There Are Now Two Less Things the Matter with Kansas
Wed Aug 02, 2006 at 05:59:19 AM PDT
Well, with all the bad news about lately, I thought I would go ahead and offer some analysis on top of Darksyde's post about the victory in Kansas, and the accompanying upside to the whole evening. It appears that two moderate Republicans managed to defeat the nuttiest of wingnuttia in the Republican primary for the State school board. What does this mean? Well, in immediate terms, no matter the outcome of the various general election match-ups, the new State Board of Education will now be comprised of at least 6 moderates who are pro-evolution, with only a maximum of 4 irrational witless wonders sticking around. We still even have a good chance of knocking off another Flying Spaghetti cultist...errr...creationist follower in the fall when a Democrat goes up against him and turnout is much higher. Follow me below the fold for the really good news about all this and some early morning schadenfreude to start your day off right.
First, the political aspects. Tonight's victories were in the unlikeliest of places. In an open seat (recently vacated by a creationist nut), Jana Shaver (a moderate) beat out a newcomer opponent to become the Republican nominee for District 9 (this is mostly southeast Kansas - largely rural from what I can tell of the map). In addition, Sally Cauble squeaked out a decent victory over the queen wingnut herself, Connie Morris (more on this illustrious character in a moment). This district (District 5) happens to be the largest (geographically) of all the School Board districts, and includes most of far western Kansas.
We still have a good shot of taking another seat in November by going after District 3, which is in the Kansas City suburbs and may swing in a stronger Democratic year. This seat will hopefully see some money from the Kansas Alliance for Education (http://www.ksalliance.org/), which spent money for radio spots in cheaper media markets for the races listed above. The good news here is, they appear to have had an impact. If they can get an influx of contributions, they will only have one race that needs to be focused on for November and can concentrate their efforts accordingly (the people heading it up are both Democrats and Republicans, all quite sane and goodnatured people, you'll just have to trust me on this - please donate, they could use your help).
Unfortunately, two wingnuts did manage to hold on to their positions, but one of them is still facing a strong challenge from a Democrat in the general election. Don Weiss in District 3 (http://www.donweiss.org/) has a shot at taking this one from the Republicans, as the whole area is trending at least reddish-purple and he could peel off enough moderates to win it. Consider donating to him, as small donations can really make a big difference in races like this. The other wingnut will unfortunately get to keep his seat, but it would be nice if he were in a 7-3 minority so that everyone can put him and his two friends in a corner while the adults actually make policy.
Anyhoo, I promised some schadenfreude, and here it is. Sally Cauble's win out in District 5 is frankly a bit of a stunner for me. I thought that the Democrat might have a shot in the general (Tim Cruz, who is a somewhat well-known Hispanic politician in an area that features many Hispanic workers), but never thought that Morris could get knocked off her high horse in the primary. Morris is not only a far right wingnut (she wrote a book that discussed her conversion - one of those revival meetings where the beams of light caused her to shake on the ground...something like that...I couldn't take too much reading about it...just trust me, she's batshit insane), but a complete hypocrite in the Ralph Reed mold as well. You see, there was a bit of a problem with a junket she took to Miami that was paid for by...who else?...the Kansas State Board of Education. Seems she ran up a sizable hotel bill that may not have sat so well with her constituents, especially at a time when the Kansas Supreme Court was demanding more money for the schools. I'm not going to go into all the allegations of her complete and total break with what we all call reality here, but if you google her you'll find some quick information (schadenfreude bonus, one of the top results for googling "Connie Morris" is the website www.recallconniemorris.org - fun times all around!). Not that she's really worth knowing a ton about anymore as her ass has been booted out of office.
Anyway, I just thought I would brighten everyone's day by letting you know that there are now two fewer things the matter with Kansas. Granted, the nutjobs still live here, but Ann Coulter lives on the coast, so you can't really judge a state by a few twits who happen to have residence. We will take back this country. State by state, city by city, school board position by school board position. We will win. Because we are right, and they are psychotic.
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