Last fall’s elections were terrible for social conservatives in Kansas, as Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, helped Democrats take over Congress, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius easily won re-election, Attorney General Phill Kline got trounced, and moderates reclaimed the State Board of Education.
Though Tuesday’s municipal elections shouldn’t have been about social issues, some anti-abortion groups tried to make them about that — without electoral success. Their candidate, Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans, lost badly. If Kevass Harding holds onto his tiny lead, all three conservative candidates for the Wichita school board will have lost.
With these election results and the passage of casino gaming by the Legislature this session, are social conservatives losing their grip on power? If so, will they regroup and rise again?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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44 Comments
Morrison beat Kline 58% to 41% in Sedgwick County. If there was ever a campaign that was about abortion, that was definitely *it.*
Yeah Tom, Tiller’s PAC robo-caller called me about ten times; it didn’t work.
Maybe when they can make babies brain waves audible then scientists can show how 24 week old babies in the womb can actually think independently. Perhaps they will ask Tiller why he is killing them.
I think it’s unlikely that Tiller’s PAC robocalled you 10 times, or even once.
The only robocalls we had here were Jan Beemer’s (I live in 86th District) and Phill Kline’s campaigns. None from Barnett, none from Morrison. I think there was one from Sebelius, but I don’t remember.
We should have gotten robocalls from anyone using that tactic, since my household is mixed-registration.
I had four phone calls in a row in less than thirty minutes one nite from Tiller’s Pac. It was getting rather annoying.
Yep!
Next is to get rid of the radical left from our political system.
Leave it to Republican to turn the thread topic to “all about me.”
Are social conservatives getting their asses kicked?
Yes.
The Great Repudiation has begun. The American people have seen what happens with the right-wing ideologues in power.
And they don’t like it.
Beemer tried to go after Loganbill over abortion, and was even telling voters in my neighborhood that Loganbill “isn’t a real Christian” (she’s a very devout Mennonite). We see how well that far-right tactic worked for Jan. She managed to pull a whopping 38% of the vote.
Impressive.
It was refreshing to see the butt kicking of the “righteous right” in the elections. Anytime we can wave good bye to creeps like Connie Morris, it is a good thing. Jan Beemer and her southwind group are just as bad, and do not deserve to hold public office.
There is separation of church and state for a reason. Or…we could return to the days of Charlemagne, where you either followed the state’s church, or you were killed.
“Social Conservatives” are losing it for lots of reasons.
The biggest reason is the Republican Party has proven — since the Reagan years — that they want the issue and the votes that come from Christofascism, but they sure as hell don’t want the policies advocated by the Religious Wrong. The GOP’s lip-service to evangelicals is beginning to sink into even those heads that think they’ve been born more than once. Twelve years of Reagan/Bush I, 12 years of Republican dominance in the Congress, a decidedly conservative federal court system, and what is the status of Roe v. Wade (a decision written by a Republican-nominated SCOTUS justice)? The 10 Commandments aren’t splatterd on the walls of every public building and evolution remains a fact and nobody really cares if people who love each other want to enter into lifetime committments with each other, regardless of gender.
The social conservative agenda has been a manipulative sham of promoting hate and fear against threats that do not exist.
Wasn’t Bon-Bon another darling of the “Right”? How did she do in that election? And I noticed that Carlos tried to capitalize on that connection this past week in mailings and church hand-outs. Didn’t work too well for him either.
I think it is also important to keep in mind that, in many of these races where the neo-conservatives lost, there was a distinctly better quality candidate running as the Democrat: Carl Brewer, Paul Morrison, Raj Goyle, Terry McLachlan, Cindy Neighbor, Nancy Boyda, Barbara Fuller, Judy Loganbill, etc. If there is a recent message that these elections have borne out, it is that medicore candidates who affix an R after their name will have a difficult time winning election.
Kelly, hear hear!
I don’t like conservatives in general but I especially detest religious conservatives. These people are beyond nutty but they are downright dangerous to the country and its freedoms. They are really no different than the Taliban in that they seek to impose on you and me their own view of religion. Whether it is gambling, beer, blue laws, porn or abortion, these people have decided that they know what is best for you and me and that we have no right to live our lives as we see fit. And they will use the power of government to prevent people from living as they see fit.
Yeah Kev, you tell em!
