In Kansas, longtime GOP Sen. Pat Roberts faces doubts as he scrambles to hold seat:
KINSLEY, Kan. — Shirley Deege is a proud Republican. For as long as she can remember, the nurse has been voting for Pat Roberts — in the 1980s, when he represented a vast patchwork of dusty plains hamlets such as hers in the House; in 1996, when he first ran for the Senate; and every six years after that.
“Looking back over my life I’m wondering, ‘What major things has he done for Kansas?’ I’m coming up empty,” said Deege, 53, as she sipped coffee while waiting for Roberts to arrive at the country fairgrounds here this week.
“He’s basically furniture in the Senate, and the people in Kansas know that,” said national GOP strategist John Weaver, a former McCain adviser. “You could give the average Kansan 24 hours to come up with something Pat Roberts has done in the Senate, and after 24 hours, even the crickets would be standing there befuddled.”
“I’m 78 years old and I’ve been voting for [Roberts] since the beginning,” Darrel Miller, a retired wheat farmer, said after seeing Roberts in Kinsley. “I don’t wish him any ill will. I just think we need a change.”
To energize Republican base voters, Roberts is turning up the rhetorical heat. At a stop in Dodge City on Monday, he said he wants to put Reid “in the cloak room, maybe put him in the closet.” Roberts also told the crowd that “our country is headed toward national socialism.”
“A vote for me is a vote to change the Senate back to a Republican majority,” Roberts told reporters in Kinsley. “We’ll get things done, and it means a stop to the Obama agenda.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...288dbe-4329-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html
KINSLEY, Kan. — Shirley Deege is a proud Republican. For as long as she can remember, the nurse has been voting for Pat Roberts — in the 1980s, when he represented a vast patchwork of dusty plains hamlets such as hers in the House; in 1996, when he first ran for the Senate; and every six years after that.
“Looking back over my life I’m wondering, ‘What major things has he done for Kansas?’ I’m coming up empty,” said Deege, 53, as she sipped coffee while waiting for Roberts to arrive at the country fairgrounds here this week.
“He’s basically furniture in the Senate, and the people in Kansas know that,” said national GOP strategist John Weaver, a former McCain adviser. “You could give the average Kansan 24 hours to come up with something Pat Roberts has done in the Senate, and after 24 hours, even the crickets would be standing there befuddled.”
“I’m 78 years old and I’ve been voting for [Roberts] since the beginning,” Darrel Miller, a retired wheat farmer, said after seeing Roberts in Kinsley. “I don’t wish him any ill will. I just think we need a change.”
To energize Republican base voters, Roberts is turning up the rhetorical heat. At a stop in Dodge City on Monday, he said he wants to put Reid “in the cloak room, maybe put him in the closet.” Roberts also told the crowd that “our country is headed toward national socialism.”
“A vote for me is a vote to change the Senate back to a Republican majority,” Roberts told reporters in Kinsley. “We’ll get things done, and it means a stop to the Obama agenda.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...288dbe-4329-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html
