By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Kansas Republicans find themselves fighting more tenaciously than anticipated to keep a U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Sen. Pat Roberts since 1996.
Republican Roger Marshall is locked in a tight race with Democrat Barbara Bollier.
University of Kansas Political Science Department chair, Don Haider-Markel, sees the tightness of this race as an outgrowth of a Republican split during the administration of former Governor Sam Brownback.
“I really can’t downplay the experience that Brownback provided for especially moderate Republicans and certainly those independents in the state as well that that just really left a bad taste in people’s mouths and it’s not ancient history here,” Haider-Markel tells St. Joseph Post.
Haider-Markel says the national Republican party has poured millions into a race once considered safe for the GOP.
“But it tells you too just how disturbed Republicans are by the closeness of this race,” Haider-Markel says. “This is just one they can’t lose. If they lose this, they lose all hope of holding on to their Senate majority for sure.”
Haider-Markel says the national Republican Party has been forced to use money in Kansas it would like to spend in other races, perhaps even races in which the party could pick up a seat.
Republicans first sweated out the primary with leading Kansas Republican officials breathing a sigh of relief when Marshall, the First District Congressman, defeated former Secretary of State Kris Kobach. But the contentious primary gave Bollier time to raise money and sharpen her message for the General Election.
Both Marshall and Bollier are doctors. Bollier is a former Republican who served in the Kansas Legislature until deciding to run for U.S. Senate.
Haider-Markel says the race remains a likely Republican win.
“Well, I still think the odds favor Marshall, but again if we do see this kind of blue-tinged turnout on election night, if we’re seeing it in other parts of the country, I think the wave is going to crash on the shores here, too.”