The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

It has been a slow news day on the Brownback front, so I thought I would bring a classic Brownback campaign method up from the archives to refresh our memory. In 1996 Sam was running in his first Senate race. Having already beaten GOP moderate Sheila Frahm in the primary, he was facing stiff competition from popular Democratic moderate Jill Docking. Salon continues with the story:

In 1996, independent and Republican voters in Kansas were urged to vote for Rep. Sam Brownback over his Democratic challenger, Jill Docking, through telephone “push polls” that helpfully reminded listeners that Docking was Jewish. And cited that as a good reason to vote against her. Come November, Docking lost.

Brownback insisted he knew nothing about the calls. But Docking’s campaign communications director, Scott Swenson says that Brownback’s campaign and the Kansas Republican Party constantly referred to Docking as “‘Jill Sadowsky Docking’ in press releases and in rhetoric. Many reporters commented on how offensive they found it.”

Of course, that her name, I say. “But what is the importance of it if not to put the name ‘Sadowsky’ out there?” says Swenson. “They were trying to call attention to the fact that Jill was Jewish.” Docking agrees with this assessment.

The funding source for the push polls was never found, which is not surprising considering how much laundered money was flying around during that election. The financial practices of the Brownback 1996 campaign make Tom DeLay look like an amateur.