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Democratic nominee Chad Taylor dropped out of the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas on Wednesday, an 11th hour move that could clear the way for his party to rally behind and independent candidate and potentially change the math in the battle for the Senate majority. Taylor, who raised little money and had not gained traction in the campaign, submitted a letter to the Kansas secretary of state's office that said he was withdrawing from the contest, without providing any further information. An e-mail to his spokesman seeking more information on why he bowed out was not immediately returned. The...

Republican Sen. Pat Roberts has shaken up his struggling re-election team in Kansas, moving aside a longtime confidante as campaign manager and getting help from a national operative in a race that’s suddenly a battleground in the fight for Senate control. The campaign overhaul comes after Roberts’ bruising primary fight and the stunning attempt by his Democratic challenger this week to cancel his candidacy in the face of a strong bid by an independent candidate. Roberts confirmed Friday that Leroy Towns – who the three-term Senator once described as his “alter ego” – has stepped down as executive campaign manager,...

The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered the state to remove U.S. Senate Democratic nominee Chad Taylor's name from the ballot

Oral argument in the Kansas Supreme Court has now completed in the case of Kobach v. Taylor, on the question whether Taylor’s name can be removed from the Kansas U.S. Senate ballot. The issue is especially important with incumbent Republican Senator Pat Roberts now trailing independent Greg Orman in recent polling and with the fate of the Senate potentially hanging in the balance. While it is always hazardous to predict outcomes from oral argument (because Justices sometimes ask rhetorical questions or minds change after argument), I think it is likely the Justices will quickly issue an order removing Taylor’s name...

Democrat Chad Taylor must stay on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday afternoon. Kobach said Taylor submitted a letter Wednesday to withdraw from the race but did not declare he was incapable of serving, which is also required. The Kansas Republican Party had questioned whether Taylor, the Shawnee County district attorney, could withdraw. Kansas law means “we now have no choice” but to put Taylor’s name on the ballot, Kobach told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “The law is the law.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article1504835.html#storylink=cpy

The legal battle over Democrats’ efforts to get their nominee off the ballot in the U.S. Senate race in Kansas heated up Wednesday, with a prominent party attorney from Washington helping and Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach moving again to thwart the attempt. Some Democrats last week nudged nominee Chad Taylor out of the race with three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, but Kobach has refused to remove Taylor’s name from the Nov. 4 ballot. Kobach, a conservative Republican who’s backing Roberts, said Taylor failed to comply with a state election law that limits when party nominees can withdraw. Taylor...

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kans.) is in the fight for his political life. Current polls show him barely trailing his opponent, which would make Kansas look like a golden pickup opportunity for Senate Democrats, right?Not so much. In early September, Democrat Chad Taylor suddenly dropped out of the crowded Kansas Senate, leaving a two-man race between Roberts and Greg Orman, who insists that he’s totally an independent and not a partisan Democrat. Orman even swears that he has no idea who he’ll support for Senate Majority Leader if he wins the election next Tuesday. That’s how independent he is.But if Orman...

A three-judge panel in Topeka ruled Wednesday that Kansas Democrats need not nominate a candidate for the 2014 Senate race. The ruling is expected to help independent Senate candidate Greg Orman’s campaign against incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. Chad Taylor, the Democrat nominated for the seat in August, dropped from the race Sept. 3. The Kansas Supreme Court later ruled the withdrawal followed state rules. …

I had been looking forward to the opportunity to vote for an Independent candidate for U.S. Senate. I often vote for "third party" candidates because the two 19th Century major parties are out of touch with reality. For example, I voted for Ross Perot in 1992 and Ralph Nader in 2000. Chad Taylor's withdrawal as the Democrat's Senate candidate provides strong evidence that Sen. Pat Roberts is probably correct when he says Greg Orman is really just a Democrat masquerading as an Independent. Chad Taylor apparently filed for the Senate nomination to keep serious Democrats from running for the office....

Kansas Democratic Senate candidate Chad Taylor’s effort to get his name taken off this fall’s ballot will be heard in the state’s supreme court, according to reports, the latest twist in a suddenly fast-changing race thought to be a shoo-in for Republicans. Last week, Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach ruled that Taylor will have to remain on the ballot since he did not demonstrate that he was incapable of serving if elected, a requirement under state statutes. Taylor went on to file a lawsuit against Kobach, claiming an election official helped him prepare the necessary documents to withdraw from...

Democrats are going to fight to keep their former Kansas senate candidate, Chad Taylor, off the ballot (an odd turn of events to put it mildly). This comes after Kris Kobach, Secretary of State, announced that Taylor must stay on ballot. Kobach is intensely political and is likely the most successful and outspoken voter suppression advocate in the country today. Rick Hasen says the law is not dispositive. But life's hard. Kobach's the Secretary State. He gets to make the decision, or at least he gets the first pass at it. A Court will likely have the final say over...

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) has denied Democrat Chad Taylor’s request to be removed from the Kansas Senate ballot. His Thursday decision means Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) will face three candidates on the ballot this fall — Taylor, independent Greg Orman and libertarian Randall Batson — boosting the vulnerable senator’s reelection prospects. Now, Taylor could siphon off enough anti-Roberts votes from Orman, who’s been surging in the race and is now seen by Democrats as their best shot to take Roberts down, to deliver the senator an opening for a win. Kobach told reporters that, after evaluating state

Let me summarize the Hill article: as of this moment, hastily-withdrawn Chad Taylor is back on the ballot for Kansas’s Senate race. Turns out that state law has very specific criteria for withdrawing from the ballot after the primary – like being dead, or being incapable to do the job. And if it’s the latter, you have to say so. Chad Taylor, in his withdrawal letter, did not. Better and better, even if Taylor is allowed to withdraw then the state Democratic party is obliged to put up a replacement. This puts Democrats in a definite bind. It would seem...