KC Star: 2nd District Primary is Going to be Hot

Poor Jim Ryun- and poor Lynn Jenkins, too- the only thing the media cares about is Jim's clean campaign pledge that Lynn laughed (rightly) off the table.

You know it’s a hot congressional race when even talk of running a clean campaign turns nasty.

That’s what happened when Jim Ryun asked his Republican primary opponent, Kansas Treasurer Lynn Jenkins, to make their contest a polite one. Ryun, the track star who held Kansas’ 2nd District congressional seat for 10 years, said he got no response.

“She doesn’t show any interest in running anything other than a disappointing campaign,” he said last week.

But Jenkins said it is Ryun who disappointed her after outside groups from Washington spent thousands to denounce Jenkins in a round of television ads.

“This is a guy who has already spent — or his cronies in Washington spent — $120,000 running ads in this district that have distorted my record,” she said.

Snap. We're totally on Lynn's side in this one- Jim Ryun is trying to run the same kind of campaign against her that he ran against Congresswoman Nancy Boyda twice- he's desperately trying to make the issue the fact she's not worthy of being elected, so we'll all ignore the fact he was a horrible Member of Congress. Now, Lynn isn't worthy of being elected, but certainly not because she's pointing out the fact that Jim was, in fact, a horrible Member of Congress.

Here's another little tidbit-

Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 43 percent to 29 percent. The district overwhelmingly re-elected President Bush in 2004, yet Democrats have held the congressional seat almost as often as Republicans during the past 40 years.

Also, those numbers make Boyda's 68% approval rating and her head-to-head match ups against both Ryun & Jenkins look pretty sweet- and evidence her work against illegal immigration and to bring our men and women home from Iraq with honor have resonated with the voters of her district.

A Thick Skin & Determination Keep Boyda Fighting for Us

Another article from another one of Congresswoman Nancy Boyda's Congress on Your Corner events, this one in Humboldt.

The article leads with something about Boyda everyone on both sides of the aisle have learned about her since she took office: She's got a thick skin.

Why? Because even when she does something good for her district, she gets attacked by partisan broadsides- nevermind she helped her constituents back home.

Earmarks are a trickle of money, in comparison to all federal expenditures, from Washington, D.C. that members of Congress, House and Senate, propose for projects within their districts or states. Unlike most others, Boyda released the ones she proposed and they became fodder for political junkies on the 24-hour news channels.

None rivaled the infamous Alaskan “bridge to nowhere,” a $300 million project offered by Alaska Rep. Don Young to build a bridge from Ketchikan, population 8,000, to Gavina, an island where 80 people live, but “I still got a tongue lashing,” Boyda said.

She explained one to Humboldt listeners, a $100,000 proposal to aid construction of a museum in Lansing that would include $2 million to $3 million in private funding.

“There are four prisons there, including a U.S. prison and the U.S. military maximum detention center, and 14 men have given their lives,” working as prison guards, she said. “As a country we want to preserve our heritage and having a museum that documents the history of Lansing and its prisons is, I think, a good idea.”

Everyone knows the Radical Right (like our good friends at Americans for Prosperity) will never ever see that Boyda did in fact do something good for the people of Lansing with that appropriation...but the people of Kansas see it for what it is: their member of Congress caring about what's important to them.

Responding again to false Republican claims she wants to increase taxes on the middle class, Boyda told the crowd exactly what she does (and doesn't) want to do with the tax code.

Boyda is eager to end $18 billion in annual subsidies to the five biggest oil companies particularly in light of them having $181 billion in profits last year, and is critical of similar subsidies to the health insurance industry. Meanwhile, she voted against $22 billion in cuts to domestic programs (that were proposed by President Bush- BB), “including money to Area Agency on Aging, which funds this place (Humboldt’s Senior Center).”

“My opposition to he subsidies and cuts in domestic spending, money that filters down to help local government that has to face unfunded federal mandates, has been reported as me voting for tax increases,” Boyda said. “I’m in favor of keeping the tax cuts in place in for the middle class, but not for the very wealth and corporations” that enjoy huge profits.

“No one thinks tax money should go to subsidize big oil, except in Washington along partisan lines.”

She also mentioned that the top 16 hedge fund managers each made more than $1 billion last year, but none paid income tax.

“They paid 15 percent on capital gains, but no income taxes,” she said. “Does anyone think that’s right?”

