Few states are as strongly Republican as Kansas. The state is in many ways the quintessential GOP stronghold. Kansas, after all, was chosen as the archetypal red state for Thomas Frank’s book, What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. However, a new poll shows that if Republicans won the heart of America a decade ago, that is no longer the case. Kansas voters appear to be heartbroken by Governor Sam Brownback’s decisions as the state’s Governor.
A Survey USA poll conducted between June 19th and June 23rd shows Democrat Paul Davis leading the incumbent Republican Sam Brownback 47-41 percent
. Brownback’s right-wing ideology has turned off most of the states voters. Moderates prefer Davis by a whopping 69-23 margin. Independents back Davis by 19 points. Women choose Davis by a decisive 51-37 spread. Even 26 percent of Republicans would sooner vote for Davis than endure another four years of Sam Brownback as the state’s Governor.Kansas overwhelmingly supported Mitt Romney over Barack Obama in 2012. Romney carried the state 60-38. Given the conservative lean of the state, the fact that Sam Brownback is losing by 6 points, is a testament to just how thoroughly he has mismanaged the state in his tenure as Governor.
Brownback’s drastic tax cuts for the wealthy starved the state of revenue and plunged Kansas into financial chaos. Brownback’s dogmatic insistence on ignoring fiscal sanity, in deference to rigid anti-tax ideology, has been an unmitigated disaster for the people of Kansas. Moody downgraded Kansas’ bond rating
and the state continues to see budget shortfalls that are way below the Governor’s unrealistically optimistic projections.While Brownback’s economic policies may have been popular with Grover Norquist and the Sons of Wichita, they are doing nothing for the middle and working class residents of Kansas. Sam Brownback will no doubt try to draw support from wealthy contributors like the Koch brothers to keep himself in power, but his financial mismanagement of the state will not be forgotten by Kansas voters. The Kansas economy is in ruins thanks to Sam Brownback’s ill-conceived tax cuts. Brownback’s chances for re-election are also in ruins, and deservedly so.
Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.
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Sam Brownback, a total Koch Brothers stooge puppet. When will Kansas learn that the Koch Brothers are bad for their state and bad for the United States? The sooner the better.
We have the same problem here in Tennessee. Crooked Billionaire Governor Bill Haslam and the EvangeliBagger General Assembly has further eroded and destroyed the lives of Tennesseans. The time is now to a rid America of these 1% kochsukkers and expand TennCare (Medicaid) to insure the 300,000 citizens in dire need of healthcare. We also need real jobs, not people working as 'temps' on a 1099 for 3 or four years and never be paid a decent wage or benefits.
Repig Baggers and their ilk have done far too much damage to America already.
You are so correct! We must get rid of the baggers and R this next election if we ever hope to have our country back to normal and then get our rights restored that these hacks took away from us. They would be happy to see the rest of us 98% starving on the streets of a destroyed country. Don't let them do it! VOTE THESE FREAKS OUT!
Before we even lose that right to vote.
he tried to blame president obama for kansas financial downgrade. it would kill republicans to take responsibility for their own mismanagement.
http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article 348062/brownback-obama.
now paul davis will be elected governor and will have to try to clean up the feces brownback defecated.
What the voters are tired of the grand tea party palooza? Kansas is the republican utopia of conservatism. Now they're tired of the Brownback disaster. The other 49 states need to look at Kansas before voting for the repuds.
There is hope the republican base see what the koch are doing to them. koch, ALEC and the rest of the evil that pervades this country
It doesn't matter if Democrat Paul Davis is ahead, act as though he is behind and keep pushing until November.
It's encouraging to see Davis ahead, but Kansas' legislature is heavily Republican. I wonder how effective he can be and if the state House and Senate will be as obstructionist as our President has faced on a national level.
Hopefully the voters will realize that the Republican legislature voted for Brownback's policies, and vote them out as well. They're just as responsible as he is.
Brownback, like many republican politicians, are loathe to change. They seem to get hooked on trickle-down economics, even as they watch their approval ratings tank. Instead of correcting course after the first round of tax cuts didn't work, Brownback and the GOPTPers in the state legislature dug in their heels and did it again. Plus, they screwed over pubic education and ended up having to find the money to restore the funds they had cut from the public education budget. I think he and his rich backers will flood the airwaves with ads saying how "great" he's been for KS, but I think the dire economic reality citizens are experiencing will tell them not to vote for him again in the Fall. Serves him right. Sometimes being obstinate can backfired on you, and it appears that this is what has happened to Brownback.
Things seems to have gotten worse for Brownback and his RW buddies in the state legislature:
"Stunning job losses in Kansas undermine Brownback’s re-election plan"
"This stunning and disturbing fact about the Kansas jobs situation further undermines Brownback’s contention that the deep income tax cuts he and the Legislature approved in 2012 would act like a job magnet for Kansas."
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/yael-t-abouhalkah/article630326.html
Instead of those trickle-down inspired tax cuts being "like a job magnet for Kansas," it appears that they've become millstones around the necks of Brownback and his RW buddies in the state legislature.
It also appears that these folks need to take some economics courses.
The idea that "trickle-down" economics benefit anyone but the wealthy is a pipe dream. With Gov. Brownback's ineptitude and ideological inflexibility, Kansans have gotten a harsh reality check concerning what Tea Partier-endorsed policies actually entail. It's great to read the news that Paul Davis is leading in the polls, but it's vitally important that that lead translates into actual votes that toss Brownback from office.
It's weird. Brownback gave the voters of Kansas exactly what they wanted. Now they're mad at him because it didn't work. Whose fault is that?