Kansas GOP denounces KTRM (kind of, sort of…)

The Kansas Republican Party leadership responded (kind of, sort of…not really) on Friday with an emailed statement denouncing the primary election attacks by KTRM on Phill Kline and Jim Ryun, both of whom lost their primary elections. A pdf copy of the statement can be found here.

The email was sent three days after the primary election and was signed by chairman Kris Kobach, Senators Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts, Representatives Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt, and most notably Lynn Jenkins, Jim Ryun’s opponent in the primary election.

Shortly after the email was sent, another email was sent saying that the press release should not have been sent because it was not ready for publication.

Why was the email not ‘ready’? Were there additional party leaders that needed to sign on before it was sent? How many days or weeks is it going to take for ‘moderate’ Republicans to stand up and say what KTRM did was wrong? Are moderates continuing to stall for time? The election is over and the damage is done, can’t you at least now stand up and say, “sorry?”

State Sen. Stephen Morris was not listed on the email denouncing KTRM’s press release. In a conversation with the Kansas Liberty, he says, “I haven’t seen the mailers, but I’ve heard some talk about them in the hall and that’s not helpful at all to go negative like that.”

Sen. Morris also made a similar statement back in 2006 when he said, “I’ve always been against negative campaigning. I think when you do negative campaigning, it’s counterproductive.”

And yet Sen. Morris continues to fund an organization that doesn’t flinch at using racist innuendo to bring down an opponent. So Senator Morris, is it all negative campaigning you don’t like or just negative campaigning against people you want to see elected that you don’t like?

I’m sure the KRA Blog probably isn’t a place you frequent much, but we have posted both the flyers sent earlier in the campaign and the KTRM press release itself. I’m sure it’s tough for you to pull yourself away from writing $45,000 checks to KTRM, but perhaps you should take a look at just what you bought. Did you get your money’s worth?

Also notably absent are the many state officials that gave money to KTRM as well, including SBOE candidate Mary Ca Ralstin ($100), State Rep. Pat Colloton ($50), State Rep. Don Hill ($200), State Rep. Jill Quigley’s husband ($5100), and SBOE Member Sally Cauble ($100).

Does the absence of these officials signatures mean that they condone the actions of KTRM or are they simply testing the political waters to see if they can continue to support KTRM?