KS-Sen: Taylor drops out

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There is an official letter stating this.

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I just saw that on John Celock's Twitter account, with a letter signed by Taylor.

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Call me crazy, but I think Orman takes it.

I don't think that's crazy; this race is definitely competitive enough now that Orman could win.

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Call me crazy, but I think Orman takes it.

I don't think that's crazy; this race is definitely competitive enough now that Orman could win.

It think more Pat Roberts people are going to defect to Orman since he's not a Democrat.

We'll see about that, but without Taylor in the race, I suspect most of his supporters will move into Orman's camp, so Orman at least has that potential benefit.

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It seems that the deadline date set by the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office for withdrawal, was today by 5 pm local time.
Taylor was reached by phone in his car, and told a local reporter that he turned in the papers to withdraw at 4:15 p.m.

What a close call!

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Politico has an article relating to Taylor dropping out of the Kansas Senate race.

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I haven't been following this race at all. How in God's name is this happening in Kansas? I'm still amazed that Brownback is in trouble, none the less that this race is in such weird shape .

I think the main thing is that neither Roberts nor Brownback are high-quality candidates in their own right, and with acceptable alternatives, like Orman and Davis, that kind of shortcoming can still adversely impact candidates even in a state like Kansas.

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Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call moves KS-Sen to from Republican Favored all the way to Tossup/Tilt Republican and declares that Pat Roberts is the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection this year.

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National Republicans are taking control of Roberts' campaign.

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Kobach has ruled Taylor stays on the ballot. Hasen examines the legalities here.

Wow.

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Is there anything known about Scott Barnhart (I) and Randall Batson (L)?

Here's a Question & Answer voter guide the Topeka Capital-Journal carried out with Batson. It seems to be a useful resource for familiarizing oneself with him as a candidate. Batson appears to be a textbook libertarian, in that he supports very limited government and limited involvement with foreign policy matters. His libertarian ideology definitely shows up in his views on same-sex marriage:

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He voices opposition to military involvement in the Middle East while calling ISIS a "big issue", and he supports pulling all of our nation's troops out of Japan and views war in the Korea as imminent. Based on what I see, I expect that Batson should at least manage to garner the typical level of support that Libertarians earn in Kansas.

As for Barnhart, he was a candidate for the Kansas legislature registered with the Democratic party, and after further examination of his past as a Democrat, I must say I'm surprised that he is in this race.

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As for Barnhart, he was a candidate for the Kansas legislature registered with the Democratic party, and after further examination of his past as a Democrat, I must say I'm surprised that he is in this race.

Wow! Barnhart seems to chance his luck on every legislative level.

Unfortunately, he might pull away some crucial Democratic votes destined for Orman.

Barnhart does seem more like one of those perennial candidates who fails to find electoral success.

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Wolf might endorse Orman but only if Orman publicly commits to caucusing with the GOP. Orman seems skittish on both the commitment and meeting.

If this happens, it would be a welcome suprise, especially since Orman potentially caucusing with Republicans would take Kansas off the map. Still, it does seem unlikely that we'll see any of this come to fruition.

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Washington Post: Greg Orman, a political enigma, faces growing scrutiny in Kansas Senate race

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Later in the article, an interesting comment from a Kansas resident:

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Greg Orman, the independent U.S. Senate candidate in Kansas, told The [Kansas City] Star’s Editorial Board Monday that he could not name a Supreme Court justice that he would have opposed had he been in office.

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Greg Orman criticizes both Republicans and Democrats in a new ad named "Half Right." Interestingly, a Democratic firm produced the ad...

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Washington Post's Aaron Blake: Pat Roberts is in big trouble, but he’s not a goner yet.

The article notes that while Roberts' favorability rating is quite low and he isn't even capturing the full support of his own party, what he does have going for him is that he conceivably has room to improve with Republican voters, his opponent Orman is not yet defined as a candidate, opening the possibility of negatively defining Orman in coming weeks, and polls are indicating that people care about which party controls the Senate, which could work in Roberts' favor in a fundamentally Republican state like Kansas.