It’s your right to gamble your earnings away, get drunk and DUI’s, buy porn that degrades women and get your alternative birth control at Tiller’s scraper factory. That’s it, yeah…you sure told them.
Perhaps you can contribute some money for some burkas to the local churches. Ooops, my bad! You’ll be spending all of that on gambling, hootch and scootch!
“They are really no different than the Taliban in that they seek to impose on you and me their own view of religion.”
Kev, here is a news flash, …. I agreee with you 100%. The “evangelicals” are no more or less equal to the Talibahn, a religious califate, and should not be in the political discussion. They have damaged my Republican party in Kansas so badly I cannot forgive them their arrogant grap at power.
These people however are NOT “CONSERVATIVES” in any way shape or form. Just pecause they are prudes and purists does not mean that they possess ANY POLITICALLY CONSERVATIVE THOUGHT OR VISION. That is why they loose.
Now if we can get rid of the “extreme left” like this “extreme right” evangelicals and chase them all out of the political process we can then get past “Political Bipolar Disorder” and get something done.
Did I see yard signs with Cindy Duckett’s name on them? How did she do?
XXX–
She tanked. Hallejulah.
Republi-Tyler–
What extreme “leftists” do you refer to?
Observation: Of the conservatives who ran for school board the one who did well was the FISCAL conservative.
For crikes sake, the Repub leadership has thought they were all loser crazies for the last 20 years.
Just needed the votes.
Same as the Dems are now wet kissing the tin foilers in Moveon and other Leftist International ANSWER types.
Same Bat-Shit crazy, but get that vote…then move on, nothing here.
What do you think they are doing when the play “Whack a Mexican” one day and then “Hey Jose’ Have we got a government program for you” the next day.
Looks like MrBill took one to the head a few times too often by old Sluggo.
Somebody translate that gibberish into English for us . . . wait, don’t bother . . .
Ben is right. Peterjohn is a fiscal conservative. They can do pretty well. Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins after all the provisionals are counted up.
I do have a question about Barb Fuller, who won her a seat on the school board. Will she still be active in the teachers union? I know she used to be the Vice President I believe. She would have had to resign to run for school board member.
“Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if he wins after all the provisionals are counted up.”
I would be very surprised. I voted for him **shocker**, but I will bet 25 cents he loses. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I think that the provisional vote tend to swing more liberal. Anyone know?
You might be right fleetwood. Liberals tend to be very confused and uninformed voters. They are either lost or cannot follow directions. So they alway end up in the wrong polling place.
*just poking fun people*
Ben Sciortino lost his re-election by provisional ballots to Gwynn. So you might be right fleetwood.
I also voted for Peterjohn, because I like people like him that try to break the traditional mold. He’s honest and passionate.
He would make a great monkey wrench!
Voting in advance doesn’t make much sense to me (unless you will be gone, sick, etc.). Sometimes, legitimate info comes out late. The campaign is not over until election day.
Sure guys egg them on! Yes they have taken some hits and the public and the party has been woken up to the damage they can do. Mr. Bill is more right then wrong, both parties go after the extremist vote because as a matter of fact it is the extreme that is more likely to vote in the first place. The R.R. is a large, motivated voting block. And it would be a mistake to take them as less then “politically savvy” the marriage amendment showed that they understand the best way to get a otherwise “if” idea through is to use the mid-term vote. Remember that only 37% ( seem to remember) of all registered voters voted on it.
yes they will regroup and come back even smarter on how to use the system, rebuilding many covert candidates. After all as they see it they are mandated by God, failing to see that by their actions they do far more damage to the faith then Satan could do. It made me sad for my best friend whom is a member of Immanuel and was a Fox supporter. When I watched Pastor Fox on one of the “all religion… all the time” channels. When he mentioned that he use to be a minister to a large church that many claimed to be “Saved and true followers of God” but were not willing to do God’s bidding and enforce God’s laws.
Not to mention that they have given the term “Social conservative” a bitter taste in the mouth. Being for “big Government conservatism” does not help the Republican party either.
Generally speaking, provisional ballots tend to follow the same trends as are seen at the polls. Last November, Sciortino lost on Election Day and Gwen Welshimer increased her winning margin when provisionals were counted – which is what you would expect since she had more than a bare majority on Election night. Same with Terry McLachlan’s victory. So it would really be an anomaly for Peterjohn to have a large enough lead in provisional ballots to not only overtake Harding, but to push past him.
Also, Barbara Fuller retired from running the teacher’s union over a year ago.
