Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is running for re-election, and he has been trailing in the polls recently. Eliana Johnson of National Review reports that even many conservatives have written him off. If Brownback loses, one reason will be opposition from moderate Republicans, whose defeat Brownback engineered two years ago:
In the November midterms, with money from Americans for Prosperity and other free-market groups, Brownback got revenge when he helped to oust seven of the moderate legislators in their primary races. While he may have cleared the way for his legislative agenda, he also created enemies: Several of the defeated lawmakers went on to join "Republicans for Davis," a group of Kansas Republicans that joined to back Paul Davis, the Democratic house minority leader and Brownback’s opponent in this fall’s race. Many members of the group have backed Democrats in previous elections but it was also buoyed by addition of enemies newly created by the governor. Legislators who came under assault and managed to survive became Brownback’s sworn enemies in the state house.
Brownback signed big, controversial tax cuts into law in 2012. Liberals have argued that those cuts have harmed the Kansas economy and helped to fuel dissatisfaction among voters. Our own Andrew Prokop covered the debate over Brownback's tax cuts back in July.