She hit on immigration:

Illegal immigration was mentioned by several constituents.

Boyda said she preferred an identification system, through Social Security registration, that would offer better verification “than what we have now, which is a failure and inaccurate as much as 15 percent of the time.”

She has proposed documentation, with a photograph, name and Social Security number, in a computer database that could be checked at the click of a mouse.

“I don’t know the answer to world peace, but I don’t think immigration is that hard,” she said, noting that documenting newcomers and checking employers’ records shouldn’t be difficult.

And, just on a basically heartwarming side, Boyda told the crowd she was there in Humboldt because she didn't want to "go Washington."

“I went to Washington to make life better for everyone. Sometimes I think we can, sometimes I get awfully frustrated,” Boyda told about 40 people who listened to her 90-minute presentation, followed by individual conversations with constituents.

“Good people go off to Washington and change. I worry some about that. I don’t want to ‘go Washington,’” become insulated from the realities of everyday life in the 2nd District.

“Democracy is a contact sport and it also is a team sport. You have to understand what you’re doing” and how it plays out through layers of government, from the federal level to state to local.

“I think changes slowly are changing in Washington,” she said. “You can see it month by month.

We sent Nancy Boyda to Congress in 2006 because the direction or then-current Congressman was leading us was simply wrong. It's sad the Radical Republicans in the Senate along with the President have blocked quality change, but it's encouraging to know we have an advocate like Boyda still fighting the good fight.

You know the fence around his home doesn't have any holes...

The latest and greatest in negative YouTube ads coming out of the Republican primary in the KS-02.

And, no, we had nothing to do with this one...but we're happy to share it with all of ya!

We'd call this a "touche" from the Jenkins camp.

We should make a graphic to show the growing bloodiness...

Jenkins Supports Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

In perhaps the weirdest article yet to come out of the "Tussle in District Two" Republican primary (we're tying to come up with something cute...."bloodbath" was getting old), Lynn Jenkins seems to be just taking every single opportunity she can find to move herself farther and farther out of the mainstream of the district she wants to represent in Congress.

She said this about immigration:

Jenkins also highlighted her stance on illegal immigration, which she predicted will be a major issue during the upcoming race.

She said her view on amnesty is another instance in which she differs from Ryun, and said she was “disappointed” with his stance on the issue.

While we're sure everyone one of us can point to problems with Jim Ryun's record on illegal immigration (10 years of ignoring the problem, stuff like that), probably one thing we can't fault him for, at least in terms of this conversation, is his unflinching opposition to amnesty for undocumented aliens. That's one small thing he and Congresswoman Nancy Boyda agree on.

So, can Lynn Jenkins really be saying she's in favor of amnesty for illegal immigrants? Sure looks that way- and it goes along beautifully with her recent rhetoric of "not holding businesses accountable" for hiring illegals.

Good job, Lynn, just keep diggin'.

Anti-Boyda Group & NRCC Breaking Election Law?

A front page story on The Politico today reveals House Democrats will file a compliant with the Federal Election Commission today charging the NRCC and one of the conservative attack-dog groups helping them attack vulnerable Democrats, Freedom Watch, with "illegally coordinating campaign activities."

In a draft of its complaint, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee points to a script Freedom’s Watch submitted to Louisiana TV stations on Tuesday for an attack ad bashing Democratic House candidate Don Cazayoux.

The Democrats say the “metadata” in the Microsoft Word document contains the letters “NRCC” in the title field and shows that the document was last modified by “cforti” — apparently a reference to Carl Forti, a former NRCC official who was recently named as executive vice president for issue advocacy at Freedom’s Watch.

“It is impossible to know from the available facts the exact nature of the relationship between the NRCC and the Freedom’s Watch script,” the DCCC says in its draft complaint. “However, any number of scenarios are consistent with the presence of ‘NRCC’ in the metadata of the script. The NRCC may have created the script and sent it to Freedom’s Watch. Freedom’s Watch may have created the script using a file or computer provided by the NRCC. In any event, the metadata tend to show that the NRCC was involved in some way in preparing the ad.”

Oh dear. That seem to be quite the clear violation of federal election law.

Freedom Watch attacked Congresswoman Nancy Boyda in November 2007 with a full page ad in the Topeka Capitol-Journal. Boyda took them to task at the time for being "deeply irresponsible." Now, we learn the full level of their irresponsibility- they'll break the law to get their ridiculous message out.

