Today is an interesting day in Kansas politics, and those who hang on occurrences in Washington, D.C., as well.
Voters in the 17-county Fourth Congressional District will decide who will replace Mike Pompeo who was appointed by President Trump to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
Candidates are Republican Ron Estes and Democrat James Thompson.
Estes, 60, has served as Kansas treasurer since January 2011. Thompson, 46, is a Wichita attorney specializing in civil rights litigation. Both have campaigned as if there were no tomorrow.
Being the first congressional election in the nation since Trump became president, it is drawing wide attention.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has poured barrels of money into the race, including $100,000 within the past few days for last-minute ad buys.
Significance is that Trump took 60 percent of the votes in the district on Election Day, and Sen. Ted Cruz, among Trump’s closest competitors for the GOP nomination, came to Wichita to campaign for Estes.
Leaders in both parties also know keeping the seat on the Republican side of the aisle — or shifting it to Democrat — weighs much heavier than one vote in measures that come to vote in U.S. House.
An Estes loss could be interpreted as repudiation of Trump.
A victory by Thompson would signal the early stages of a rift in the party’s dominance of the House, already crippled by the Freedom Caucus turning on Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan to defeat the GOP’s hastily constructed healthcare substitute for Obamacare.
The hardest part of driving a wedge is a hammer’s first blow. Once inserted, driving it deeper is not as difficult. Further, seating Thompson would give Democrats opportunity to boast of changing the direction in one of the deepest red states.
Also, Republicans have held the seat for more than 20 years, and losing it would be a blow to the Kansas party’s ego.
Thus, with bated breath, Republicans and Democrats will await the election’s outcome later today, along with a small army of analysts who will tell us in great detail its significance.
— Bob Johnson
