A pround night to be a Kansan- and a reminder of hard work ahead

Governor Kathleen Sebelius just delivered an excellent speech in response to the President's State of the Union address (the video and text of her speech is available here), and having our governor in such a prominent position can't help but make everyone in Kansas (who isn't a partisan Republican hack) feel particularly good about the quality of leadership we have at the top in Topeka.

The success of Kathleen Sebelius in Kansas reminds us that Democrats can win in state like ours if they run on common sense Kansas theme like fiscal responsibility, and Democrats in Kansas since the Sebelius Revolution have had tremendous success with that same message (Dennis Moore and Nancy Boyda, for instance). But even in our successes, we're reminded that it will never be easy for Democrats to win in states like ours where voter registration still is, unfortunately, 2-1 Republican. Dennis Moore got lucking in 2006- it was the first time since he was first elected in 1998 that he had an easy race, and that was only because the Republicans nominated a loser to run against him.

Just like it used to be with Dennis Moore, not one of us here at this blog, or at any level of the Kansas Democratic Party, we would venture to guess, considers Congresswoman Nancy Boyda to be a "safe" incumbent. We know, and Kansas knows, too, that she's representing her district ably and more effectively than her predecessor ever did, but we know in a state like Kansas any Democrat will always face an uphill battle- not because the policies are off, but because of the Republican voter registration advantage.

That factor, and the fact Boyda has two well-funded opponents means we agree she's one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation.

But, lets look at history for a second. History says the 2nd District voters splits their vote, supporting their Democratic congressperson and a Republican for president, often- most notably as pointed out by Dr. Bill Roy: He won re-election to his second term with 61% of the vote when Kansas gave George McGovern 29% of the vote in the same election. It did the same thing for Jim Slattery in 1984, 1988, and 1992.

Dr. Roy also correctly points out that Democrats have held this "Republican" district for 22 out of the last 36 years.

Nancy Boyda is regardless vulnerable, and we shouldn't ever forget that the other side is going to throw everything they can make up at her. This blog does it's best to show everything she's doing that is superb, but, in the end, Republicans will demonize her and try to convince voters she's something she isn't. On top of that, they come into this with a built in advantage, so we'll have to work twice as hard and be twice as smart to make up for it.

We're sure we'll prevail in November. Why? Because Kathleen Sebelius did, and Dennis Moore did, and Bill Roy did and Jim Slattery did and, mostly, because Nancy Boyda did. 2008 will be a lot more like 2006 than 2004, and, if we don't get complacent, we'll see that same success we say in '06 in '08.