Betts goes national

The netroots are beginning to notice Sen. Donald Betts and his race to retire seven-term incumbent Todd Tiahrt in the 4th District.

First, there was his interview with the MTV street team that got so many views it ended up on MTV's front page.

Now, Sen. Betts has done a liveblog at the national web site New Majority and was even featured in a front page story on DailyKos.

Betts is a great candidate and Tiahrt has a record that he should be ashamed of (like voting against the expanded GI Bill), but Tiahrt has over $1 million in the bank, so Betts will need all the help he can get. The good news is, it looks like he might be on his way to becoming a darling of the netroots, which will help him financially and hopefully increase interest in his campaign locally.

The more people that get involved, whether it be making phone calls, going door-to-door or donating money, the better chance we have of retiring Todd Tiahrt in November.

To volunteer or become involved, go to his website. To donate, just use our handy ActBlue widget on the right side of the screen.

Think about it, if Jim Slattery and Donald Betts could win in November, that would mean that four of the six congressional seats in Kansas would be held by Democrats with Sam Brownback's seat coming open in 2010. We're a long ways off still, but the mere fact that its possible is a herculean accomplishment.

Great video with Sen. Donald Betts

Sen. Betts is a great guy and one of the most qualified candidates Tiahrt has faced since he rode the Republican Tidal wave into office in 1994. Tiahrt has millions of dollars so its an uphill battle, but Sen. Betts is right for this district. We ecnourage you to send Sen. Betts a few dollars using our ActBlue widget.

(NOTE: If the embedded video isn't working, you can also view the video here.

Obstructionist Todd Tiahrt

A hilarious story came out in the Washington Post the other day highlightin Todd Tiahrt's leadership in the obstruction of important legislation to help Americans (including 23,000 Kansans) in danger of losing their homes.

The Republicans decided to rush a resolution honoring America's mothers. Obviously, this resolution passed unanimously. Who votes against mothers? The problem was, it didn't waste enough time, which was the point to begin with. Enter Obstructionist Todd.



After Tiahrt's temper tantrum, an open vote was cast (lasting 28 more precious minutes) and 178 Republicans (0 Democrats) voted no. Were they voting against mothers? Probably not, as Tiahrt's staff explained afterwards. It was a vote on whether to table the resolution.

Now, we don't hear such a motion in the above video, but we also don't care. Obviously, no one thinks Todd Tiahrt or any other member of Congress is anti-mother. The problem is the games they're playing.

Instead of getting meaningful work done, Todd Tiahrt and his pals are more concerned petty maneuvers to block Democratic bills out of spite rather than a legitimate policy dispute.

Todd sure was a bulldog in his fight to get that open vote. Too bad he couldn't have fought that hard to keep the tanker contract in the US. Guess you have to have priorities.

Email Congressman Tiahrt and ask him why he fought harder to obstruct debate on the housing crisis than he did for Kansas jobs. When you're done, donate to Sen. Donald Betts so we don't have to deal with Obstructionist Todd any longer.

Campaign finance totals: US House

Here's a table of all the finance numbers for the candidate for US House.

We will post a smiliar table for the state parties later today and one for the US Senate candidates when that data becomes available.

Links

Incumbents: Jerry Moran, Todd Tiahrt, Nancy Boyda, Dennis Moore

Challengers: Jim Ryun, Lynn Jenkins, James Bordenaro, Donald Betts, Nick Jordan

Donald Betts campaign update

As we've said, this race will be anything but easy, but this is good news to show that Sen. Donald Betts is running a full-time campaign. Todd Tiahrt has won his previous races by default, and Sen. Betts has a great chance to make the race very competitive. He can be this year's Nancy Boyda. Below is some media coverage from Sen. Betts' tour of the 4th District with former 4th District Congressman Dan Glickman.

The Wellington Daily News

The Arkansas City Traveler

The Winfield Daily Courier

WE Blog

Todd Tiahrt is a slimy politician and anyone who has spent even a few minutes with him has seen this. If Sen. Betts can keep this going, we believe he can slay the dragon despite the massive fundraising disadvantage he'll likely be up against.

(P.S. click here to donate to Sen. Betts' campaign and help close that gap)

Donald Betts is playing for keeps

Some have criticized state Sen. Donald Betts' campaign for Congress as being a joke and said he didn't have a chance. I feel this negativity is misplaced. Betts is immensely qualified and is an extremely charismatic and likable guy who is very popular in the Wichita metro area. The only concern I had is whether he would get out and raise the money and make himself known in the areas outside of Sedgwick/Butler counties.

