Court rules Kansas Democrats can stay off Senate ballot

Kansas Democrats will not have to place a candidate for U.S. Senate on the November ballot, clearing the way for a battle between three-term incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts and independent challenger Greg Orman.

A three-judge panel of the Shawnee County District Court determined that state law did not require the Democratic Party to replace their original nominee, Chad Taylor, who dropped out of the race last month. The court also ruled that a registered Democratic voter claiming he had been denied his right to vote for a Democrat did not provide evidence to sustain his claim.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach had fought to force Democrats to name a replacement after first failing in an attempt to keep Taylor on the ballot. The state faced a number of deadlines for mailing ballots to overseas military, for printing absentee ballots and for programming voting machines. Kobach floated the idea last week of delaying the deadline for mail-in ballots past Election Day, November 4, but late Wednesday, his office announced there would be no appeal of the court decision and that counties should begin printing ballots on Thursday.

Early voting in Kansas begins October 15.

Roberts, himself a conservative Republican, barely survived a primary battle with an even more conservative challenger, Milton Wolf. Wolf has not endorsed Roberts, though representatives from his wing of the party are said to be meeting this week with the Senator's campaign in an attempt to mend fences and re-engage conservative voters.

With soft support from the GOP base, and the anti-Roberts vote now coalescing around a single candidate, what was once expected to be a safe Republican seat is currently polling for the independent. "A Suffolk University/USA Today poll released Wednesday that did not include a Democrat showed Orman leading Roberts by more than five percentage points," according to the Kansas City Star.

Orman, who has been both a Republican and a Democrat over the years, has said he'd likely caucus with the party that would give him the most influence — but Democrats appear fairly confident he will side with them.

Kobach, an honorary member of the Roberts campaign, had spent some of his own political capital trying to keep the ballot picture muddy. Up for re-election, himself, Kobach has slipped in the polls against Democratic challenger Jean Schodorf over the last month.

The District Court decision that put Kobach out of Roberts' misery — and Kansas out of Kobach's — was expected, especially after David Orel, the allegedly wronged Kansas City Democrat that brought the suit, failed to show for the hearing. The justices said that Orel would have had a hard time showing "harm" from being denied the option of voting on the Democratic line — but his failure to appear seemed to drive home the point.

It was also revealed last month that Orel's son, Alexander Orel, is a field director on the campaign of Republican Governor Sam Brownback. David's lawyer said, however, that the son's position had no bearing on the elder Orel's suit.

Gov. Brownback, by the way, is another incumbent Republican trailing in the polls in what was once thought to be reliably red Kansas.