Free Republic

He’s not up for re-election, but U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran has much riding on the Senate race raging in Kansas. Moran’s fellow Republican senator from the state, Pat Roberts, is locked in a pitched battle for his political life. Most polls show incumbent Roberts trailing independent challenger Greg Orman. Moran doesn’t face voters again until 2016, but as the party leader in charge of the GOP’s national effort to win control of the U.S. Senate, he badly needs a Roberts victory. Republicans must pick up six seats in November to wrest control of the Senate from the Democrats. Analysts say...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin urged Kansas Republicans on Thursday to unite behind U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, alleging his independent opponent is trying to “snooker” voters in what has become a surprisingly close race. Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee, donned an apron and flipped pancakes alongside Roberts, once considered a near lock for re-election but now facing a tough battle....

Milton Wolf, the tea party candidate who battled Sen. Pat Roberts in a bitter Republican primary fight, is considering some political payback: Endorsing Kansas independent Greg Orman, sources said Thursday night. But there’s a big catch: To win Wolf’s endorsement, Orman must first agree to caucus with the Senate GOP if he were to defeat Roberts in the general election. The two men were scheduled to meet Friday afternoon at Orman’s house in Olathe, Kansas., just outside of Kansas City, according to two people familiar with the matter. One person said Orman’s team sought the meeting but there was no...

Kansas state government is on the verge of a financial windfall with the auctioning of thousands of sex toys seized by the revenue department for nonpayment of income, withholding and sales taxes, an official said Wednesday. Online shoppers for adult DVDs, novelty items, clothing and other products can participate in a bonanza shopping experience resulting from the four-county raid on a Kansas company known as United Outlets LLC. Owner Larry Minkoff, who was doing business under the Bang label, apparently resisted requests from the Kansas Department of Revenue for payment of $163,986 in state taxes. It is unclear how much...

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts put a signature to documents associated with the mortgage on a Virginia residence that identify the Fairfax County home as “principal residence” of the three-term incumbent Republican. The re-election campaign of the Kansan has been awash in controversy about whether his ownership of a duplex in Dodge City, which is rented out, and his payment of about $300 a month for a room in a Dodge City supporter's home satisfied legal requirements for public office. On Wednesday, records surfaced that Roberts signed a Deed of Trust in 1997 and 2003 for property owned in Alexandria, Va.,...

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts put a signature to documents associated with the mortgage on a Virginia residence that identify the Fairfax County home as “principal residence” of the three-term incumbent Republican. The re-election campaign of the Kansan has been awash in controversy about whether his ownership of a duplex in Dodge City, which is rented out, and his payment of about $300 a month for a room in a Dodge City supporter's home satisfied legal requirements for public office. On Wednesday, records surfaced that Roberts signed a Deed of Trust in 1997 and 2003 for property owned in Alexandria, Va.,...

When Pat Roberts faced a conservative primary challenge this summer, he did what most Republican senators have learned to do: turn hard right. Now, facing an unexpectedly strong independent challenge, Roberts is doubling down. On Thursday, the three-term Kansas senator turned to tea party darling Sarah Palin to rally voters behind his flagging campaign. The former Alaska governor praised Roberts for standing with Sen. Ted Cruz a year ago during his marathon floor speech against President Obama's healthcare law, which preceded a strategy that resulted in a government shutdown. "He [was] one of the few senators fulfilling campaign promises, doing...

Shirley Deege is a proud Republican. For as long as she can remember, the nurse has been voting for Pat Roberts — in the 1980s, when he represented a vast patchwork of dusty plains hamlets in the House; in 1996, when he first ran for the Senate; and every six years after that. “Looking back over my life, I’m wondering, ‘What major things has he done for Kansas?’ I’m coming up empty,” said Deege, 53, as she sipped coffee while waiting for Roberts to arrive at the county fairgrounds in Kinsley this week. “He’s spent so much time in Washington,”...

Sarah Palin stumped for GOP Sen. Pat Roberts in Kansas Thursday morning, calling him a true conservative and hoping to give him an edge over an independent challenger. “He is a conservative and he is what America needs,” the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential nominee said.

Kansas – A federal judge has decided a lawsuit challenging increased federal regulation of economic activity and land use in the area that is habitat for the Lesser Prairie Chicken will be litigated in Oklahoma and not transferred to Washington, D.C., Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said today. The decision yesterday by U.S. District Judge James H. Payne is the second time in the last two months that the federal judiciary has rejected an attempt by the federal government to move the litigation from Oklahoma to Washington, D.C. “This is good news for Kansas,” Schmidt said. “It means our case...

