That's where I sit. I'm actively supporting my first candidate in my life, Jerry Moran, a Republican currently representing the 1st Congressional District, who is running for the Republican nomination against Representative Todd Tiahrt.
Interesting election cycle. After the election in November, Kansas will go from having three Representatives with some seniority (Moore, Tiahrt, Moran) and two long serving Senators (Brownback, Roberts) to having only one long-serving Senator (Roberts) and the senior member of the House delegation will be Lynn Jenkins, who, assuming she wins in August and November, will be on her second term. That's how things are churning out here. Good for the system, in one sense, bad for the state's clout in another. Hence the angst over term limits when they aren't applied across-the-board. But that's a different post.
I took the Castle Technical out to Junction City last week to show it off and drive Robba Moran, Jerry's wife, in the parade. We had some time to chat and when discussing the life of a politician's wife, Robba mentioned that Mrs. Tiahrt has been twittering fiercely in support of her husband. As Tiarht is currently behind in the polls, though with a bump when they scored Sarah Palin's endorsement, they've had to get aggressive. Even on the distaff side.
Moran makes a point of the fact that he left his family in Hays, Kansas, for a couple of reasons. One, he doesn't like the atmosphere of the District of Columbia, and two, and perhaps most importantly, keeping his family in his legislative district means he's much more closely tied to the district and its people and their needs. He's spent twelve years flying back and forth on the weekends.
So, Mrs Tiahrt twitters "What kind of man abandons his wife to be a single mother?" which echoes Tiahrt's defense for moving his family to DC.
Personally, I find the question instructive, and it actually reinforces my support for Jerry. Why?
What kind of man "abandons" his family for his job?
Oh, lessee.
Soldiers.
Sailors.
Marines.
Airmen.
Coast Guardsmen.
Commercial Fishermen.
Regional salesmen.
Anybody who does rotating shift work (think First Responders and medical personnel especially).
Commercial air crew.
Merchant mariners.
Long haul truck drivers.
Not a few journalists.
Rail crew.
(Evil) Government Contractors working overseas in the sandboxes.
Ocean oil rig crews.
And that's just off the top of my head. That's who does it, Mrs. Tiahrt - people who risk their lives for you, people who take care of you, people who make commerce work by moving the goods and people around. And that took all of about two minutes to think up.
In other words, I did. And most of my friends, come to think of it.
Fine group of voters to alienate, Mrs. T.
Just an observation.
Interesting election cycle. After the election in November, Kansas will go from having three Representatives with some seniority (Moore, Tiahrt, Moran) and two long serving Senators (Brownback, Roberts) to having only one long-serving Senator (Roberts) and the senior member of the House delegation will be Lynn Jenkins, who, assuming she wins in August and November, will be on her second term. That's how things are churning out here. Good for the system, in one sense, bad for the state's clout in another. Hence the angst over term limits when they aren't applied across-the-board. But that's a different post.
I took the Castle Technical out to Junction City last week to show it off and drive Robba Moran, Jerry's wife, in the parade. We had some time to chat and when discussing the life of a politician's wife, Robba mentioned that Mrs. Tiahrt has been twittering fiercely in support of her husband. As Tiarht is currently behind in the polls, though with a bump when they scored Sarah Palin's endorsement, they've had to get aggressive. Even on the distaff side.
Moran makes a point of the fact that he left his family in Hays, Kansas, for a couple of reasons. One, he doesn't like the atmosphere of the District of Columbia, and two, and perhaps most importantly, keeping his family in his legislative district means he's much more closely tied to the district and its people and their needs. He's spent twelve years flying back and forth on the weekends.
So, Mrs Tiahrt twitters "What kind of man abandons his wife to be a single mother?" which echoes Tiahrt's defense for moving his family to DC.
Personally, I find the question instructive, and it actually reinforces my support for Jerry. Why?
What kind of man "abandons" his family for his job?
Oh, lessee.
Soldiers.
Sailors.
Marines.
Airmen.
