TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Democrat running to replace Kris Kobach as Kansas secretary of state is trying to get voters to repudiate the conservative Republicans political legacy of tough voter identification laws, which Kobach often touts while campaigning for governor.
Brian McClendon, a former Google and Uber executive, would break with Kobachs policies if elected secretary of state and move Kansas toward allowing voters to register on election day. Kobach derides that as a recipe for election fraud.
At least a little change is in store.
While GOP nominee and state Rep. Scott Schwab is a conservative who backed the voter ID policies Kobach championed, he is promising to be in the spotlight less.
And unlike Kobach, neither is an attorney and both said theyd turn over election fraud cases to local prosecutors or the attorney general.
Kobach had fought for the authority to pursue them himself.
Known already as an immigration hardliner, Kobach expanded his national profile in the secretary of states office and served as vice chairman of President Trumps now-disbanded commission on election fraud. Kobach has said repeatedly that he is proud Kansas has some of the nations toughest voter ID laws.
But the race to replace high-profile Kobach as the states top elections official is relatively quiet and bereft of television ads.
In GOP-leaning Kansas, Republicans generally are the front-runners in down-ballot statewide contests, and a Democrat hasnt won a secretary of states race in 70 years.
They often are simply decided just based on partisanship, said Patrick Miller, a University of Kansas political scientist. Every now and then, you find a particular officeholder or a particular situation that makes the political relevance of one of these offices very apparent.
Schwab, from the Kansas City suburb of Olathe, is better known than most legislators because his 10-year-old son, Caleb, died in August 2016 while riding a giant waterslide at the Schlitterbahn park in Kansas City, Kansas.
Schwab said his model for the secretary of states office is its GOP-run 1950s and 1960s version efficient but low-key.
Im a little tired of the public-eye side of things and the overly visible side of things for me, personally, he said during an interview.
Kobach has endorsed Schwab, saying, I would hate to see a Democrat secretary of state attempt to undo the great improvements we have made.
McClendon has the resources for a competitive race. He started by putting $150,000 into his campaign and raised another $359,000 in cash contributions through late July.
