Thursday, August 19, 2010

Dodge City Globe notes KFB endorsement

As noted yesterday, Republican Tim Huelskamp has gained the endorsement of the Kansas Farm Bureau.

Today the Dodge City Globe has coverage of the endorsement and what KFB President Steve Baccus had to say about Huelskamp's commitment to agriculture in the Big First.

Alan Jilka, the Democratic nominee in the Big First, responded by attacking the Club for Growth and its support of Huelskamp during the primary. It's very unfortunate that Mr. Jilka is unable to come up with an endorsement of his own, or even a plan to help Kansas agriculture, and so he is forced to attack Huelskamp second hand through supporters.

I agree with Sen. Huelskamp. Just because a group that supports him has one particular point of view doesn't mean that he will adopt that point of view.

But, since Mr. Jilka seems to think that just because someone supports a candidate for office and may express a certain point of view that that automatically means the candidate has the same point of view, I'll be reviewing his FEC reports for donors and see just what his supporters have to say. Obviously, Mr. Jilka believes he should only take donations from someone he agrees with 100% of the time.

Of course, that might be difficult to do for a couple of reasons. First, Jilka doesn't have that many donors. Second, he seems to be having difficulty complying with campaign finance laws and has been admonished by the FEC on multiple occasions.

More on both of those later.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Farm Bureau endorses Huelskamp

A huge endorsement today from the Kansas Farm Bureau in support of Republican Tim Huelskamp.
“More than ever before, farmers, ranchers and rural Kansans need a strong voice in Washington,” said Kansas Farm Bureau President Steve Baccus, a grain farmer from Ottawa County. “Tim Huelskamp understands our challenges and we look forward to helping elect him to the U.S. House."
Huelskamp correctly noted that this endorsement is critical to anyone who wants to represent the First District, which is heavily dependent on agriculture.
“Our district is heavily dependent on agriculture, and as a farmer, I understand the unique challenges we face in this industry,” said Huelskamp. “Having the support of Kansas’ farmers and ranchers is critical to representing this district the right way.”
Today's endorsement makes it even harder for Alan Jilka, the Democratic candidate, to win in November.

The Kansas Farm Bureau is the leader in Kansas agriculture and clearly Huelskamp's stance on the issues and his life long livelihood (farming) were all key to winning today's endorsement.


Congratulations to the Huelskamp campaign. I'm sure this is just a sign of even larger things to come.