Actually kelly, Barb Fuller retired from UTW TWO years ago. She has been a substitute teacher since retirement.
In this article:
http://www.kansas.com/225/story/36158.html
is this quote -
*****”At this point I didn’t expect to have come this close,” Peterjohn said. “The chances of the outcome changing is possible but not probable,” he said. “I’m not conceding but I’m not going to be Wichita’s version of Al Gore, either.”*****
After you have kids Joe, I would like to talk to you about how you’d like silly ideological struggles over meaningless crap to interfere with your kid’s public education.
Don’t tell me you’re going to send them to private schools. I don’t think that is going to happen.
I am catching up with this thread late.
Tom, I don’t think the Kline v. Morrison contest was about abortion. Morrison won by: 1)branding Kline as strictly a politician and not an attorney; 2)and branding Kline as a zealot who wanted into your medical records (I wonder how many voters even knew that at the center of the controversy – were abortion provider records; that knowledge might have lessened the impact of this successful branding).
Kline wrongfully thought that he did not have to respond to these portrayals of his record. It was too late before Kline realized he was in trouble. Morrison claims that Kline did not realize he might not win until the last debate – it was over by that time.
I received the Snoop Dog mailings that were put out allegedly by ProKanDo (Tiller’s pac). I had not heard about Tiller RoboCalls – I think that at a minimum that KSMeadowlark would have reported on that story. Count me as skeptical about the robocalls, too.
All those are definitley my rights except the DUI part- and on that, let me give you an example of the conservative logic at work. Here in Georgia which has long been ruled by the Southern Baptist Convention, you cannot go into a store and buy beer or wine on Sunday and take it home and drink it in your own home BUT it is perfectly fine to go out and have the drinks served to you and drive home drunk. It is really all about money with conservatives. They talk alot of bullshit about “morals” but the minute morals interfere with making a dollar, guess which wins?
BTW I do not drink, smoke, do drugs (have done all those things in the past) and I attend services at least 2 Saturdays a month.
Yes, they’ll make a comeback, and voters will have to remember that this, like all the other times, has led to nothing more than having to beat them back down with a big stick.
Keep your sticks handy.
These fundies like to be in charge so they can molest children and control law enforcement in order to prevent ever being brought to justice.
Tyler:
The only problem is there is no such thing as an *extreme* left power base in America.
I’m pretty liberal by Kansas standards, but when I’m visiting friends in California, I’m just about the most moderate person in the room. I know real Leftists whose beliefs would probably make your sphyncter shrivel.
The Far Right, on the other hand has talk radio, evangelicals, the FAUX Noise Channel, Ann Coulter, et al.
Moneyhawk we have Ann Coulter and you have Al Franken. We have Rush and you have Air America. You have Rosie, Charlie Sheen, Joy Behar, Barbara Streisand and we don’t have any celebrities. That doesn’t seem fair to me.
ksgrm,Those are the best you can do for far-leftists? I hate to tell you, but the left wing goes, or at least used to go a whole lot further left than them. To go much further right than our current RR crop though, you’d probably have to return to a feudal theocratic monarchy.
Kelly, I agree with all but the reference to Raj Goyle. I can’t call someone who only ran for planned higher gain a better qualified candidate.
Gay Mafia:
I agree with your reference to Goyle. He is way too overqualified. Before the 11/2006 election, I predicted that he was too ambitious for Topeka and would be back in DC by summer working on Hillary’s campaign to try to be part of history. Raj has been disassociating himself from working for the Maryloand chaper fo the ACLU to try to portray himself as a moderate. He has too much of a paper trail to try to be Eastborough’s Obama. It’s only more proof that most of Kansas elected officials (conservative or liberal) are chameleons willing to sell out their political base to cut a deal at the request of a power broker working for casino & real estate developers. We do need principled, elected officials like Karl Peterjohn and Tim Huelskamp regardless if they are conservative or liberal.
Charlton Heston, the govenator, Chuck Norris, are all republican celebries.
Isn’t Peterjohn a libertarian and not a republican, the Kansas LP claims as much on their web page. And his anti-tax, anti government stands on issues like the arena put him at odds with mainstream Republicans
TP,If memory serves, Peterjohn used to be Willard Garvey’s toady who lobbied the legislature for favors for Builders Inc., such as tax breaks for slumlords and no tenant rights.
Too Bad?!