As dealine passes, many wonder if Wasinger will get any first district money

Tonight is the final deadline for contributions to first district candidates and we'll know in a few weeks how everyone made out. This will be the first reporting period for Tracey Mann. Mann recently moved from Johnson County to Salina to run for the first district seat. Not much has been heard from the Mann campaign except a few Hutch News articles on his support for Democrat Jim Slattery against stalwart Republican Pat Roberts.

Rob Wasinger will be turning in another interesting report. In the past two cycles Wasinger hasn't been able to itemize a single contribution from the fist district. I haven't been able to find any news articles or data as to how many candidates for federal office have gone two consecutive reporting cycles without even a single contribution from the district they want to represent, but I'd be willing to say three in a row just might be a record.

Wasinger will also be trying to play catch up with Sen. Huelskamp in the overall tally. Even with Wasinger's nearly complete out-of-state financing, he still wasn't able to even be competitive with Huelskamp in overall numbers. In fact, in the last reporting period Huelskamp raised more from the first district alone than Wasinger was able to raise from the rest of the country. That is highly impressive in this economy and in a district that is considered economically depressed in comparison to the rest of the state.

Also keep an eye on Wasinger's expenditures. It was just last February when Wasinger told Roll Call that all of his campaign contributions would be spent in the first district.

"I look at all the money that I've raised, all that money is going to be spent in the district," Wasinger said. "It's my very own contribution to economic growth."

After saying that, Rob went on to file a quarterly report where he spent just over $1,000 out of over $25,000 in expenditures in the first district. That's quite a promise to be breaking. We'll find out in a few weeks if Rob is doing any better on his promise to bring economic growth to the first district.

And then there's Sue Boldra. Her last report was hardly impressive, but she had just jumped into the race. Will her numbers be any better? This one is a make it or break it report for her with six candidates in the race.

Jim Barnett will certainly have some cash on hand. The question is how much of her personal fortune is he willing to invest this time. During the governor's race he pitched in quite a bit of his own cash. There's no indications that he isn't willing to do it one more time.

And finally there's Tim Barker. He's already coughed up $100K of his own money in the last reporting period. Will this one see another cool self contribution?

The next few weeks will be telling. By the way, online contributions given now will be counted toward the next reporting period. However, if you write a check with a June date on it and mail it in right now, I understand it will still be counted toward this just expired reporting period. So be sure and mail out that handsome check to your favorite candidate before time runs out!

Wasinger reaches out to Independents, Democrats

About a week ago Rob Wasinger announced additional names to his "leadership team." As I've become accustomed to doing, I ran a quick search on some of the names that I recognized or I thought held some significance. One quickly got my attention, Troy Hickman of Hays.

Hickman is a current City Commissioner for Hays. He is a registered independent, something I find rather refreshing. I've found many registered independents in Kansas tend to be very conservative. So conservative in fact that they register independent because they don't believe the Republican Party represents their values. Lately on the national level, I would wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. Hence the need for a strong conservative voice in Washington like Tim Huelskamp.

However, it was a Newsbank search that piqued my interest. Hickman wrote a letter to the editor in 2004 endorsing Democrat state Senator Janis Lee for re-election.

2004 was the first election for state Senators after redrawing district lines in 2000. Lee ran against Larry Salmans, a conservative Republican legislator who had represented District 37, but after new district lines were drawn lived in the same district as Janis Lee. So an unusual election was set up where both candidates were incumbents.

That is what troubles me about Hickman's very public endorsement of Lee over Salmans. Salmans was a proven Republican and conservative and yet he found it necessary to publicly support the Democrat in the race. Perhaps that is why he's registered as an independent.

Hickman goes even further at the end of his letter to compliment Eber Phelps and Dan Johnson, State Representatives from Hays. Phelps is a rather liberal Democrat and Johnson is no friend of conservatives, fiscal or otherwise. So in one letter Hickman chose the establishment over principles.

Of course Hickman is free to endorse whomever he wants. What is concerning is his new support for Rob Wasinger, and Wasinger welcoming him with open arms.

Again, Rob is free to accept support from whoever he chooses. But how long will he continue to wear a "conservative" label while seeking support from those who clearly have had no interest in electing conservative candidates in the past, and have even gone out of their way to publicly endorse known liberal Democrats?

With no voting record and a long history of insider Washington politics, keeping company with supporters of liberal Democrats would seem to be a move a "conservative" candidate would want to avoid.

Here's Hickman's letter of endorsement of Lee.

Janis Lee deserving of your vote for 36th Senate seat

How fortunate we are to have Janis Lee as our state senator. She has been a stalwart ally of Hays and Russell in our efforts to gain water independence for the next 50 years.

Whenever Hays has needed her assistance, Janis Lee has been there to help, even before Hays was added to her district.

As a city commissioner of Hays and a former member of the Water District in which Hays and Russell are partners, I can unequivocally tell you that we should all vote for Janis Lee for 36th District Senate this year. Please help our communities continue to succeed in reaching an equitable settlement with the State of Kansas and ensure that our children, grandchildren and their descendants never have to beg for water for our city again.

In my opinion, we can have a strong leadership team in Topeka with Janis Lee, Eber Phelps and Dan Johnson representing Hays. Please support Janis Lee with your vote.

Troy Hickman
Hays city commissioner

Kaw and Border: Huelskamp's our guy

You can find a very well written piece about the first district congressional race at the blog Kaw and Border. In Win in '10: Wanting a big bat from the big first, they detail the first district race and why Tim Huelskamp should be the pick for any experienced, principled conservative.

First they take a look at Jim Barnett and see right through that conservative costume he's been wearing since his election announcement.

When he decided he wanted to run for Governor, his record and rhetoric took a sharp right turn and he started to sound and vote like a conservative. He also picked well-known conservative Susan Wagle as his running mate.

...he had a chance to pick a side in the Senate leadership elections when his former running mate, Susan Wagle, was running for Senate President against the liberal Steve Morris. Though the final vote was 18-13, his vote was critical in terms of conservatives getting to the magical 16 number. Barnett chose Morris and with it, threw away any remaining loyalty he had built with the conservatives who put their sweat and tears on the line for him in 2006.

And they detailed what everyone's been thinking about Rob Wasinger.

So, essentially, Rob Wasinger has been in Washington D.C. for the past 15 years, until now, when he has decided to run for Congress. While his resume is indeed impressive and might provide a great deal of insight into the workings of Congress and inside-baseball politics, we have a lack of real knowledge of how Wasinger would approach the job as a Congressman, individual issues, constituent work, and even subjects such as basic representation. How much time will he really spend in the district? How much of a fighter will he really be for the conservative cause? Is he just wanting to be a Congressman now because he's used to Washington and wants to stay there and wants a nice politically career?

And finally we get to the Kaw and Border pick, Tim Huelskamp. I'll share just a bit of what they had to say.

Senator Tim Huelskamp is one of the leading conservative voices in Kansas. For the last 13 years, he has been one of a few lonely reasoned voices in a body -- the Kansas Senate -- lacking in them. He's fought not just on one or two pet issues, but has consistently fought the good fight on a myriad of issue battlefields, from the sanctity of life to fiscal responsibility to low taxes to the size of government. The list goes on and on.

You can read the entire post here.