To the surprise of no one, new campaign finance disclosures reveal that a top Democratic PAC gave money in support of independent candidate Greg Orman in this year’s Kansas Senate race.
The Kansas City Star reported Sunday that Senate Majority PAC, one of the biggest backers of Democratic Senate candidates in the midterms, funneled at least $1.5 million to two other groups that were supporting Orman. The PAC is run by former advisers to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Senate Majority PAC gave $1.3 million to the Committee to Elect an Independent Senate and $151,000 to Kansans Support Problem Solvers, both of which boosted Orman in his losing campaign against Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), according to the Star.
The transactions occurred on or after Oct. 16, which meant they were not disclosed under federal campaign finance rules until more than a month after Election Day.
National Democrats had been publicly coy during the campaign when describing their intentions for the race, and Orman never publicly pledged to caucus with Democrats if he won. But GOP operatives seized the revelation as a sign of Democratic duplicity.
“The fact that Greg Orman is a liberal Democrat isn’t shocking, anyone who heard him over the last month of the race reached the same conclusion,” Brad Dayspring, a National Republican Senatorial Committee official, told TPM in an email. “It is noteworthy that Majority PAC and other Democrats in Washington tied to Harry Reid repeatedly lied to reporters about their involvement in this race.”
Orman’s ascendance as the de facto Democratic candidate followed the actual Democratic nominee Chad Taylor dropping out of the race in early September. Taylor’s withdrawal came after a conversation with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and it is widely assumed that the national party wanted to boost Orman’s chances because he was polling better against Roberts than Taylor was.
Orman lost to Roberts, 42 percent to 53 percent, last month.
