Moderate Kansas Republicans Vow To Fight Back Conservative Challenge

In Kansas, Republican state legislators have leaned increasingly conservative. Now a leader of the state's moderate Republican faction is vowing to fight back.

Kansas Senate President Steve Morris (R-Hugoton) said moderate GOP senators will aggressively fight back expected conservative challengers in the August primary. Moderate Republicans have long controlled the state Senate, but the House of Representatives and is now more conservative than in past years, as is the governor.

"We've had a divided party in our state for 15, 20 years, and it has gotten worse," Morris said. "More primaries, more noise."

The moderate Senate Republicans, who control the GOP caucus in the largely Republican Senate, have recently teamed up with Democrats to defeat several measures that have put the caucus at odds with the House, including a proposed strip club ban, a proposed hike in state education funding, tax reform legislation and judicial selection reform.

The Senate caucus was also at odds earlier this year with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), who eliminated the state's arts agency despite Senate objections.

Morris is one of several moderates being challenged in the primary -- a group that includes several prominent senators such as Senate Vice President John Vratil, Assistant Majority Leader Vicki Schmidt and Judiciary Committee Chairman Tim Owens.

Morris said turnout in the August primary and fundraising are his two biggest concerns going into the primary season. With the primary occurring at a time when many Kansans are on vacation, he said his campaign group is working to boost turnout. He declined to discuss specifics of his turnout plan.

Morris said he expects outside groups to pour money into the state to help the conservative challengers. Kansas conservatives were helped in the 2010 House election by several outside groups. But Morris said his team is working to raise cash for its own campaign chest and has plans for a grassroots campaign.

With education spending and tax policy likely to be at the center of the debate, Morris said he still plans to form a study committee to develop a tax reform alternative to Brownback's proposal. Morris said he wanted the Senate to take the time to develop and study it's own plan -- instead of waiting first for the House to send a proposal to the Senate, as has happened in prior years.

In terms of education funding, Morris said he and other moderates want to see an increase in the state's per pupil aid to local districts from the current $3,750. The rate was cut over the past few years from $4,400 in response to declining state revenues. He said projected increases in revenue should be put into the education pot.

Morris said he thinks Brownback is not involved in recruiting the conservative challengers. State Rep. Greg Smith (R), who is challenging Owens, and other Kansas political observers also told HuffPost in October that Brownback was not involved in the effort.

Morris said at the end of the day he believes there are not as many differences between him and his conservative foes as some would think.

"We agree with each other 95-percent of the time," he said. "The majority of us are pro-life.

Comments

[kansascase]

07:17 PM on 12/07/2011

Extreme "rightism" occurs when extreme "leftism" has developed. Obama is working feverishly to being about a socialistic state. He has successfully created a fractured country in his wake of "fairness" and "class warfare." He has divided this country by money, race and religion. Every Republican - moderates and more extreme conservatives should really only have one concern - to remove Obama from Ofice. To do this, we all need to work together. The minor differences can be worked out. The liberal Media, too, will try to splinter the conservatives. We can't afford 4 more years of the current administration - with each Executive Order he signs, we lose some freedom. Be wary of people that seed and try to grow discord among Republicans.
kansascase

[trilingual]

09:16 PM on 12/06/2011

Good! We're never going to turn Kansas into a blue state, but on the whole Kansans have been pretty middle-of-the-road on most issues. People in Kansas have been willing to tax themselves for excellent infrastructure, outstanding schools and good services. It's what makes Kansas a good place to live and keeps us competitive when we don't have mountains or beaches to offer newcomers. Kansas got a lot accomplished when Sebelius was governor and worked successfully with the Republican legislature. The theocratic one-party state that some Republicans want would be a disaster, and so would turning Kansas into a no-taxes, no services state like Texas! We may not always agree with them, but we need to work with the moderate Republicans and help them in their races, especially in areas where a Democrat isn't likely to be elected!

[reverence]

11:10 AM on 12/06/2011

What moderate Republican's don't understand is that they are the Dr. Frankenstein who have created, fed, and built up this extremist Frankenstein monster in their party by embracing theocratic ideology as a part of their party platform, not so much because they supported them, but to win elections. They have done this by using theocratic issues (framed as social issues) to get these people to the polls. After years of not making theocratic beliefs the law of the land, the theocratic monster with the financial backing of the multi-billionaires, who now need them to maintain the Oligarchy they have created with the power consentrated between them and the financial industry.

[mcmutter]

04:05 AM on 12/06/2011

Brownback is a chronic masturbator in his state office during the day ....

[time2talk]

02:51 AM on 12/06/2011

I'm just glad to hear there are some moderate Republicans left out there. The presidential candidates are so scarey, I thought the whole party must have converted.

[WhiteGuy]

10:41 PM on 12/05/2011

"Moderate Kansas Republicans"

Translaution= Leftist running as a Republicans.

were not buying it. See Ya

[skidawgkc22]

11:11 PM on 12/05/2011

You're right about that. It's to the point that Kansas Dems have entertained converting some of the more moderate GOP legislators. Some have switched (and won as Democrats), others not so much. Seriously, we need more good Dems (and we do exist) in office in the Sunflower State before Adolf Brownback destroys the state with his extremism.

[xscd]

07:43 PM on 12/05/2011

It seems like there are a substantial number of conservatives now who think that the Republican Party has moved too far to the right for them and effectively left them behind. I personally place my faith in the rational, reasonable moderates of both sides as well as the independents and the civil-libertarians.

[Liviu]

06:54 PM on 12/05/2011

A lot of Conservative are as compassionate as the next guy. If the next guy happens to be Stewie.

And it's not so much that they want poor people dead...it's just...they want them, not to be alive, anymore.
Uh..., they sometimes wonder if... if all poor people are that difficult, and then they think to themselves: My God, wouldn't it be marvelous if I turned out to be rich?