CONSERVATIVES WIN BIG IN KANSAS…EARLY RETIRMENT FOR THOSE REPUBLICANS WHO RESISTED REFORM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443537404577577360528694408.html?mod=opinion_newsreel
America’s grass-roots voter rebellion continued on Tuesday, most notably in Kansas, where at least nine incumbent Republicans in the state Senate lost their primary re-election bids to conservative challengers.
One big winner is Governor Sam Brownback, who campaigned in 2010 promising a tax cut to make the slow-growth Kansas economy more competitive. But his plan to reduce tax rates and close loopholes ran into trouble in the Senate, which has been controlled by GOP moderates led by President Steve Morris. The Governor managed to pass his tax cut, but Mr. Morris and his coalition refused to cut loopholes, which was part of a strategy of deliberately increasing a budget deficit in order to undermine public support for the rate cuts.
Mr. Brownback now has a conservative majority and a voter mandate to finish the job of simplifying the Kansas tax code and maybe phasing out the income tax. Conservatives for the first time in decades next year will have a governing majority with at least 26 of the 40 Senate seats. “This is all about making Kansas a more competitive place to do business,” he says. Voters agreed.
The spin in the national media is that this Kansas earthquake was bought by Charles Koch, the CEO of Koch Industries in Wichita. Mr. Koch and groups like the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Koch-supported Americans for Prosperity certainly spent large sums to defeat the incumbents.
But the liberal Republicans spent roughly as much by forging alliances with labor unions, government contractors such as road construction companies, and such interest groups as the Realtors that wanted to preserve their tax breaks. Unions even formed a Super PAC to help the Republican incumbents.
This is also being portrayed as a victory for the religious right, and there’s no doubt that social conservatives are part of Mr. Brownback’s coalition. But social conservatives have long battled cultural liberals for dominance in the Kansas GOP. The difference this time was voter angst, if not anger, over the limping economy, foot-dragging on tax cuts, and state Senate opposition to a state Health Freedom Act that rejected ObamaCare.
Similar voter uprisings against incumbency and insider deal-cutters have occurred this year in Indiana, Nebraska and Texas. GOP voters in these states want more principled representatives who are willing to fight for a faster and more far-reaching reform of a broken status quo—on everything from education to entitlements to the tax code. The old line is that there’s no education in the second kick of a mule, but Mr. Morris and his fellow Republicans might disagree.
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