Independent candidate Greg Orman has jumped out to a sizable lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Pat Roberts in the Kansas Senate race following the withdrawal of the Democratic nominee from the campaign, according to a new poll from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling.
The poll, first reported by the Huffington Post, found Orman leading 41 percent to 34 percent. Democratic nominee Chad Taylor, who announced he would withdraw from the race but whom Secretary of State Kris Kobach has ruled must remain on the ballot, attracted 6 percent of the vote.
The PPP poll did not remind respondents that Taylor had stop campaigning.
The poll is one of the first looks at the race since the shake-up earlier this month. An Aug. 19 PPP poll, which preceded Taylor’s withdrawal, found Roberts with 32 percent, Taylor with 25 percent and Orman with 23 percent. That poll also asked about a head-to-head Roberts-Orman match-up without Taylor, and it found Orman leading 43 percent to 33 percent.
The new PPP poll surveyed 1,328 likely voters. It did not provide a margin of error.
Another post-shake-up poll from Survey USA found Orman with a narrow 37 percent to 36 percent lead.
TPM’s PollTracker average gives Orman a slight advantage over Roberts, 39.7 percent to 34.7 percent. Taylor is earning 7.3 percent on average.
Having lived my entire life in Missouri, in the KC area, I am both shocked and pleasantly surprised that the conservative Kansas has seen what the tea party has done to the Republican party. Here is the home of Koch Industries,and yet little known is the fact that their Republican legislature has time and time again fought the Kochs back, when they have tried to overturn a state law that says that a certain percentage of their power has to come from renewable energy sources. Kansas has a lot of wind turbine energy, and the Republican legislators in those districts are not about to allow the high and mighty Kochs to destroy a big part of their district’s jobs and economy.
Kansans may be conservatives, but they are not extremists, and both Roberts and Brownback have been doing the bidding of the tea party extremists, backed by the mighty Kochs. Although I doubt that they want to be seen as the saviors of the Dems keeping the Senate, I do believe that not only will Roberts lose, but also Brownback, and now even their Sec. of State Kobach is in some trouble. He is the same Kobach responsible for Arizona’s horrible SB 1070 bill, and is the one trying to forbid Taylor from having his name from being taken off the ballot for Senate. I believe that he just might lose his reelection bid also.
Now, if only the idiots in my own state of Missouri, that used to be a very moderate state, would wake up to all of the damage the tea party extremists in our legislature has done, and throw those bums to the curb too.
Well I am not going to count my chickens but it would be a sweet treat if Roberts lost and it resulted in the Democrats holding the Senate.
Great insight, but I have one question. Those sane KS Conservatives went to the polls and supported Brownback’s purge of moderate Republicans the last go round. And, rightly so, Brownback/Kobach took that as a mandate to go T’bagger extreme.
The T’bagger lege is there because of your supposed moderate KS base.
The bottom line is still the same…there is something going on in Kansas and whatever it is, it isn’t friendly to Brownback and Roberts. You knew something was up when over 100 prominent state republicans signed an endorsement of Davis over Brownback. Including republicans in the legislature.
Stormin’ Orman.
Anti-incumbency is running strong in Kansas thanks to Brownback on the state level and Roberts in the Senate (due to his Virginia residency and vote AGAINST the farm bill). Wonder if it will actually take down Huelskamp in the First District as well? Will they keep a congressman who got kicked off the Ag committee by his own Republicans?