Thursday, February 28, 2008

Thornburgh building support for gubernatorial run

Two weeks ago, KS Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh mailed out brief letters to Republican committeemen and women who attended Kansas Days. In the letter, Thornburgh thanked them for attending the annual GOP event and chastised Gov. Sebelius for the growth in state spending and Kansas' dubious distinction of being 1st in the nation for government job growth and dead-last for private sector job growth. Thornburgh reitereated the need to elect Republicans to all offices in 2008 and "working together to defeat the governor," ending his brief and general letter by saying he hopes to return Republican leadership to Kansas.

Any doubts now that Thornburgh has entered the Governor's race for 2010? He's building support early, beginning with his fiery motivation speech at Kansas Days that sounded more like a campaign speech than the traditional policy speeches from elected officials.

One thing's for sure: Kansas will have many good Republican candidates to choose from in 2010--including Thornburgh, one of Kansas' most popular and well-liked Republicans. Rumors are also swirling that Sen. Sam Brownback will run for governor too--fueled by refusals from his D.C. office to deny or confirm the possibility. Brownback was re-elected to the Senate in 2004 with 69 percent of the vote and has a solid voting record in the Senate. The Democrats, however, have a very short list of viable candidates: Paul Morrion's scandal ends his political career and a "golden-boy image" that was developed for a potential gubernatorial run. Mark Parkinson faces hostility in his own party, which leaves only Dennis Moore--who may lose to Nick Jordan in 2008 and who will face Kansans west of Douglas County who look skeptically upon Johnson Countians who run statewide and claim to have a platform that represents all Kansans.

With a full slate of potential candidates, Kansas will finally be able to return responsible leadership to Topeka and install a Republican in Cedar Crest.

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