Report: National GOP Takes Helm Of Roberts’ Listing Senate Campaign

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts addresses a group Monday afternoon Aug. 11, 2014, during a nearly hourlong town hall held at the Pioneer Center in Troy, Kan. (AP Photo/St. Joseph News-Press, Todd Weddle)
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The National Republican Senatorial Campaign is moving to take charge of the troubled re-election campaign of Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), deploying one of its campaign fixers to Kansas, the New York Times reported Thursday. The move comes after the state’s U.S. Senate race was upended when the Democratic nominee announced Wednesday that he was dropping out.

The Times reported that Chris LaCivita, a longtime GOP operative known as “a political troubleshooter in past Republican campaigns,” would be in Kansas by the weekend to assist Roberts.

Democratic candidate Chad Taylor asked to be dropped from the ballot Wednesday, leaving independent candidate Greg Orman to face off with Roberts. An August poll from Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling found that Orman was leading Roberts by 10 percentage points in a head-to-head match-up.

The Times reported that the Roberts campaign has not aired any television ads since the Aug. 5 GOP primary, which Roberts won with less than a majority of the vote, while Orman has been consistently on the air. Roll Call also reported Thursday that Roberts had not been actively campaigning for about a month.

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