By SJ Otto
Not surprisingly, Ron Estes beat James Thompson, but not by
as much as the Republican Party expected or hoped for. Just before 10 last night, Estes finally made
it to his election campaign party. Like all other events connected to the
campaign, such as debates and public appearances, Estes put little effort into
any of it. That slacker was late to his own campaign party.
Thompson ran a real campaign and the Democratic Party mostly
ignored
him until the last minute. Despite that, he ran an extensive campaign and
nearly won with 45
percent of the vote, compared with Estes’ 52 percent. The Libertarian got 2
Percent. Thompson’s people tried to go under the radar with their various
efforts at shoring up their supporters.
Realizing what a slacker Estes is, the Republican Party
pulled out all the stops. They spent lots of money on this race, at
least $459,000, part of it spent running viscous and at times, misleading
attack ads. They were running those ads every break on the major TV Stations
the day of the election. Both President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike
Pence made robocalls to Republican constituents. Ted Cruz made a stop in
Wichita to get out the Republican vote. In contrast Thompson spent $240,000 and most of that was money he and his staff raised, not money from the state or national Democratic Party. Much of that money was due to appeals from progressive grassroots organizations that were riding a wave of anti-Trump enthusiasm among Democrats across the country. On the other hand Estes got most of his money from the state and national Republican Party. He and his staff did almost nothing to raise money from individuals.
That vote last night was the closest vote since about
1992. Thompson said on KAKE TV last night, ‘this is just the battle and not
the war.’ He plans to run again in 2018. Estes acted like he won by a landslide
when he finally showed up for the TV stations. He ignored the difficulty of
this race and acted as if he had a mandate to take to Washington to support
Trump.
Republicans are right to be worried as to whether they will
keep their grip on Kansas. In the last few elections, their support has gone
way down and their candidates are now
barely winning. Thompson may be right—that this is just a battle and Kansas
Democrats, such as him, will win the war for the hearts and minds of Kansans.
Margin of victory in House races
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