The Anti-Sam Brownback Blog

As the Lawrence Journal World reported last Thursday, a group calling themselves “Kansas Traditional Republican Majority” has formed to counter the extreme conservatives in the state. Some of the interests they are fighting against have close ties to Senator Sam Brownback.

The Kansas Traditional Republican Majority Website states their mission:

We are addressing a broad spectrum of issues and our doors are open to people of differing views, cultures, backgrounds, and approaches. We are reaching out to disenfranchised Republicans - people who are distressed by the politics of hate and intolerance that too often dominate the Party - and to others attracted by a thoughtful, centrist approach to Republican politics. Such an approach allows us to explore multiple perspectives without fear in order to reach reasonable, fair-minded, fiscally sound, and responsible solutions. It demonstrates inclusion, respect, reason and, yes, compassion.

Unlike some of the screaming fundamentalist radicals, from the sound of this statement it appears I would actually enjoy discussing issues with this new group.

The connection to Brownback is their opposition of two groups that are close to Brownback and his past campaigns. The Journal World explains:

Those groups named by KTRM included the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity.

Both are anti-tax groups linked to the state’s top Republican officeholder, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, who is one of the most socially conservative lawmakers in the country and has indicated he may run for president, and Wichita-based Koch Industries, which funds numerous conservative and libertarian think tanks and whose owners have been longtime movers and shakers in Kansas politics.

David Koch, executive vice president of Koch Industries, helped found Americans for Prosperity and serves as its board chairman. He was the Libertarian Party candidate for vice president of the U.S. in 1980.

The Koch family have been longtime supporters of Brownback, whose former chief of staff David Kensinger runs the Club for Growth. Both the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity were active in many of the same legislative campaigns in Kansas last year.

Brownback’s extensive ties to the Koch family will be covered in a series of posts in the future. Suffice it to say that by opposing the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity, KTRM is directly opposed the Senator Brownback. In this case I’ll consider an enemy of my enemy a tolerable acquaintance. If nothing else, they should make the Kansas GOP primary races in 2006 wonderfully bloody.