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DALLAS —They drew his blood, put tubes down his throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from his lips, even after he had lost consciousness. About 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was hospitalized, including a nurse now being treated for the same Ebola virus that killed the Liberian man who was visiting Dallas, according to medical records his family provided to The Associated Press.

Kansas Senate hopeful Greg Orman insists that he is not beholden to the Democratic Party, but a major Democratic donor is hosting a fundraiser for his campaign to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts. Jonathan Soros, son of billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, will host a New York City fundraiser this week for Orman, who is running as an independent candidate, according to an invitation obtained by America Rising. In addition to the $3.7 million the younger Soros has donated to Democratic candidates, committees, and interest groups, Jonathan is a highly active member of the secretive Democracy Alliance, a hub...

When U.S. Senator from Texas Ted Cruz ’92 set out on a bus tour last week, kickstarting the campaign for incumbent U.S. Senator from Kansas Pat Roberts, he also set out on a small-scale political battle against Greg Orman ’91, a Senate hopeful with whom Cruz spent three years at the University as an undergraduate. Orman, a businessman and independent candidate, has been accused by the Roberts campaign of being a stealthy democratic candidate. “I’m reminded of another candidate who ran in 2008 who ran on empty promises. He ran on hope and change, and he figured a whole bunch...

Former Democratic pollster Pat Caddell blasted the Republican Party for not making the president’s planned executive amnesty a national issue ... The Republican Party, they’re not called the stupid party for nothing. These people are able to, are willing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory given the opportunity,” he stated. “It's amazing to me. I've never seen a party that doesn't grab opportunities thrown at it like this,” he declared. And “they [Republicans] should be taking this issue and making it a national referendum issue against every Democrat, and for every Republican in the country.” He speculated that...

In case anyone is interested: Here is the link to the video of the last Kansas Senate Debate held this past Wednesday, October 8, 2014. Just click on YouTube above.

Republican Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts said Friday that he thinks the IRS targeting scandal was driven by Valerie Jarrett’s office in the White House, according to information that he saw that Democrats tried to “whitewash.” Roberts told talk radio host Hugh Hewitt that he participated in a Senate Finance Committee investigation into the IRS scandal but “the effort was made by the majority, by the Democrats in the Congress, to simply end that investigation,” which he called a “whitewash.” “I’m convinced that even Valerie Jarrett was involved,” Roberts said. “I think this was White House-driven. I think all of the...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is a tea party stalwart.   Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., narrowly defeated a tea party opponent in the Republican Senate primary this year.   Ted Cruz has a perfect 100 percent rating from the American Conservative Union.   Pat Roberts has an 84 percent rating from the ACU.   Yet this week Cruz will be in Kansas campaigning for Roberts in an election that is crucial for GOP hopes of retaking the Senate. The reason is simple. Fox News quotes Cruz explaining, “Roberts stood by my side in the fight to defund Obamacare, and he...

A Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage in five states reverberated further on Thursday, with the attorney general of West Virginia conceding that its ban on same-sex marriage was no longer defensible but South Carolina officials vowing to keep fighting to restrict marriage to a man and a woman. Since the Supreme Court decision on Monday and a ruling from a federal circuit court on Tuesday, new developments have appeared almost hourly as gay-rights advocates press for action in nine other states: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming.

I’m not exactly sure what the reasoning is, here. It’s not because the race isn’t competitive. It is – or, more accurately, it could be. Jeanne Sheehan is ahead of Scott Brown by 6.5 points in the current RCP average, sure. But she’s also under 50% in the aggregate polling, which is the usual rule of thumb for an incumbent in trouble. This is the sort of situation where throwing some advertisting cash into the mix could really come in handy. Of course, it’s a little late for that now – back in May the Democrats blocked out about $1...

WICHITA, Kan. — Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) waded into the Kansas Senate race Thursday, touting beleaguered Republican incumbent Pat Roberts as the contest’s only true conservative. The conservative hero's support is crucial as Roberts tries to energize his campaign and ward off a challenge from well-funded independent Greg Orman in a race that could jeopardize the GOP's hopes of winning Senate control. Cruz vouched for Roberts despite raising money earlier in the cycle for the Madison Project, a conservative group that supported Roberts’s primary challenger Milton Wolf. Wolf has not yet endorsed Roberts in the general election....

