The conservative experiment in Kansas has cost the GOP 13 state legislative seats, The New York Times reports:
Brett Parker, an elementary school teacher and rookie politician, was a Democrat running against a Republican incumbent in a Republican state that the Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, clinched by 20 percentage points.
In spite of all that, Mr. Parker will be sworn into the Kansas House of Representatives next month, one of 13 legislative seats the Democrats picked up here.
In this election year, voters across Kansas leaned firmly to the right at the federal level, but showed far more nuance when it came to their state. In parts of Kansas, they punished conservative legislators linked to Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax-cutting doctrine, instead gravitating toward moderate Republicans and Democrats like Mr. Parker who blame the governor and his legislative allies for imperiling the state’s finances and putting public schools at risk.
So not only were 13 seats were lost, more, not enumerated, went to moderate GOPers – who, given the methods of today’s GOP, could be tomorrow’s DFLers. Per usual, the conservatives will blame outside forces:
Here, conservatives attribute much of the strain to downturns in the agriculture and energy industries, both central elements in the Kansas economy. Others question whether the cuts and deficits are symptomatic of a political swing that went too far to the right.
“The pendulum finally snapped,” said Brian Brown, a Republican who lives in Mr. Todd’s House district, but who spurned his own party and volunteered for Mr. Parker’s campaign.
But as noted in a previous post to this thread, that excuse is dubious. At some point, it’s necessary for mature adults to admit that reality has up and slapped you in the face. I know all about the conservative kant about lower taxes, governments never create jobs. etc. – I read it for years in REASON Magazine. At some point, you have to take a step back and evaluate your beliefs in relation to the facts on the ground. In contrast, this post (which is mostly just a pointer to this Daily Kos post) remarks upon the prosperity of Minnesota, which has not pursued a conservative economic agenda. It suggests that a strong infrastructure and well-educated citizens matter more than lower taxes – both problems in Kansas.
Complicating matters, the Kansas Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a lawsuit challenging the adequacy of state funding for public schools. The Supreme Court justices, many of whom conservatives tried unsuccessfully to oust in last month’s election, could order hundreds of millions of dollars in additional education spending.
The DFL remains the minority party for votes along party lines. The moderate GOPers have a chance to distinguish themselves through leadership by allying themselves with the DFL on key issues – we’ll see how ambitious they may be, or if the RINO throwers intimidate them into line.
Or maybe the RINO-throwers will be asked to leave the party.
