On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014, Democratic senatorial nominee Chad Taylor
withdrew from the 2014 Kansas Senatorial race. Until now, it had been a 3-man race between Taylor (D), incumbent Senator Pat Roberts (R) and Independent candidate Greg Orman.
Three-way polling showed Roberts beating both Orman and Taylor in a 3-way race, but losing in a 2-way race.
According to Taylor's team, Taylor contacted the Kansas SOS directly to make sure that the wording of his withdrawal letter was acceptable:
Aaron Blake on Twitter Chad Taylor says KS SoS office explicitly told him that his letter was sufficient to remove him from ballot KSSEN http t.co PoDXklw8ZQ
The Kansas SOS told him it was.
Today, Kris Kobach, the Kansas SOS, then said that Taylor's name must stay on the ballot, because according to Kobach:
Kris Kobach Chad Taylor stays on ballot for U.S. Senate in Kansas Taylor to challenge The Kansas City Star
The Kansas Senate campaign upended again Thursday when Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Democrat Chad Taylor must remain on the ballot — less than 24 hours after Taylor filed papers to withdraw from the race.
Late Thursday, Taylor vowed to challenge that decision.
Kobach cited a 1997 Kansas statute requiring a withdrawing candidate to declare he or she is “incapable” of serving if elected. Taylor’s letter, Kobach said, referenced the law but did not contain the required language.
“The law is crystal clear here,” he told The Star. “If anyone thinks there was any political motivation, I would ask how they can possibly read the law any other way.”..
...In a statement Thursday, Taylor defended the language in his withdrawal letter. He said he specifically asked the secretary of state’s office about the proper wording and certification and drafted his message accordingly.
“Upon confirming that my letter would remove my name from the ballot, I presented identification, signed the notary ledger, and signed the letter before a secretary of state employee notarized it,” Taylor’s statement said. “My candidacy in this race was terminated yesterday.”
In a news conference, Kobach disputed Taylor’s account. Kobach said an employee in his office was questioned and at no time was Taylor told that his filing was sufficient to withdraw his candidacy...
...It isn’t clear how Kobach’s office became officially involved in the fight. Wednesday afternoon, his office pulled Taylor’s name from the list of candidates running in the state. Just hours later, it was back — as legal questions swirled around the withdrawal announcement.
GOP officials in Kansas said they did not file a formal request for a review. Instead, they submitted a “summary of argument” document claiming Taylor had not met the legal requirements for withdrawal.
Ok, so let's assume that Kris Kobach's SOS did not play the Democratic team for fools, that it was not a backhanded attempt to keep a three man race going.
In that case, even with Taylor's name on the ballot, only a small smattering of Democrats will still actually vote for him, the rest will very likely move over to Greg Orman (I). In other words, by making this big news, I suspect that Kris Kobach, who himself is locked in a tight race to hold his own position as KS-SOS, just gave Orman a lot of free publicity.
Taylor's mistake was in trusting, I assume. He should have also demanded something in writing from the KS-SOS office.
Meanwhile, Sen. Robert's team is having a hard time deciding where "home" is for him:
Despite tough primary Sen. Pat Roberts path to victory in November smoother than opponents The Wichita Eagle
During the primary Wolf attacked Roberts for living most of the year in northern Virginia. The issue is unlikely to go away as the race moves into the general election. Roberts promised Tuesday night to go on a listening tour of the state. He flew back to the Washington, D.C. area following his victory, according to his campaign manager.
“He went back home for two days or three to rest. I think he’s going to come back here the first of next week,” Towns said. “He’s going to spend most of August out here.”
Towns caught himself calling northern Virginia Roberts’ “home” and clarified.
“Home is probably not the right word in terms of the way the campaign’s been. But anyway he went back there. It’s where his family is at the moment. But he does intend to spend every moment between now and the election in Kansas, I think, that he can,” Towns said.
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There is no way to know for sure how this is going to go, but either way, it is going to help Greg Orman, I suspect. And the other thing that is for sure is that the Tea Party in Kansas does not like Senator Roberts.
