Kansas Republican Dave Lindstrom responded to maneuvering designed to convince him to quit the U.S. Senate race by proposing Tuesday that the chairman of the state’s Republican Party resign for trying to manipulate outcome of the open primary.
Lindstrom, a former Johnson County commissioner and player for the Kansas City Chiefs, said Kansas Republicans deserved better leadership than offered by state party chairman Mike Kuckelman. The chairman asked Lindstrom and Senate President Susan Wagle to drop out of the Senate campaign last week to help thwart the candidacy of former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
Kuckelman’s strategy was to clear space for U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall, the 1st District Republican. Without Lindstrom and Wagle on the stage, a path for Marshall to overtake Kobach might be plausible.
“I don’t mind dust-ups,” Lindstrom said. “I mind unethical behavior. I mind poor leadership.”
Lindstrom said he asked during a telephone call Tuesday that Kuckleman step down from the Kansas GOP position. He said Kuckleman declined to quit.
The opportunity to capture the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by retirement of Pat Roberts has drawn interest from Republicans and Democrats. The GOP is keen to retain Roberts’ seat because it has implications for holding the Republican majority in the U.S. Senate. Democrats see an opportunity to claim a Kansas seat in the U.S. Senate for the first time since Franklin Roosevelt was president.
The Kansas Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Lindstrom’s proposal.
Last week, Kansas GOP executive director Shannon Golden said the key in 2020 was to avoid nominating Kobach because he could replicate his 2018 defeat to Laura Kelly, a Democrat who won the race for governor.
The theory is Kobach would again be politically demonized in the November general election by Democrats such as state Sen. Barbara Bollier, who has outperformed Republicans in terms of raising campaign donations, or Manhattan City Commissioner Usha Reddi.
Golden said the state couldn’t “afford to make the same mistakes we did in 2018, and that is why we asked candidates with no viable path to victory to clear the field.”
Kuckelman made that argument in letters sent to Wagle and Lunstrom. Both candidates rejected Kuckelman’s proposal.
Kobach said grassroots Republican voters should be outraged by Kuckelman’s attack on the three GOP candidates. The next senator from Kansas should be chosen by the people rather than a party boss, Kobach said.
Women active in Republican politics in Kansas say Kuckelman’s actions over the past year have grown from alarming to insulting.
