Kathryn, that Kansas race is an odd one. There is virtually no difference between the candidates on the issues, and Moran and Tiahrt were (and one would hope still are) friends. Between the two, there can only be a loser. Those two represent half of the Kansas congressional delegation, however, and so that’s where the race turns interesting. In Tiahrt’s Fourth District (where a Democrat, Dan Glickman, sat for 18 years, until being ousted by Tiahrt in the ’94 rout), a Democrat named Raj Goyle is running one of the best-financed campaigns in the state. He’ll run against one of the four Republicans seeking the seat. The two front-runners are businessman Mike Pompeo and a liberal state senator named Jean Schodorf, who never met an education budget she couldn’t inflate and who has nice things to say about Obamacare, etc. There are some polls here. If Pompeo doesn’t win, it’ll be a drag, no matter how Tiahrt does. In Moran’s district, the First, State Sen. Jim Barnett, who lost to Sebelius in 2006, is leading the rest, including a realtor named Tracey Mann and an outstanding state senator named Tim Huelskamp. Huelskamp is a remarkable politician and an even more remarkable man (he’s profiled in my last book, Superior, Nebraska). It looks, from this Survey USA poll, that the tea-party voters are splitting and so are the pro-lifers, so the base, well fractured, has yet to be energized by all-the-above. Barnett is a decent, sensible chap; however, for those Kansans looking for a reliable vote against earmarks, higher taxes, Obamacare and all that, Huelskamp is definitely the guy.