http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/kansas-gop-senate-nominee-may-be-matter-of-personality-2009-02-17.htmlBoth of them are white, mid-50s men who have been in Congress since the mid-1990s; both rate as tried-and-true conservatives; both are former state senators; both have survived recent elections with ease; and both are relative unknowns outside their home state.
Discerning any major differences between Kansas GOP Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt requires a microscope, but as the Senate primary between them builds steam, wedges are beginning to be laid.
On policy issues, Moran is seen as a conservative with an independent streak befitting of his highly rural district. Tiahrt, meanwhile, is judged a hard-right, party-line Republican.
The GOP primary for the state’s open Senate seat is sure to be a battle of two men trying to out-conservative each other. But the looming threat of a general election with term-limited centrist Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D) is giving some Republicans pause about that scenario.
Should Sebelius opt not to run, the GOP primary is almost sure to be the de facto general election.
“I have assumed from the very beginning when I planned this campaign that Gov. Sebelius is my opponent,” Moran said. “Whether that is the case or not, I don’t know.”
Therein lies one of Moran’s biggest assets, Kansas Republicans say.
State Republicans see Moran as a better match-up with Sebelius, whom one of them labeled the “bogeyman” in the GOP primary. They say he can better appeal to independents and note that he represents, geographically, more than two-thirds of the state.
His district was formerly represented by another Sebelius, the governor’s father-in-law, and she won two terms in Topeka largely on the strength of her performance in the starkly conservative district.
But Moran has taken 79 percent of the vote or more in each of his reelection campaigns in the district, which is difficult to campaign in, and which could therefore prove challenging for Sebelius.
Moran was also in the race first, and he has more than twice as much money ($2.5 million) to start with as Tiahrt.
But calling Moran a party favorite is a stretch. In fact, he has rubbed many Kansas Republicans the wrong way.
Many of them credit a disastrous 2006 gubernatorial campaign to Moran’s lollygagging on the race. He deliberated so long, they said, that when he decided not to make a bid, no candidate was able to mount a serious run at Sebelius.
Tiahrt is seen as someone who has done a lot more for the state party, raising money for state legislators and doing the things necessary to promote the GOP. He has also shown leadership aspirations, including running for chairman of the Republican Study Committee in 2006.
“There’s an opinion out there that Tiahrt is a Republican’s Republican, and Moran is more driven by himself,” said a state GOP operative.
That evaluation has often held true when it comes to voting, as well.
While Moran is surely a conservative by Washington standards, Kansans are more divided on the question. He has broken with his party on some economic and foreign issues, including opposing the Cuban embargo and being one of 25 House GOPers to oppose the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Bill.
His campaign is prepared to highlight several votes on which he has tacked more conservative than Tiahrt, including voting against the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and No Child Left Behind. Tiahrt voted for the original House version of No Child Left Behind in 2001, though he later voted against the conference report.
One of the most potent lines of attack, though, could be going after Tiahrt for being an appropriator. Tiahrt led the effort to strip an earmark moratorium from the Republican Caucus’s list of priorities after the 2008 election.
Tiahrt notes that many of his earmarks have been highly beneficial, including one that was used to find the famed BTK killer.
Tiahrt’s campaign isn’t yet signaling policy issues on which it intends to draw distinctions from Moran, but there is already some sense that things are headed down an inevitable path.
Tiahrt’s rallying cry — “I’m not afraid to take on the difficult fights” — is seen as a not-so-subtle reference to Moran’s prolonged deliberations over the 2006 governor’s race.
Tiahrt says his and Moran’s voting records are very close, as are their ideologies, but that the race is about who gets things done. He points to his work in overturning a law that made Kansans’ airfare more expensive and in passing legislation that prevents tax dollars from going to groups that participate in forced sterilizations and abortions.
“I’ve got a better track record of getting things done than anybody else in the House in Kansas,” Tiahrt said. “I think I’ve got a good position to start from.”
Tiahrt declines to comment directly on differences with Moran, whom he calls a “good friend.” But during the state GOP’s Kansas Day event last month, Tiahrt’s helpers circulated a Wichita Eagle
article that quoted Moran suggesting President Obama is easier to work with than President Bush was.
Moran was forced to qualify those remarks in front of the most influential members of the party faithful.
“There’s a little bit of bad blood boiling up,” the GOP operative said.
The operative said the bad blood is worrisome because of the looming Sebelius threat and a history of divisive GOP primaries in the state. If the state party took sides in the primary, the operative said, it would likely do so privately.
That possibility looms large. Outgoing state GOP Chairman Kris Kobach has warned that 2010 would amount to “election Armageddon” in Kansas. (Sen. Sam Brownback and Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh are also set to square off in the Republican gubernatorial primary.)
While these and other Republicans are worried about the effects of a tough primary, state Chamber of Commerce Vice President Jeff Glendening noted that Republicans will have a top-tier gubernatorial candidate to latch onto and a general-election framework from Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R) 2008 campaign that is ready to go.
“Whoever wins that primary is going to be able to tap into a grassroots network that Sen. Roberts built,” Glendening said. “It’s going to be awful hard to beat the Republican, whoever that is.”
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