Boyda secures $94,000 for Miami County Sheriff

Story in the Miami County Weekend details the $94,000 earmark Nancy Boyda secured for the Miami County Sheriff's Department in the recently approved budget bill.

The money will go toward tough laptops and mounting equipment for deputies’ cars, Kelly said. With the laptops and a new records system, deputies will be able to file reports using wireless Internet hotspots and not have to leave the field, he said. The office will start using the new software in the next two months.

The number of laptops the office will get will be determined by the total cost, which includes hard-covered laptops, equipment to mount them in the cars and networking, Kelly said.

“We were fortunate to get the money,” he said.

As a follow up to yesterday's post, a commenter provided this link for anyone who wanted look a little deeper at Congresswoman Boyda's record on illegal immigration: It gives bill and vote numbers for Boyda's votes against amnesty and to fund the border fence. Also, the site provide Representative Boyda a grade on her votes thus far on illegal immigration: she gets an "A."

Boyda continues to be right on illegal immigration, NAFTA

Watch your mailboxes (if you live in the 2nd District of Kansas)- Congresswoman Nancy Boyda's office has sent out a bulletin detailing her work to halt illegal immigration and on trade issue she confronted in her first year in Congress.

Just a couple of the items from the mailer: Boyda was one of the only Democrats to oppose efforts in the House and Senate to grant amnesty to illegal immigration, and Boyda successfully pushed a bill to near- unanimous approval to prevent a Bush Administration plan to allow unsafe Mexican trucks to drive deep into the United States.

Another issue Boyda mentions in her mailer has continued to garner her press mentions: her bill to require the renegotiation of NAFTA:

Boyda and Kaptur, the lead sponsors, aren’t waiting for the study. They want NAFTA renegotiated, now. If the negotiations do not produce 5 specific, concrete improvements, the bill says the U.S. must withdraw from NAFTA.

"NAFTA is dragging down our economy, weakening our borders, and devastating our manufacturers. After 14 years, it's time to either fix NAFTA or get the heck out of it,” Boyda, the lead sponsor, told a radio show in Wichita, announcing the bill. “Even supporters admit NAFTA is deeply flawed, but nobody had the guts to fix the problem.”

One thing is undeniable: Congresswoman Nancy Boyda is representing her district better than it has seen since the early 1990's, particularly on illegal immigration and on trade.

(Note: We still plan a year end round-up...sorry to keep putting it off!)

Boyda wraps up 2007 for Kansas editorial boards

Congresswoman Nancy Boyda sat down with the editorial boards of the Topeka Capital-Journal and the Lawrence Journal-World over the last couple of days, with both papers releasing stories today.

From the Lawrence Journal-World on illegal immigration:

U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., says Congress needs to find a way to help employers identify illegal immigrants through a “practical employer verification program.”

“Then you can move forward and talk about what else we’re going to do to make policies that are going to work for the long term, but without a way to enforce it, you can’t really have a meaningful policy,” she said.

During an interview Monday with the Journal-World, the first-term congresswoman from Topeka touted her co-sponsorship of the SAVE — Secure America with Verification and Enforcement — Act, which also includes provisions for border security.

Illegal immigration has been a major federal and state issue for several years. Boyda also has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s Mexican trucking pilot program, which gives Mexican drivers greater access to U.S. highways.

From the Topeka Capital-Journal on Iraq:

Boyda also addressed the war in Iraq, commending Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces.

"What he brings to it is some wisdom about what it takes to operate within Iraq," she said. "If they're too aggressive, they hurt the situation. If they're not aggressive enough, they're not moving anything forward. The line is extremely thin."

She said she talked with the Marine general in charge of Anbar province who said the United States might see troop withdrawals.

"I said, 'Are you telling me all the troops are going to be out of Anbar province?' and he said, 'Yes, ma'am, I think they are.' "

She wants to get the good news out there without doing anything "that looks like mission accomplished," she said referring to the "mission accomplished" banner that hung over Bush's 2003 statement that major combat missions in Iraq were over.

Unfortunately, the Cap-J decided to make the story's lead about Boyda's husband's chances of becoming the new Kansas Attorney General. It'd be nice if the paper would keep it's eyes on the ball- tell us about the quality job Congresswoman Boyda is doing, rather than random speculation about something totally un-related to her job representing us.

(Photo from the Topeka Capital-Journal)