Blackwell praises Huelskamp on townhall.com

Ken Blackwell has an article up on townhall.com highlighting Tim Huelskamp's effort to once again defund Planned Parenthood in Kansas.

The article entitled Champions of Life on the Rise also highlights Virginia's new Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who also lead the fight for pro-life legislation in Virginia and yet won a statewide office. It just goes to show doing the right thing can pay dividends.

Blackwell had this to say about Huelskamp's efforts:

Last year, Huelskamp pushed to de-fund Planned Parenthood. His Amendment (referred to as “The Huelskamp Amendment”) actually passed the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Mark Parkinson, a Democrat.

But just as British Member of Parliament William Wilberforce vowed to introduce a bill banning the slave trade each year, Huelskamp seems determined to introduce his bill until it passes.

Aside from being conservative rising stars working at the state level, Huelskamp and Cuccinelli are both young Catholics. Both are also more than just “good votes” – they are Pro-Life legislative leaders in the mold of Sens. DeMint and Coburn and Rep. Pence.

Blackwell has endorsed Huelskamp in the first district race.

You can also see another interview Huelskamp did with State of the State KS.

With three days to go, Barnett still a no show on amended report

With three days left until an FEC imposed deadline, Jim Barnett is still snubbing his nose at the people of Kansas.

The FEC recently sent the Barnett campaign a letter questioning several items in their third quarter finance report. Previously Barnett was able to file an amended report within several weeks fixing mistakes that gave the appearance the campaign had much less cash on hand than in reality. The error and subsequent fix displayed the campaign's stellar ability to recognize a mistake and fix it quickly.

The Barnett campaign has had no such desire to quickly answer an FEC request to provide the occupations and employers of donors. This is the second report Barnett has filed where donor information has been missing, in direct violation of FEC guidelines.

When does Jim Barnett plan to take the citizens of Kansas seriously?

Wasinger uses not-so-anonymous surrogates for attacks

The Wasinger campaign once again is using their not-so-anonymous KSNBC-01 blog to attack Sen. Tim Huelskamp.

Entitled Huelskamp visits KS-01, touts experience in New Mexico, the Wasinger Ohio team selectively quotes a Great Bend Tribune article to meet the needs of their twisted view that Rob Wasinger is somehow not an DC insider and Tim Huelskamp is just a liberal in conservative clothing.

Unfortunately the Ohio team misunderstands that, by definition, it's impossible for Huelskamp to "visit" the first district; he lives there. Wasinger on the other hand, having moved to the first district with the explicit purpose of running for office, truly is "just visiting." It's sad the only line of attack the Wasinger camp has is to distract from the glaring truth that their candidate has moved back to Kansas for the sole purpose of regaining a paid trip back to DC. In the end all this really does is once again, highlight that Rob Wasinger is more a Virginian than he is a Kansan.

After all, when the election is over and Rob has lost, he'll return to Virginia or somewhere on the east coast. If that wasn't the plan, why still own a nearly three quarter of a million dollar home in Virginia?

The Wasinger campaign continues to point to county tours since Rob arrived in Kansas before the last election. This is a line we've all heard before. Remember that according to team Wasinger, he was the first to sign a no tax pledge. This of course, ignored the fact that Huelskamp took the same pledge when first elected in 1996.

When Rob constantly asserts that he's the first to visit with voters and the first to complete a tour of the district, he ignores two key facts. First, Huelskamp has been visiting with voters since, oh, 1996. So you might want to rethink using that "first" claim when, in fact, you were a distant second by more than a decade.

Further, while it's admirable the Rob made no bones about his desire to return to DC as soon as possible, constantly espousing that he is "visiting with voters" simply highlights the fact that he doesn't know any voters. After all, how else do you explain six months of absolutely no contributions from the district he wants to represent?

The fact of the matter is Rob Wasinger is a DC insider who can not win election in the first district. As many have said on other blogs, given any other year and no other qualified candidates, Rob would be someone that would warrant being considered. But with proven leadership like that of Tim Huelskamp in the race, there's little point entertaining a longtime DC insider with no voting record.

With all of that in mind, what really concerns me is the apparent apathy the Wasinger campaign is displaying towards Jim Barnett's candidacy. Everything coming out of the KSNBC-01 blog is critical of Huelskamp and raves of Wasinger but completely ignores the candidacy of liberal Jim Barnett. This combined with Wasinger's new push for "moderate" voters and his endorsement by John McCain makes me wonder just what is going on.

The fact is Wasinger can't win, but he can possibly split the vote enough to allow Barnett to win. And so far his campaign and Ohio surrogates seem either oblivious to this reality or in fact, are well aware of it, and would rather have Barnett in Congress than Huelskamp. Knowing Barnett's record, that is truly disturbing.

Wasinger needs to put aside his ego and recognize who the real threat is.