KS-Sen: Taylor drops out

[NHLiberal]

With this development, I am shifting the race into the toss-up column.

Go Orman!

Yet you have Kansas as Safe R, despite Brownback not leading in a single non-YouGov poll since April (or since January if you exclude Rassy as well)

[NHLiberal]

Hopefully Weiland in South Dakota follows suit and drops out leaving Pressler to battle Rounds.

That was my thought at first, but I'm not sure it's the same. In Alaska (where I'm still convinced the Republican is likelier to go down than Kansas) and Kansas, the indy was way ahead of the Dem in polling and fairing much better against the incumbent in a 2-way matchup. I'm not sure that's the same in SD, especially with Weiland gradually improving and Rounds gradually declining yet Pressler staying separate. It might be better if Pressler dropped out, though it'd still be likely R.

[NHLiberal]

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

Wow. That's pathetic. This is why more states should handle the position of Secretary of State like Maine and New Hampshire, where it's elected by the legislature and isn't part of the partisan fray. A rabid partisan with likely motives for higher office really shouldn't be making this sort of decision.

[NHLiberal]

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

Wow. That's pathetic. This is why more states should handle the position of Secretary of State like Maine and New Hampshire, where it's elected by the legislature and isn't part of the partisan fray. A rabid partisan with likely motives for higher office really shouldn't be making this sort of decision.

You think being merely appointed by rabid partisans with motives for higher office makes for better officeholders? Our SoS is appointed by the governor and it's currently the wife of a two-bit conservative talk radio host.

That doesn't sound good either. The SoS of New Hampshire is a 65-year old who has been serving since 1976 and was even reelected by the most rabidly Tea Party legislature of 2011-2012. It's more of an administrative position here, which is what it should be.

[NHLiberal]

Kansas doesn't seem like the kind of state that has a sizable contingent of "reflexively Democratic" voters. They tend to have a fairly high level of voter participation, which likely means they're relatively informed voters relative to the country as a whole.

If Texas Democrats nominated a dead man, he'd predictably lose but he'd still win the Rio Grande Valley in a landslide. If Alabama Democrats did the same, the voters in the Black Belt would pick the corpse over the Republican. Kansas doesn't really have any Democratic voters like that.

Or sometimes the dead man wins statewide

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Missouri,_2000

[NHLiberal]

I think blaming the Kansas SoS here is wrong. If the KS election law explicitely says that you can only step down as candidate by notifying the SoS that you are unable to serve if elected, then Krobach is only acting according to the law. It's his job.

You should rather expect the Taylor campaign to be smart enough to know the election law and they should have put the "unable to serve" thing into his letter.

Except the letter Taylor wrote was written with the assistance of the Secretary of State's office, implying the Secretary of State knowingly deceived the Taylor campaign.

This, and also just try to imagine how Kobach would be acting if the situation was reversed and it was to benefit Republicans.