Former Barnett running mate Susan Wagle endorses Huelskamp on election eve

Susan Wagle, Jim Barnett's running mate during the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, endorsed Tim Huelskamp for Congress today.

"If Republicans in the First District want to be a part of the National revolution against Obama and his liberal policies, I ask them to join me in supporting Senator Tim Huelskamp for Congress. They should reject the last minute deceitful attacks that have been flooding the First District and distort the Huelskamp record. They should send Kansas State Senator Tim Huelskamp, a strong conservative, to Congress. I am confident Senator Huelskamp will dedicate his energy and his political expertise to taking back our Country."

Barnett's choice of Wagle was one of the primary reasons he was able to win a crowded GOP field. Barnett didn't have the conservative credentials needed to win the primary, so his choice of Wagle, and her stamp of approval, was instrumental in his win. Much like McCain's loss would have been much worse without Sarah Palin, Jim Barnett doesn't win a primary with Susan Wagle. But now the tables have turned on a candidate that has yet to break out of his polling numbers from over five months ago.

On election eve I'm feeling optimistic for the Huelskamp campaign. He's now riding a significant endorsement, just one more on top of so many he's received so far. Barnett's last minute attack on Mann and Huelskamp seems to have backfired to a certain extent. The fact that Barnett has been unable to pick up any additional support over a five month period doesn't bode well for his chances where 6-10% of voters are still making up their minds.

The fact is there were more undecided voters polled in February than those who supported Jim Barnett. And in the last poll virtually the same number of people support Jim Barnett while nearly a third of voters have made up their minds, and clearly haven't decided to vote for Barnett.

Tracey Mann has billed himself a conservative but was clearly splitting some of the moderate vote with Barnett. His ill received remarks over Obama's birth certificate cause him to drop several points in the polls, most obviously because those moderate voters are now having second thoughts about their guy. That leaves undecided voters with several names to pick from, and even if they split between Mann and Huelskamp, Huelskamp comes out on top.

In addition, while Rob Wasinger has had ads up for a little over a week now they seem to have been too little too late. The number of undecided voters splitting to Wasinger over the other candidates are not significant. Further hurting Wasinger is the simple fact that his ads just aren't that good. The patronizing tone that he's taken isn't going over well, and running as the "outside" candidate but then promoting his "experience" is a contradiction anyone can get.

In what seems to be a bit of irony, with Barnett stagnant and Mann falling, it seems Huelskamp has become the default "go to" candidate. And any vote that he loses to a Wasinger, Boldra or Cobb is simply helping him and not Barnett or Mann. Either way, I think Huelskamp comes out a winner.

It will certainly be a close election and even tonight, things could change, but Huelskamp has the edge and position to pull out a win.

BREAKING: Wasinger contributions fall by nearly half, still no contributions from the first district

I've been nearly shocked to my core. FEC reports are slowly trickling in and Rob Wasinger's has finally been posted. It shows only $55,000 in contributions this quarter, which is only about half of what he reported to have raised last quarter.

More shocking, still no contributions from the first district. That makes two reports in a row that Rob has been unable to find a single person in the district he wants to represent to contribute to his campaign.

I've only given his report a cursory glance as well as Barker and Boldra, but here's what I've noted so far that I'll expand on over the next few days:

• The word Virginia appears way too many times in Wasinger's itemized contributions. I'll have a geographical breakdown later.
• Barker only brought in around $23,000 but loaned his campaign $100,000. I guess it pays to be CEO of a bankrupt ethanol plant.
• Boldra reported only $9000, but all but two contributions were from the first district. Somebody send Wasinger a memo that fundraising in western Kansas is possible.
• Wasinger reported spending just over $3,000 for fund raising letters. HSP Direct isn't the name on the expenditure but the address is the exact same. Hmmm...
• Three expenditures from Wasinger's campaign were spent in the first district for a grand total of $1033.64 out of over $25,000 spent. So much for first district "economic development."
• A Google Alert turned up a letter to the editor from Tim Huelskamp to the Hutchinson News clarifying a contribution from "AIG." Turns out it was from an agent who used to sell insurance for AIG, who also happens to live in the first district. I wonder if KSNBC-01 will be printing a retraction to their previous post? I won't hold my breath.
  

