Kansas Could Turn Blue as Democrat Leads Republican Gov. Sam Brownback by 4 Points

By: Jason Easley/politicususa

The Republican Party is so damaged that even in deep red state Kansas, Republican Governor Sam Brownback is trailing Democrat Paul Davis 43%-39%.

According to a new SurveryUSA poll, Davis leads Brownback 43%-39%. Only 59% of Republicans support Gov. Brownback. The governor gets the support of 62% of conservatives, but trails Davis with moderates, 58%-28%. There are several things happening in Kansas that mirror the problems of the national Republican Party.

Brownback is at the center of a Republican civil war in Kansas. The governor helped to oust moderate Republicans from the state senate in 2012. He also alienated moderates by signing a tax reform bill that both liberal and conservative experts consider to be the worst piece of tax reform legislation passed in the entire country.

Gov. Brownback’s tax cut was a Republican dream come true.It reduced income taxes on the top two brackets, slashed corporate taxes, and made LLC pass through income non-taxable. The Republicans paid for this gift to the wealthy by raising taxes on working people, the poor, and senior citizens. Of course, this scheme blew a giant hole in the state’s budget which Brownback tried to fix by slashing hundreds of millions of dollars in education spending, laying off public sector workers, and cutting transportation funding.

National Review published a lengthy profile of Brownback where they enthusiastically paint Kansas as a model for the country and suggest that Brownback is a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, while the voters back home are seriously contemplating throwing him out of office.

Brownback is trailing a Democrat in a state where Republicans hold every statewide office, and the entire congressional delegation. Republicans outnumber Democrats in the state 46% to 25%. Democrat Paul Davis has a chance to win because Brownback has taken the state too far to the right for many in Kansas. Moderates, which in Kansas mostly means moderate Republicans, are supporting Davis because the ALEC/tea party/Koch agenda is unpopular with them.

National Republicans and their media are so out of touch with reality that they are touting the presidential future of a governor whose policies are so unpopular that he might not get a second term.

If Davis won, he would be a conservative Democratic governor, but a Brownback defeat would be a supreme humiliation for far right Republicans and their agenda.

The Republican Party may have finally become too extreme for even deep red state Kansas to tolerate.

Kansas Governor Approves Sweeping Anti-Abortion Law, Writes ‘JESUS + Mary’ In His Notes On The Bill

By Tara Culp-Ressler/Think Progress

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) has signed astringent anti-abortion bill that blocks tax breaks for abortion providers, requires doctors to tell women about the disputed link between abortion and breast cancer, anddefines life as beginning at conception in the state constitution. However, despite the fact that the omnibus legislation is 70 pages long, it does not necessarily explicitly state everything that the Republican governor wishes to convey on the abortion issue.

Before Brownback signed HB 2253 into law at a ceremony at the statehouse on Friday, an AP photo reveals that he made a few additions of his own in his notes on the bill. He typed out some phrases — “building a culture of life,” and “all human life is sacred” — that he ended up using in his speech to abortion opponents before approving the legislation, and he also scribbled “JESUS + Mary” at the top of the paper (second enlarged image via Gawker):

Of course, this is hardly the first time a politician has invoked religious belief to justify their opposition to legal abortion rights, regardless of the historical separation of church and state in the United States. That’s partly because the anti-choice community has worked hard to brand reproductive freedom as entirely antithetical to the Christian faith. Catholic lawmakers in particular are often hostile to abortion rights even when they are more moderate on other social issues.

But even though Brownback may invoke the Christian faith as he approves some of the harshest abortion restrictions in the nation, his position isn’t necessarily representative of the Christian coalition in the United States. Reproductive rights aren’t actually always in sharp opposition to religion. People of faith support women’s access to contraception, and most religious groupsdon’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade. In fact, over 75 percent of white Protestants — along with 65 percent of black Protestants and 63 percent of white Catholics — support women’s constitutional right to legal abortion services.

BROWNBACK APOLOGIZES FOR ‘#HEBLOWSALOT’ INCIDENT: ‘MY STAFF OVER-REACTED’

By Ian Millhiser/Think Progress

In the standoff between Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R) and a high school student, the Kansas governor blinked first. Brownback issued a statement this afternoon apologizing to Emma Sullivan, the 18-year old high school student who was unconstitutionally ordered to write a letter of apology after she sent a tweet criticizing the governor. According to Brownback’s statement, “my staff over-reacted to this tweet and for that I apologize.” He added that “freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms.”

UPDATE

Sullivan’s high school also released a statement indicating she will not be punished for exercising her First Amendment rights:

The Shawnee Mission East senior decided to not write the apology letter and the school district issued a statement Monday saying there would be no repercussions.

“Whether and to whom any apologies are issued will be left to the individuals involved,” the statement said. “The issue has resulted in many teachable moments concerning the use of social media. The district does not intend to take any further action on this matter.”