Rep. Jerry Moran (in photo), R-Hays, is running for U.S. Senate in 2010, but might Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, challenge him? Tiahrt isn’t ruling it out but told the Kansas City Star that it was too early for such talk. “Like other Kansans, talk of another political campaign makes me groan right now,” he said.
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15 Comments
This must be a Kansas joke. Life long achiever, Jerry Moran, U.S. Congressman representing most of the Kansas geographic area … to be challenged by life-long coaster, engineering school dropout, Congressman Todd Teahrt, from South Dakota, representing the Wichita metropolitan area, an area in which he is seldom seen.
Sorry there just isn’t any comparison there.
I predict Todd Teahrt won’t take that chance.
Moran has managed to avoid the taint of the last eight years and its association. Appearing to be a good and moral man. That is the view from someone that is not in his district and the few times I have seen him he has not been an over impressive force for evil. But that has also kept him for the line-light while Todd has been bathing in it.
It might come down to the old thing about name recognition, more would be familiar with Tiahrt than Moran. It would appear that both Tiahrt and Roberts escaped the Bush curse in the minds of the majority.
Having been re-elected.
If Tiahrt does run against Moran, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Lets hope Tiahrt does run so we can get rid of him. Let say we fought for the Tanker Deal but still support McSame, who had it destroyed.
It probably will depend on how marginalized Todd Tiarhrt becomes in the new congress. I agree that Moran has stayed above the Bush mess but then again, Moran is not tied to the Radical Right GOP the way Tiarht has been.
Let’s see if Tiarht continues to listen to the drumbeat of only the Radical Right or if he actually branches out and accepts opinions and ideas of ALL Kansans.
But what if Brownback runs for Governor and wins? What impact will that have on getting Sam’s buddy Tiarht into the Senate?
But what if Brownback runs for Governor and wins?
BITE YOUR TONGUE AND CROSS YOURSELF, MOM.
I agree completely with mom that Moran isn’t a part of the radical right and Tiahrt is — a big plus for Moran in most states and with rational people, but this is Kansas where up is down. Tiahrt might have more name recognition (in the Wichita area especially), but is he recognized in a positive or negative connotation? Again, we’re in Kansas so reality isn’t a gauge we can use.
I think Moran represents all the good that is missing today from the Grand Ole Party.
Tiahrt is a lot like Palin in that he energizes two camps. Unlike Palin, the camp Tiahrt is in has numbers in Kansas. Our hope for our future is that the old coots can’t last forever, and maybe some of the younger ones can be deprogrammed.
“The thought of campaigning makes me groan,” says Tiahrt.
REALLY?
Because he sure hasn’t campaigned much in the past.
Picking up big checks at country-club events is “work” to him . . .
If Tiahrt ran against Moran, I might actually campaign for a Republican for the first time in my life . . .
I suspect Tiahrt could win a Republic Party primary with the twice-borns as his base.
Moran might be a better general election candidate but there’s an odd tradition with Kansas Senators. Not necessarily due to obvious strategy, we tend to elect a Western Kansas Senator and and Eastern Kansas Senator.
Moran owns the 1st District. Sebelius would probably carry the 2nd and 3rd Districts. I don’t think Tiahrt travels well outside the 4th District.
As an eastern Kansan, I consider Moran simply one of those guys out there. We expect western Kansans to vote for any Republic Party candidate.
That doesn’t automatically translate to statewide political clout.
If memory serves, Huckabee won the Kansas G.O.P. primary last spring. In that sense, Tiahrt might line up better overall with Kansas Republicans than Moran does. Here’s the other indicator that Tiahrt might seriously put up a challenge: 57% of Kansas voters went full speed ahead with the McCain/Palin ticket, even though Palin said Alaska’s proximity to Russia (or something like that) gave her a leg up on the foreign policy angle. Did the faithful pick McCain and Palin because they liked McCain or because they saw Palin’s “Alaska’s close to Russia so I’m basically Henry Kissinger” routine as somehow being grounded in reality? If the majority of the participants were gung ho Palin supporters, then I can’t rule it out that Tiahrt could deliver a sufficiently skewed message to cause Moran more than a few headaches. If Tiahrt manages to draw Moran into a skirmish over which of the two is more ideologically conservative, the buzzword game could get increasingly dicey for Moran. Did Moran ever endorse McCain and Palin? Because 57% of Kansas voters marched right into the ballot booth and vouched for Palin as a valid vice-president. If I’m Moran and I’m looking at that number, I’m asking myself what the thought process might have been. Or maybe Moran did, in the end, endorse McCain and Palin, which lines him up a bit more firmly with those who made the judgment call on election day. If I’m Tiahrt and polling shows that Palin was a winner in the sunflower state, it might be wise to stump with the Alaska Governor. Clearly, she’s looking to build a base of support in her party and gain an advantage over Huckabee in 2012. The whole thing promises to be a hoot.
Jerry Moran doesnt have to campaign as a wingnut out here. All he has to do is have an R behind his name. The wingnuttia is assumed.
He is indeed a wingnut from the word go, although he’s heavy on the wing and light on the nut. Look at his voting record. He votes right along the approved wingnut line.
The only time he voted against his party was on the Medicare prescription drug bill. It was a good vote considering how his district population is aging.
But on the social issues? Wingnut all the way.
Just like the voters in his district.
ksfarmgrrl,
My impression is that Moran is portrayed as more of a moderate in the press. Maybe they’re just comparing him to Tiahrt and Brownback.
It won’t surprise me, though, if Tiahrt runs to the right of Moran and paints him as falling short of the true, blue Republican ideal. In essence, Moran wants to have it both ways. He wants to benefit from the probably much-deserved impression in western Kansas that he’s conservative, all the while sneaking out to the eastern part of the state to milk the moderate angle.
That’s where Tiahrt takes his cue to come out from behind the curtain and point out that Moran has a couple of balls in the air. He’s juggling the conservative ball as well as the moderate ball. Tiahrt, meanwhile, will only have one, giant, conservative beach ball for people to bat around in the Kansas breeze.
All that may be true. I’m pointing out that anyone thinking moran is the lesser of evils needs to look at his voting record. It’s almost identical to tiahrts.
A wingnut is a wingnut is a wingnut.
Oh, and jerry is a nicer guy in person. But he’s still a wingnut.
I inadvertently put blog comments on the Robert Gates thread that I meant to put here. In it, I mentioned that I thought Congressman Dennis Moore who represents Johnson County and probably Douglas County and Wyandotte County (I’ve forgotten the boundary lines) … might choose to run for Brownback’s U.S. Senate position.
Dennis Moore is very popular in N.E. Kansas … partially because he was Johnson County’s prosecuting attorney back down the line. He is a Democrat which probably helps him in Douglas and Wyandotte counties.
I believe Dennis was raised in Wichita because his father was Sedgwick County’s prosecuting attorney some years back. I visited with the elder Mr. Moore at some length probably eight years ago in his office in the old Board of Trade building in downtown Wichita.
I think Dennis would be hard to beat. Of course a race between Jerry Moran and Dennis Moore would be a colossal political contest here in Kansas for Brownback’s U.S. Senate seat.