(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers Sept. 8, 2014)
You almost have to wonder whether those two appropriately dressed debaters at the Kansas State Fair at Hutchinson are dividing Kansas voters into two separate groups—those who are intimately familiar with the operation of Congress, and those who aren’t.
That debate, of course, was between Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and independent candidate Greg Orman. They both wore sport coats with open-collar shirts, while at the earlier debate, Republican Gov. Sam Brownback was one of the only people in Hutchinson wearing a coat and tie on Saturday morning, and Democrat House Minority Leader Paul Davis apparently couldn’t find his coat and was dressed like most of the hamburger vendors.
But this Senate race debate: It was Roberts campaigning against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, on the presumption that independent Orman would line up Reid if elected—rather than at least having the option to side with whatever is the powerful majority party in the Senate on behalf of Kansans.
Still gotta wonder whether most Kansans are looking that far into the race.
But Roberts is apparently convinced that Kansans are indeed looking that far into the politics of the Senate campaign on the Washington level, essentially looking beyond the candidate himself and at the institution of the Senate where he lives.
To Kansans, well, it’s going to take several Republican wins for the Senate to move to Republican-tilted from its current Democrat-tilted, and most of those decisions aren’t something Kansans can vote on.
Orman, who maintains he has been a Republican and a Democrat and didn’t care much for either in terms of getting federal government business done, says he’ll look over the rest of the Senate and decide whether he’ll line up with either party to get things moving. Or…he could just remain an independent, a potentially game-changing position from which he can issue-by-issue vote with whichever party he believes will solve problems—or maybe advantage Kansas in federal legislation.
That sounds pretty advantageous—unless Republicans take control of the Senate, and Orman’s independent status means to new leadership that he’s a fair-weather friend that the chamber isn’t likely to spend much time figuring out how to pander to. And it’s not just pandering to independent Orman; it’s pandering to Kansas’ specific interests…
Orman continues to talk about a do-nothing Congress—where Roberts has worked for much of his life—and which Roberts asserts that with the right votes in Kansas and several other states, he knows how to get moving. Roberts maintains that if Harry Reid can just be moved to the back row of seats, Orman’s big issue dissolves.
Starting to sound like more insider politics than most Kansans have the time, or maybe the inclination, to puzzle out?
Might be, might not be, but that’s where Roberts is taking his campaign, while Orman is talking about working with whatever crew is on salary next January and seeing what he can do for Kansas.
That’s where this campaign is taking a fairly interesting tack.
It is not just electing the guy you like, the guy who says what you want to hear about health care, immigration, the budget, the economy and such. Based on the themes at the debate, it is a more complicated voter understanding of the operation of Congress if Roberts has his way or maybe a less complicated view if Orman gets the bus ticket to Washington in November.
At least the choice, from the initial debate, appears to be between two candidates who know how to appropriately dress for the occasion.