Betts has been out and about already more than Garth McGinn was in 2006. Anyone who thinks that Tiahrt is untouchable should take a look at the numbers from '06, McGinn got 34% of the vote. Not that bad for someone who barely campaigned and raised only $10,000. (Betts had already raised $20,000 by the end of '07)

Now, according to the Wichita Eagle, Betts is scheduled to do a tour of the 4th District and hold a series of events with former 4th District Congressman and current MPAA CEO Dan Glickman.

Has Betts run a perfect campaign so far? Hardly. I'd love to see six figures on his year-end 2007 numbers. But he's already raised twice as much as McGinn ever did and is getting help from Dan Glickman who is very popular in the 4th District. Anytime you're running against a six-term incumbent with a seven-figure warchest, it's going to be an uphill battle.

But if Garth McGinn, can get 34% against Tiahrt, anything can happen.

Democratic Domination, explained

Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about the drubbing the KS GOP received from Democrats in the 2006 election cycle and wondering "How the Hell did we Democrats do so well in a state where the registration numbers say we should get our clocks cleaned every year?"

Well, I think the majority of the reason is Democrats have a vastly superior organization on the ground and some great candidates. But there is something else that sometimes I have trouble putting my finger on. And then I get another email from Christian Morgan and it all comes back to me. Let's break down the latest (sent at 10:51 on a Friday night...I bet that got a lot of play, Christian!)

Democrat Week in Review

Say it with me now...Democratic...Democratic. Democrat is a noun, Democratic is the adjective. It's hard to take you seriously when your grammar is so piss-poor.

In case you missed it, here are a couple of highlights from the last week.

Kathleen Sebelius

In her continuing attempts to use Kansas as a stepping stone for her national political ambitions, the Governor was in New York this week discussing the Republican led legislature's ideas on reducing crime and recidivism rates in the state—while the Legislature was hard at work trying to undo her rejection of the most substantial job growth opportunity for Western Kansas in the last decade.

Of course, all of our kids will have emphysema, but by God their grandfathers would have been given a chance to work construction on a power plant (of course, chances are those jobs would've gone to out of state skilled laborers, but that's neither here nor there.)

While she was gone, she also managed ignore the hard work of House and Senate Republicans by taking credit for Kansas being one of the "Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States."

We can't help but wonder if the authors of StayRedKansas and the authors of this email share the same brain waves. Much like StayRed, good ol' Christian didn't feel the need to cite (or apparently read) the study he mentions. We'll help. See here or here. The author of the study said the results reflected a commitment from the Governor's office to business friendly practices. We'll give the legislature credit for the criminally-low minimum wage in Kansas, though.

But we were quick to point out that it's because of the Republican legislature passing pro-business tax credits, economic growth incentives, and tax cuts that make Kansas such a business friendly state. The Governor seemed to forget that she stood in the way of these policies by proposing tax increases, socialized medicine, and rejecting job growth proposals.

Yes, because most businesses our against providing free health care to children under 5. Which, by the way, Susan Wagle is now all for. Too bad she waited until after George W McCain...er...Bush...made sure there was no money to fund her new-found pet project.

Nancy Boyda

There seems to be a disconnect between the freshman Democrat's rhetoric and her actions in Washington. A few weeks ago, she made a big splash in the press about how she was not going to use auto-dial calls during her campaign. A few days later, residents across the 2nd District received an auto-dial message from Boyda's office. While she didn't specify that she wouldn't auto-dial from her official office, we find this just another case of Boyda not following through on her promises to the people of the 2nd District.

I'm not a big fan of robocalls, but a robocall from Nancy Boyda's office asking me what I think would be more than I (or anyone else) ever got from Jim Ryun, and he was in office for 10 years. If she wasn't conducting these surveys, this space would be used to criticize her for not being in touch with her district.

Speaking of not following through, Boyda made earmarks a major campaign issue in 2006, but has repeatedly failed to live up to her end of the bargain. She stated, "The earmark process has been abused in the past. Members of Congress have set aside funds for programs that turned out to personally benefit them." Yet this year, she has submitted $48 million in special earmark requests; we'll leave it to your good judgment whether her millions in earmarks "personally benefit" Mrs. Boyda.

Careful Christian, we now know that Todd Tiahrt, Sam Brownback, Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts all handed out more money in earmarks this year than did Nancy Boyda, and since Boyda is the only one on that list who makes her earmark requests public on her web site, this probably isn't a fight you want to start.

