The Home Stretch: Jenkins Offers No Substance, Attacks Straw Men

Some bits and pieces of articles that published over the weekend that have some lovely quotes regarding this little ol' race for Congress.

First, from Chris Green with the Harris New Service:

Christian Morgan, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said Jenkins' financial numbers show that Jenkins' campaign is peaking at the exact right time.

"The 2nd District voters are tired of Boyda's spin and 'do as I say, not as I do' mentality and want a change," Morgan said. "It is clear from these financial numbers that Lynn is gaining speed fast."

Not so fast, Christian, babe:

But Jenny Davidson, a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, points out that Jenkins has accepted $73,000 in the last two weeks from mostly out-of-state special interest groups.

"Lynn Jenkins continues to feed us this line about 'new Republican leadership' but then turns around and grabs every single special-interest dollar she can get hands on," Davidson said.

Green also does a breakdown of what it is this race has really boiled down to- and for those out there wondering who has "momentum" on their side this really ought clear that all up:

During the course of the campaign, Boyda has criticized Jenkins for missing recent board meetings for the state's pension fund while it suffered more than $1 billion in losses.

She also faulted Jenkins for taking six years to discover a mistake, initially made under her predecessor, that robbed some counties of fuel tax revenues while overpaying others.

Jenkins has blasted Boyda for walking out of a hearing featuring a general's testimony about progress in the Iraq War and for signaling her willingness to rescind President Bush's tax cuts in a nonbinding vote.

That almost made this writer giggle. OK, it actually did.

And then from the St. Joe News following the last Boyda-Jenkins debate in Leavenworth:

Ms. Boyda, the Democrat who surprised long-time lawmaker Jim Ryun two years ago, worries about the nation’s military readiness as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan spend human and materiel resources.

“We did not have equipment to put those five brigades in for the surge,” she said. “I am very concerned about the safety and security of Iraq. … My number one priority is the safety and security of Americans.”

Lynn did her required song-and-dance on budget slashing and got back-handed by Boyda:

Ms. Boyda laid out a plan to begin balancing the budget, which included stopping oil-company subsidies, controlling the pharmaceutical and health-insurance industries and curtailing tax breaks to companies that move their operations abroad.

“I am not willing to cut Meals on Wheels, I am not willing to cut rural school funding, I am not willing to cut Head Start while we’re paying billions and billions of dollars to big oil companies,” the Democrat said.

And, finally, on taxes:

Ms. Jenkins accused the Democrat of supporting large tax increases and failing to take action in correcting the alternative minimum tax, which the Republican said she would vote to eliminate.

Ms. Boyda countered that Republicans had 12 years of congressional leadership and did nothing to remedy inequities in the tax code. She added that Ms. Jenkins, despite the anti-tax talk, supported a $294 million tax increase while in the Kansas Legislature.

Both of these pieces did a great job laying it all out there and made it awfully clear which candidate is actually qualified and has the right ideas for the district.