Dear editor,
The Kansas Republican primary is over. Both Jeff Colyer and Kris Kobach were Brownback party loyalists. Colyer appeared to differ on Brownbacks tax cut disaster, but if he had been elected governor he would have gone back to his policies.
Kobach, on the other hand, says he is going full bore back to Brownbacks tax cuts and he also said he is going to cut sales and property taxes. Thats always a winning vote-getter, but we just went through this with Brownback and almost bankrupted the state.
Doesnt he know Brownback was the most disliked governor in the nation? Kobach is not liked by 59 percent of the Republican voters now. If Jim Barnett and Ken Selzer and others had not run, Colyer would be our Republican candidate.
Kobachs web page says there is corruption in the state capitol. If there is, why doesnt he say what it is, and if hell do anything about it. He says these immigrants, mostly Mexicans, are taking our jobs. But companies cant hire non-citizens if they dont have a Social Security card, or they face jail. They could use stolen Social Security cards to get a job, but I dont believe any have been prosecuted in Kansas.
Kobach has claimed voter fraud. Thats his claim to fame. Yet in his eight years as Secretary of State he has prosecuted only 12 people. I dont believe any were immigrants, mostly old people that didnt know better.
He says he is going to lower all three of these taxes and will lay off state employees through attrition. He seems to think all these employees are simply too old to work and they will simply go voluntarily. Will he lay off highway workers? Because he will be robbing money from the highway fund like Brownback did.
Kobach graduated from Harvard, Oxford and Yale law school. He is proof that, as a university president put it some years back when speaking of college graduates, You can never be sure they are educated.
That describes Kobach. Why did Kobach come out of college with such distrust for voters, immigrants, and put guns in our schools? Well, its made him an extremely good living by writing laws for states that so far have been overturned in the courts, as well as taking up a huge amount of time.
Kobach may have a law degree, but he doesnt have a degree in common sense.
This November, we dont know how many Republicans will stick with Kobach out of loyalty to the party, but the fear is that a three-way race with Kobach, Democrat Laura Kelly and Independent Greg Orman will swing the race in Kobachs favor.
There should be a lot more voters in the general election. But if voter turnout replicates the primary election where 73 percent of voters stayed home, Kobach may end up taking us back to Brownbacks failed government.
While both Orman and Kelly are good candidates, the only chance of one of them winning is for one to drop out.
Our only hope is that moderate Republicans and Democrats in the Kansas House and Senate will hold Kobach in check.
Even if Kobach wins, he will not have a coalition to govern.
David Comstock,
Colony, Kan.