Thankfully, change is coming to Washington and you can be a part of it. Click here to contribute to the KS GOP and help us keep this liberal Democrat accountable.

Dennis Moore

Dennis is known for saying one thing in his district and voting the other way in Washington, DC. Most recently, he has been practicing this bad habit with two crucial pieces of legislation—FISA and the SAVE Act (immigration reform).

First, Dennis Moore promised to support a bipartisan Senate bill that would have protected those who helped protect America after 9/11 but then voted with Nancy Pelosi to block this bipartisan legislation and passed a bill that not only fails to protect those who have helped America fight terrorists but allows for a massive pay off to powerful special interests like the trial Lawyers.

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted Moore's double-cross on this important issue. To read the whole story click here.

Wow, after Nancy Boyda shoved this argument where the sun don't shine, they've moved on to Dennis Moore. Well guess what, the facts don't change regardless of who is on the receiving end of your baseless attacks. See this factcheck piece in Newsweek.

And then there is immigration reform. Moore states that he supports "...strong reforms that will improve our border security and make our immigration policies more realistic, enforceable, and complimentary to the global economy we live in...." however, he is standing in the way of meaningful reform by blocking the SAVE Act (Secure America with Verification and Enforcement) which would improve border security and boost immigration law enforcement.

It is clear that Dennis Moore has become part of the broken system in Washington that is failing us. It is time for a change.

I wonder why they haven't attacked Nancy Boyda on immigration...oh right, it's because she's already done more to address the issue than Jim Ryun managed in his entire 10 years in Congress. Although, I think I've done more to combat illegal immigration since I started writing this post than Jim Ryun ever did. Look, the fact of the matter is that Nick Jordan is a massive tool. Why they even bother wasting their time on this race is beyond me. Maybe it's just sour grapes on the part of Kris Kobach since Dennis Moore trounced him by double figures.

Apparently though, they have nothing to say in support of Todd Tiahrt or Pat Roberts.

Since they're using these lies and fabrications as a fundraising tool, lets hit'm right back. Below are the web sites for our federal candidates. Support them in any way you can, whether it's volunteering, donating $5 or donating $2,300. We've done well in 2006 and our situation is looking pretty strong again, but we're always up against a staggering registration advantage, so complacency is not an option.

Jim Slattery

Lee Jones

Donald Betts

Dennis Moore

Nancy Boyda

Kansas Democratic Party

BREAKING NEWS: REPUBLICAN BLOG MENTIONS BOEING

We've been on our friends at StayRedKansas and TheKansasRepublican a lot lately, trying to ascertain why, if they care so much about Kansas jobs, they haven't posted a single post regarding the disastrous decision to outsource a military contract to AirBus. You know, the one that John McCain tacitly endorsed while Sam Brownback, Pat Roberts and Todd Tiahrt twiddled their thumbs.

Well finally, after all of our efforts, TheKansasRepublican used the word Boeing in one of their posts. Fear not, they also talked about Holcomb and there were still plenty of sophomoric personal insults, so they're not ill or something.

While Tihart may have to fend off unwarranted accusations of the Boeing deal gone south, the facts will clearly prevent any of Betts’ mud from sticking. Few congressmen have delivered for their district the way Tihart has, and he maintains a large network of support throughout the 4th. The war in Iraq will certainly not ring the way it did against Republicans in 06, and Tihart has the warchest/ work ethic that will make the 4th nearly impossible to lose. Betts will need more than a few senate accomplishments and a kiss from "Kathy the cougar" to defeat "Todd the god."

Naturally, they didn't provide any evidence for why the accusations against Tiahrt are unfounded. It's possible they're just lazy, but our best guess is they don't have any. If you'd like so more intelligent analysis (with citations even!!!), see here, here, here and here. See also here.

More than just a weak defense of the Boeing deal, their argument for why Tiahrt will crush Sen. Donald Betts is that Tiahrt brings home the bacon from his powerful seat on the House Appropriations Committee.

This we cannot argue with. Todd Tiahrt loves him some earmarks. But this very same blog, in the post immediately prior to this one, criticizes Nancy Boyda for using earmarks for such wasteful things as equipment for local law enforcement and water treatment plants.

