montreal in northeast New York, has more cows than people-- and more Republicans than Democrats. The Inside-the-Beltway and national media have jumped into the race, marveling at how the GOP is managing to screw up their chances there with a vicious intraparty civil war. Watch the video below of Beck calling for a right-wing jihad against the Republican Party establishment in the name of teabaggery, and keep in mind that he still has one full week for a full-on Vicks VapoRub weeping session before the balloting is over. Even more important to remember, though, is that NY-23 isn't the only congressional race shaping up to be a showcase for the struggle between mainstream conservatives and the unhinged, Hate Talk-inspired teabaggers trying to capture the GOP.

The U.S. Senate race in Florida between the Establishment candidate, Gov. Charlie Crist, and a mediocre but charismatic right-wing insurgent, Marco Rubio, has been the most high-profile example. Among the far right fringe of the GOP, Charlie Crist has been transformed into America's worst governor (worse than Mark Sanford and Arnold Schwarzenegger!), and Republican elected officials are at cross-purposes in choosing a horse to back. Rubio, the darling of the teabaggers, has won every single county Republican straw poll-- and each one by a landslide. The farthest-right members of the GOP congressional delegation have jumped on his bandwagon, while the slightly less extremist ones are sticking with Crist. Nationally, the split is apparent when you notice that Senate Minority Leader Miss McConnell and NRSC Chair John Cornyn are backing Crist while radical right fringe operators like Jim DeMint and Mike Huckabee are on the warpath for Rubio.

Another Republican race where the split is rending the GOP into warring camps is in Kansas. With Sam Brownback giving up his Senate seat to ascend to the state's governorship-- presumably a better perch to launch a presidential race from-- two very conservative Kansas congressmen, Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt, are at each other's throats for the Senate nomination. Moran is viewed as slightly more mainstream and Tiahrt as slightly more extremist. Tiahrt's lifetime ProgressivePunch score is 2.25, and his score this year is 2.13, while Moran is trying to make up for his 5.07 lifetime score with a big fat zero-point-zero-zero this year. But such minutiae is the stuff that motivates your average dittohead and teabagger. Right-wing loon Rick Santorum is backing Tiahart while John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Mike Johanns, afraid that their party is falling off an ideological cliff, are behind Moran.

If, as most observers expect, the rift in NY-23 results in a victory for Democrat Bill Owens-- who basically has nothing going for himself other than the Scozzafava v. Hoffman feud-- the entrails of defeat will be picked over closely, and each side will determine, probably within minutes, that they will need to fight even harder-- against their fellow Republicans, in Florida, Kansas, South Carolina, Texas and dozens of other races across the country. I bet Rahm Emanuel would love to take credit for this fortuitous development. OK, as promised... it's Glenn Beck time:




UPDATE: Word From The Lunatic Fringe

The Senate's most extremist member, Jim DeMint, just endorsed Hoffman. I wonder how many voters in upstate New York will make up their minds based on the hysterical urgings of a racist and secessionist from South Carolina.

Two GOP Political Dwarves Square Off For The Honor Of Being Pulverized By Katherine Sebelius

Sam Brownback, a suspected Opus Dei cultist and admitted far right religious fanatic, obsessed with bizarre morbid sexuality, decided to retire from the Senate and run for the Kansas governor's mansion in 2010. The current governor, wildly popular Democrat Katherine Sebelius, is serving her second and last term and is likely to trade jobs with him.

But a couple of Republican hack pols have decided to fight it out in a primary contest over who will have the honor of being defeated by her. Todd Tiahrt announced his bid yesterday in Topeka. The other one, who announced after winning re-election to his House seat in November is Jerry Moran. Although the differences between them are barely perceptible, Tiahrt is considered to the right of the Nazi Party and Moran is just a garden variety conservative extremist. In terms of their congressional voting records, they were both absolute rubber stamps for Bush. Moran has a 5.16 (out of 100) on the Progressive Punch score of crucial partisan votes and Tiahrt has a 2.23. In the arcane world of right wing fanaticism, that makes one (Tiahrt) purer than the other (Moran). Neither has ever voted in favor of anything that would benefit working families and each is considered a complete shill for Big Business.

Polls show Moran way ahead of Tiahrt, who is perceived by the Kansans who even know who he is as an extremist and kind of a far right fringe candidate. The fact that he's further right will tend to help him as the primary gets really contentious, as is expected, probably by noon tomorrow.