Coast Guardsmen.
Commercial Fishermen.
Regional salesmen.
Anybody who does rotating shift work (think First Responders and medical personnel especially).
Commercial air crew.
Merchant mariners.
Long haul truck drivers.
Not a few journalists.
Rail crew.
(Evil) Government Contractors working overseas in the sandboxes.
Ocean oil rig crews.
And that's just off the top of my head. That's who does it, Mrs. Tiahrt - people who risk their lives for you, people who take care of you, people who make commerce work by moving the goods and people around. And that took all of about two minutes to think up.
In other words, I did. And most of my friends, come to think of it.
Fine group of voters to alienate, Mrs. T.
Just an observation.
Of course, that's going to leave me stuck with Roy Blunt. Could be a lot more excited about it if it was Matt instead of Roy.
I don't think the conservative cause loses with either one of them winning the seat.
As for your side of the state line - well, I'm not paying that much attention, truth to tell.
I do wish that "name recognition" didn't factor into things so much. I'm not a fan of dynastic politics on either side of the aisle.
Sorry Jeb.
We have had to do our own work on state and local races. Two of our Freedom Papers have aired on national radio (www.freedompapers.org) and to date we have had over 100,000 hits in the first 4 weeks.
The papers have definitely drawn a line in the sand. Today we are scheduled to record the 3rd Freedom Paper for broadcast later in the week. This one will call for direct action. Believe me it is THE one that has been heavily scrubbed (one last scrub coming) by our legal scholars.
It is way past time for anyone of us to not pay attention to national affairs and work to change what we can (or reinforce it, if it is good) in our own back yards.
November 2010 is not the end for us; it is just a new beginning. We will be focusing on state and local offices then, from dog catcher to Governor. With a special focus on things like in state tuition for illegal aliens in Kansas.
"Very creative deleted expletive"... HAHA! Haven't seen you use that one, Armorer.
I appreciate your point about men who might leave their family behind but this man has an open choice unlike those in the list. He can bring his family. There's no safety or other issue. A man in that list of yours has good solid reasons for leaving the family behind. This politician doesn't, does he?
Or really he does as said already to keep connection to the district. So really this is all about votes for him. This is his job but I would not feel comfortable leaving my family just to nab a few votes.
I would be quite wary of both of them. They sound like sharks in the water.
That's the District Moran didn't want to take his family to, as he preferred his daughters grow up back in Kansas.
I don't have the legislative schedule in front of me, but Congress generally runs a Tues-Thurs work week when in session (there are expections) precisely so Members can spend time in their districts. Tiarht moved his family to DC and got firmly ensconced in the DC social circuit. There's always some trade-offs.
As for the "open choice" aspect, since 1972 no one on my list has been compelled to take the jobs they take. There is a choice involved for them, too.
When I got my last assignment before I retired, I also chose to leave my family in Leavenworth rather than take them to San Antonio for 19 months. Beth had a good job, Andy was doing well in school and in a good school.
And I went home, one way or another about every three weeks, before I retired and came back to Leavenworth.
Make of that what you will.
GIve money if you can. Especially if you live in a state/district where it is hopeless. Send money to where there is a winnable race. The "Club for Growth" has excellent taste and instincts in picking good solid conservative candidates (usually on fiscal issues, but most are good on other issues as well) in districts that are winnable, especially in primaries. The NRA-ILA usually does a good job, even if they sometimes make some really dumb decisions [dropping opposition to DISCLOSE; and their likely support for Harry Reid, who admittedly has been careful to go thru the motions to appear to support gun rights.]
However, equally important is good old local manpower. It takes a lot of work to stuff envelopes, work the phone banks, deliver and install yard signs, walk thru neighborhoods leaving campaign litereature at each house, and just talk to your friends about the virtues of your candidate. If they candidate wins, they tend to remember who was there helping them win...
It is much better to get good candidates elected than to try to convince idiots to vote the right way.
Tar and feathers is SOOO MUCH more work!