So Wyatt, Carrie, Doc, Custer, Wild Bill and all the rest, tell us, why is bringing home the bacon a reason to re-elect Todd Tiahrt in the 4th District, but grounds to toss out Nancy Boyda in the 2nd? Is there something about Todd Tiahrt's earmarks that is somehow more justifiable than Nancy Boyda's or even Dennis Moore's?

Readers, see for yourself. Here is a list of Nancy Boyda's earmark requests and here is the same list for Dennis Moore. You see, Reps. Moore and Boyda are some of the very few in Congress to make all of their earmark requests public on their web site. I would link to Rep. Tiahrt's, but....

Tiahrt to Congress: Hire a lawyer

The Honorable Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Goddard) advised his fellow members of Congress to seek legal representation as the body passed a bill creating an independent panel to investigate alleged ethics violations committed by members of Congress.

His now infamous quote: "If you have a single ounce of self-preservation, you will vote no.”

Is it really all that far-fetched to think that members of Congress might not be the most qualified people to investigate...themselves?

How can you possibly be opposed to independent investigations if you (and/or your political allies) have nothing to hide?

Good thing we've got a great candidate running against him in Sen. Donald Betts. Maybe we can finally kick Tiahrt's crooked but to the curb.

I love this article...

...because it so clearly exposes John McCain for who he really is - a two-faced son of a gun who will gladly watch American jobs depart if it means getting even with old foes. (Boeing to be exact.)

And it also shows Tiahrt bumbling around, trying to sound like he cares about Kansans while simultaneously insisting that, as a Republican, it is his duty to love John McCain.

From the Wichita Eagle:

John McCain might be taking this maverick thing a bit far. I mean, sending good aviation jobs to France?

At least that's the charge from Boeing backers, who accuse the Arizona senator of helping Airbus get a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract at the expense of American jobs, including hundreds of them right here in the Air Capital.

Boeing supporters, looking for a villain in this economic defeat, have put McCain in their crosshairs.

"I hope the voters of this state remember what John McCain has done to them and their jobs," said Rep. Norm Dicks, a Washington Democrat.

Many Republicans, too, are unhappy with McCain's role.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, told The Eagle editorial board last week that he thought McCain was dead wrong on this issue.

"I'm going to learn to love him," Tiahrt said of his party's nominee, with as much conviction as he could muster.

But Tiahrt clearly wasn't feeling the love on this issue.

Take McCain's comment that creating jobs shouldn't be a factor in military procurement contracts.

Tiahrt begged to differ. "McCain needs to make a decision," he said. "I want him to come down on the side of American jobs."

For many Americans, it's that simple.

You can read the rest here.

But before you do, buzz on over to Betts for Congress and contribute to his effort to unseat that lovey dovey Todd Tiahrt.

Laissez Unfaire!!!

All of a sudden, Pat Roberts, Sam Brownback and Todd Tiahrt are crying foul. After the Department of Defense decided to give the contract to construct new Air Force tankers to Northrop Grumman, meaning the new planes will be built predominantly in France, all of a sudden these legislators have decided outsourcing isn't so great after all.

Sen. Roberts and Brownback, not to mention Sen. McCain, weren't concerned about this possibility in 2003, but now that it's hitting home in their state, Brownback and Roberts have decided maybe a completely unhindered free market isn't such a good thing. McCain still doesn't care.

But what of Todd Tiahrt, he wasn't involved in that 2003 Senate amendment, but is he without blame in this situation?

Rest assured, if the deal had gone to Boeing, Rep. Tiahrt would be the first in line to take credit for swaying the DOD. It cannot be mistaken, Todd Tiahrt is a very powerful member of the House of Representatives. In fact, he was even considered for leadership positions after the 2006 elections.

Moreover, I firmly believe you can tell more from what a politician doesn't say than you can from what he or she does say. If Todd Tiahrt had done anything whatsoever to attempt to influence this decision, you can bet the farm his staff would be tripping over themselves to hold a press conference outlining each and every little email he may have sent to the Pentagon.

Ultimately, I don't think it's fair to say that the situation is Todd Tiahrt's fault. Certainly, Brownback, Roberts and McCain deserve some blame for creating a regulatory environment in which such a deal is possible, but shouldn't Tiahrt have done SOMETHING.

This seems to happen a lot with Rep. Tiahrt. He doesn't do a lot of egregious things, but he doesn't do much good either.

Write Rep. Tiahrt and tell him to start using his power for more than just bringing home earmarks and start fighting for the average Kansan.

On second thought, just donate money and/or volunteer for state Sen. Donald Betts and kill two birds with one stone.