Kansas’ attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to block same-sex marriage licenses, hours after a court office in the state’s most populous county issued one, believed to be the first in the state, to a gay couple. The petition asks for an immediate order blocking the licenses, saying a judge exceeded his authority in ordering clerks and other judges to no longer deny marriage applications from gay couples. The Kansas Constitution bans gay marriage. Attorney General Derek Schmidt told The Associated Press he wants to have the legal issues resolved in an orderly fashion. District court Chief Judge...

Uh... did anyone in Wichita or Oklahoma City/Tulsa feel that?

The Human Rights Campaign on Tuesday inducted U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp into a select group composed of members of Congress who aggressively oppose same-sex marriage and other reforms sought by lesbians and gays. Huelskamp, a Kansas Republican seeking re-election in the 1st District, was in the introductory class with 14 members of the House and five from the Senate. All but one was a Republican, but no other member of the Kansas congressional delegation was included. “Rep. Huelskamp has gone out of his way to oppose steps toward equal protection under the law or to protect LGBT Americans from violence,...

WICHITA, Kan. — Tea Party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) waded into the Kansas Senate race Thursday, touting beleaguered Republican incumbent Pat Roberts as the contest’s only true conservative. The conservative hero's support is crucial as Roberts tries to energize his campaign and ward off a challenge from well-funded independent Greg Orman in a race that could jeopardize the GOP's hopes of winning Senate control. Cruz vouched for Roberts despite raising money earlier in the cycle for the Madison Project, a conservative group that supported Roberts’s primary challenger Milton Wolf. Wolf has not yet endorsed Roberts in the general election....

Kansas is home to one of the longest winning streaks in the country: No Republican has lost a Senate election there since 1932, when Ben Paulen lost by just under four points to George McGill. What’s more, if there was ever a year where a Republican would lose, 2014 would be an unlikely candidate. And yet . . . Sen. Pat Roberts clearly finds himself in the fight of his political life. With just under four weeks to go until Election Day, he trails his opponent, Greg Orman, by 2.4 percentage points in the RCP Average -- though a new...

It's hard to overstate how worried national Republican operatives have been about the Senate race here in Kansas. "I think Pat Roberts is in real trouble," a GOP strategist who is deeply involved in the midterm effort said of the Republican incumbent Tuesday morning. "If the election were today, he would clearly lose." That was then. Now, just 48 hours later, two new polls suggest the Roberts campaign has life in it, after all, and that Roberts' opponent, the former Democrat and self-styled Independent businessman Greg Orman, may no longer be leading the race. One of the new surveys, by...

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has taken the lead in two new polls released on Wednesday as his opponent Greg Orman again endorsed amnesty for illegal immigrants during Wednesday's debate. In a Fox News poll, Roberts leads Orman, the liberal Democrat running as an "independent," by 5 points. Roberts leads Orman by a point in a CNN/ORC poll. Three weeks ago, Orman was leading Roberts by six points. In Wednesday's debate, Roberts accused Orman of supporting amnesty after Orman tried to convince voters that he did not. The Kansas City Star reports that Orman does indeed support "a path to citizenship...

Two Utah congressmen say the public needs more time to weigh in on a "sweeping" proposal to designate more than a half-million acres as critical habitat for the Western yellow-billed cuckoo. Republican Reps. Jason Chaffetz and Chris Stewart are among 17 members of Congress who urged U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe to extend the comment period on the designation beyond Oct. 14. "While we oppose this listing proposal, we find it completely unacceptable that the (agency) has proposed only 60 days of public comment with no public hearings, effectively shutting out meaningful comment on a sweeping critical...

Poll available at link. To summarize the results among likely voters: KS Senate Race: Roberts (R) 49% Orman (I) 48% KS Governor Race: Brownback (R) 49% Davis (D) 49%

Here's how embattled Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback diagnosed his political problems in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody: “I think they (the mainstream media) want what’s happening in this state to fail that they’re shopping for a factual setting to back that up because it’s working.” Um, no. While blaming the media is both one of the most common strategic moves and one that regularly reeks of desperation, in this case -- like in most of them -- what Brownback is saying is simply not true. So why then is Brownback in so much trouble in a state...