Nate Silver has made a name for himself getting his presidential forecasts spot-on perfect. So when he speaks about U.S. Senate races, people listen. His latest thinking on Kansas’ much-talked-about Senate race? Independent Greg Orman has a 61 percent chance of beating Republican incumbent Pat Roberts. His expected winning margin is 3 percentage points. Silver bases his predictions on all manner of polls and political data. Despite his prediction in the Kansas race, Silver says Republicans have a 58.5 percent chance of winning a majority. And Democrats have a 41.5 percent chance of keeping their majority. That goes against conventional...

Control of the Senate is potentially at stake in Kansas, and the GOP is beginning to double down. With a two-man race now looking all but certain, national Republicans are planning a scorched-earth offensive to frame Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) independent opponent, Greg Orman, as a shady businessman. Their first volley this weekend: reports that Orman represented Rajat Gupta — the former Goldman Sachs board member who incurred criminal and civil fines of more than $18 million and was jailed earlier this year for securities fraud — on a two-person board of a Cayman Islands private equity partnership. Kansas Republicans...

Control of the Senate is potentially at stake in Kansas, and the GOP is beginning to double down. With a two-man race now looking all but certain, national Republicans are planning a scorched-earth offensive to frame Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) independent opponent, Greg Orman, as a shady businessman. Their first volley this weekend: reports that Orman represented Rajat Gupta — the former Goldman Sachs board member who incurred criminal and civil fines of more than $18 million and was jailed earlier this year for securities fraud — on a two-person board of a Cayman Islands private equity partnership. Kansas Republicans...

The Democratic candidate for governor in Kansas found himself on the defensive this weekend after acknowledging that he was caught up in a police raid of a strip club years ago. The candidate, Paul Davis, said he was not arrested or charged in the incident and accused Republicans of “a desperate smear campaign.” “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mr. Davis said Saturday during a meeting with campaign workers. “Nobody has ever accused me of any wrongdoing.” Recent polling shows Mr. Davis ahead of the Republican incumbent, Sam Brownback, in the governor’s race, a lead based...

GOV. SAM BROWNBACK of Kansas says he has come to regret characterizing his policy agenda as a “real live experiment” that would test the efficacy of deep tax cuts to spur jobs and economic growth. In fact, Mr. Brownback’s choice of words was apt. Few if any governors have undertaken such an extreme trial-by-revenue-deprivation in a state so clearly lacking the economic means to withstand it. Now, as the damaging social and budgetary impacts of his slash-and-burn fiscal measures have become apparent, Mr. Brownback, a conservative Republican seeking reelection this fall in a state where every statewide elected official is...

New York (AFP) - US corn and soybean crops could break records this year, but for farmers the bounty has a dark side: falling prices and a logistics nightmare getting crops to market. "It is not an exact science but when we look at the fields, it looks like it is going to be a big crop," said John Reifsteck, a corn and soybean farmer in Champaign, Illinois, a Midwest farm belt state.

The campaign for incumbent Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts is reaching into the GOP hall of fame to try to win a tight race and help the party take control of the Senate -- bringing 91-year-old Bob Dole on the trail.The former 1996 GOP presidential nominee and Senate majority leader from Kansas will also purportedly participate in a TV ad for Roberts, as first reported by ABC News. The 78-year-old Roberts, seeking a fourth term, is involved in one of the toughest and most unusual races of the midterm cycle.

The Senate approved a continuing resolution for the budget which included a provision authorizing President Obama to arm and train Syrian rebels for the purpose of combating Islamic State terrorists. The legislation passed 78-22. Of the 22 Senators that voted no, here are the 12 Republicans that voted against the provision: John Barrasso (WY) Tom Coburn (OK) Michael Crapo (ID) Ted Cruz (TX) Mike Enzi (WY) Dean Heller (NV) Mike Lee (UT) Jim Moran (KS) Rand Paul (KY) James Risch (ID) Pat Roberts (KS) Jeff Sessions (AL)

The Senate race in Kansas may suddenly be the most crucial contest in the country. Republicans are scrambling to protect a longtime incumbent. Bob Dole is back on the campaign trail. The state’s Democrats have no candidate and are trying to say as little about that as possible. And a 45-year-old investor from suburban Kansas City may hold the key to control of the Senate in January. At the beginning of the year, no one thought that Kansas — which has sent only Republicans to the Senate since 1938 — would be critical in determining the balance of the Senate....

Democrats won a key legal battle in the Kansas Senate race Thursday, but now the party faces a wrenching choice: Spend precious dollars to try and unseat Republican Pat Roberts in a solidly red state, or sit on the sidelines and pass up a chance to steal a seat — and potentially the Senate majority — from Republicans. The ruling removed the Democratic candidate from the ballot, clearing the way for a showdown between Roberts and independent Greg Orman and, at least on paper, increasing the likelihood that the longtime senator can be beaten. A smattering of recent polls shows...