Huelskamp, the true conservative

Other than not knowing it's Senator Tim Huelskamp and not Representative, give this Kiowa County Signal reporter a gold star for being willing to ask the right questions.

Hutch News: Huelskamp leads the pack

An article published Monday in the Hutchinson News highlights Sen. Tim Huelskamp's success in fundraising this quarter.

When quarterly campaign finance reports appeared last week on the U.S. Federal Election Commission's Web site, state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, Fowler, led the pack in the six-candidate Republican race in the 1st District's August 2010 primary.

Also noted is the difficult environment candidates find themselves in trying to raise funds with several major congressional races occurring across the state.

Complicating fundraising for the six Republicans jockeying to succeed U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, is Moran's own race for the U.S. Senate. He and U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, are locked in a contest and also seeking funds from Kansas Republicans. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., is running for governor in 2010, and he's competing for donations, too, as well as other Republicans running for statewide offices.

And of course the Barnett campaign notes that they just can't seem to get that finance report right.

By the weekend, representatives for state Sen. Jim Barnett, Emporia, were pointing out that a glitch in the electronic filing had created the wrong impression about Barnett's fundraising efforts.

You know, it's funny you would mention that and yet ignore the horde of "undisclosed" employers and occupations you listed after getting your hand slapped by the FEC for doing the exact same thing last quarter. Or was that an FEC "glitch" too?

Really, how hard is it to get that information? How much longer is Jim Barnett going to break the law?

I personally have no interest in a Congressman wanna be who thinks he's above the law.

Democratic candidate sued for sexual advances

In the big first district there's little reason to discuss the Democratic candidate because, well, let's be honest, whoever it is doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. But I did run across an interesting story in the Salina Journal that outlines a federal lawsuit against the only Democrat running in the big first so far, Alan Jilka, that I thought should be mentioned.

The lawsuit alleges that Jilka fired the former director of the Salina Housing Authority because she refused Jilka's sexual advances. Also named in the suit are the Housing Authority, the city of Salina and board members of the Housing Authority.

I don't know if there is any substance to this suit at all. It's odd that most everyone who's getting sued acted as if they didn't have a clue they might be drug into court, especially since there were also complaints filed with the Kansas Human Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And I'll certainly be the first to say there are plenty of frivolous lawsuits out there.

But I do remember a certain Attorney General who Democrats actively recruited to run in the last statewide AG race. And I remember his opponent bringing up a very old sexual harassment lawsuit. And I remember that opponent getting pummeled for even mentioning it. And, of course, I remember little more than a year going by before the entire state learned what a creep the AG was.

So I guess I'm not sure what to think other than wondering if the Democrats have found themselves another Paul Morrison. Will Kansas Democrats rabidly defend Jilka after spending weeks on the blogs calling Republicans rapists?

I don't know, but it'll be interesting to watch.