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Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Quickly: Lynn Jenkins is Disingenuous

Anyone who's been paying attention to this race for Congress knows that Republican Lynn Jenkins has said over and over again that she's running a "Kansas campaign" filled with "Kansas boys."

Yes, fine, that's true...though her campaign manager has spent most of his adult life working in Washington, DC, he is, in fact, from Kansas originally (as opposed to Ryun's CM, who probably couldn't have found Kansas on a map before the NRCC backroom-dealers sent him here. Nancy Boyda? Her CM is a life long Topekan...take that! Ha!).

But, we think, probably, when Jenkins travels the district and tells folks she's running a Kansas campaign they assume she means she's pulling her support (and staff) out of this part of Kansas- the Kansas 2nd Congressional District.

Not so much.

True, yes, Lynn's itemized donors are nearly all from Kansas (unless they're pro-choice women from New York). Only 22 of her 169 itemized contributions came from out of the state- which is really excellent- a better percent than either Ryun or Congresswoman Boyda. True, that's easier when your competitors have 5 times as many donors...

Problem is- more than half of them come from Kansas City and Wichita. Only 43% of Jenkins' support comes from within the district she wants to represent in Congress.

So, if Jenkins does manages to pull it together and win this puppy...who will it be that actually pushed her over Ryun? The voters of the 2nd District, or the money people from Kansas City and Wichita?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a stretch not normally seen here. I'm a little surprised.

Having 5 times as many donors is great, but Boyda's campaign is unabashedly funded by out-of-state donors. Boyda has received over $30,000 from donors in California and another $35,000 plus from folks in Missouri (opensecrets.org + this quarter's reports). Almost 10% of her money raised.

If Lynn wants to raise Kansas money, even if it means small numbers on her quarterly, I'll respect that. I don't know how smart it is, but Boyda won the whole thing last time with what Lynn will raise in the primary. So what the hell do I know anyway?

My guess (hey you stretched, so can I)is Rep. Boyda is a little concerned by the percentage of Kansas donors on Jenkins' report. It makes it harder in the general (if Lynn were to make it through) to say she is running a local grassroots campaign like she did in 2006. It leaves Lynn the opportunity to point to the FEC reports and say Boyda's gone Washington (or Californian) in less than one term.

Anonymous said...

um...from what i saw in Boyda's report, she had more Kansas & and district supporters than jenkins...so i don't know what on earth you're smokin', friend.

Anonymous said...

By numbers, yes. Not by percent. Boyda does have a higher percentage of her KANSAS donors from the 2CD but no where near as high of percentage of Kansas donors overall. Which means Boyda can't raise money in Kansas outside of the 2CD, so there goes any crazy idea that she would run for Senate in 2010 against Sebelius.

Oh, and I'm a Republican. Tobacco only these days. :-)

Anonymous said...

since the only people who think Boyda is going to run for the Senate are the boys over at TKR...ain't a big deal she "can't" raise money in Wichita.

As long as her money comes from her district, i'm happy.

This blog is not affiliated in any way with the Kansas Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, the Office of Congresswoman Nancy Boyda, or the campaign to re-elected Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. All commentary herein not directly attributed must be considered the opinion of the authors of this blog and not of any other individual, including Congresswoman Nancy Boyda.