As of right now, Huelskamp's report isn't up. Tracey Mann won't have a report as he didn't file until after April 1.

I'll have more over the next few days.

Blogger wars go national

It's the joke that never dies.

Over the past couple of days, Rob Wasinger has begun reaching out to national blogs and posting his thoughts and comments there. It's difficult for me to be critical of this as more information from candidates is good and I appreciate someone willing to use new media to reach new voters.

And if that were the only motives behind the blogger bust out, I'd be fine. But there certainly seems to be an ulterior motive here, mainly, that Huelskamp hasn't rolled over and died like Wasinger's plan entailed. In fact, it looks like Huelskamp is dominating state support and been more than competitive on the national scene. That combined with an embarrassing public tie to his pro-Wasinger blog and the Boldra hit blog and suddenly a new blogger image becomes necessary.

Of course, it wouldn't be complete unless Huelskamp joined in. He now has posts up on Red State and American Spectator. Both are excellent and the Am Spec piece certainly highlights Wasinger's inability to say Sebelius is a bad choice for HHS. It's such a simple truth, one wonders why he can't spit it out.

Rob has a post up on Red State as well and has certainly gotten his blogger posse to recommend him. My favorite recommendation comes from E Pluribus Unum. I think it's because it reminds me of another bloggers name, but I can't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps my readers can help me out on that one. ;)

Huelskamp highlighted on Eagle blog

The Wichita Eagle editorial blog noted today Sen. Huelskamp's opposition to a plan that would consolidate Kansas counties into 13 versus the 105 the state currently has.

“Wouldn’t we just save a lot more if we eliminate them all?” — Sen. Tim Huelskamp (in photo), R-Fowler, on the proposal by Sen. Chris Steineger, D-Kansas City, to consolidate Kansas’ 105 counties into 13 supercounties

The rhetorical question highlighted the question of how far politicians should go in considering government consolidation. The only state in the union that is not further organized into counties is Alaska.

KSNBC-01, in their usual fair handed fashion, believed this to be a quote of support of eliminating all counties in Kansas. Of course, the author doesn't seem to understand that the outrageous nature of this claim not only reflects poorly on the author, but it also provides further evidence the author of KS-01 is also behind the new Sue Boldra hit blog.

The Hutchinson news has more on the Boldra blog flap.

Boldra enters Big First race and gets a Wassyngton welcome

Goodness, I step away from the computer for a couple days and everything breaks loose.

Well, there's now four people who want to replace Jerry Moran. I'm sure that's just the start. I really wouldn't be surprised to see eight or nine different candidates either get in or out by the time it's all said and done.

In any case, it would seem Team Wassyngton has learned their lesson well and put out a hit site on Sue Boldra before she ever even announced her candidacy. I'm not really sure what to make of the blog or the comments. There are a few that seem to be from Boldra supporters that say the site is a fake but they don't ever say that the claims in the post are factually wrong, so that's a little troubling.

Of course, the more posts that are put up on the blog with the same tired picture, the more it becomes obvious it's a hit blog and nothing else. I, of all people, can understand refuting something to a point and then just saying, you know, if folks can't figure out the truth from that then common sense really is dead. So maybe the Boldra people got to that point quicker than I did.

I've never been good at pretending to be something I'm not, so no liberal masquerade blogs from me. Sorry to disappoint you. (And I know there are some of you that really are disappointed!!!)

Then again, it seems Team Wassyngton isn't very good at masquerading as a liberal either... or acting like they're from Kansas for that matter.

So while I'll give dirty politics credit where it's due, I'll also note that Team Wassyngton hasn't exactly figured out that over-the-top stuff doesn't go over in Kansas, even in the blogosphere. If they would have just stopped with their first post, it might have passed by under the radar, but in typical Wassyngton fashion, they just can't help themselves. (Can you say 300 million comments in 3 minutes???)

But, I will say that at least they started the blog late Sunday night and then posted a link on KSNBC-01 early Monday morning, a whole eight hours later. They can't pretend to be a gay marriage lover, they can't seem to lose that pesky eastern accent (in writing no less), but by golly, they sure have good timing, don't they?!